Throughout the Psalms we are given lists of things that lead to blessing, lead to God’s favor, are considered righteous, and help keep judgment at arms length. While how we think (attitude of the heart and mind) is certainly important, most often the lists are about how we act. Here we see it manifest in things we say and do for or about other people.
1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?
2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart
3 and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,
4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath even when it hurts.”
– Psalm 15:1-4
There really is a ton of evil in the world. It’s amazing how deep rooted some of it is. Typically we can trace it back to a person, a leader, or an organization that has standards or values opposite to ours. As a Christian, I’ve felt guilt before for feeling disdain for those people. I’ve felt like I was being judgmental and possibly showing a shortage of love. But that’s a guilt I can often put on myself. And it’s not always wrong.
Scripture is clear that we don’t have to hold those who do great wrong with any type of esteem. We don’t have to respect them. In fact, the Hebrew uses two words to describe this person and how we should respond in verse 4. The first means to disesteem or disdain, and the second means to cast off or reject.
The Hebrew Lexicon translated directly in Verse 4 says, “In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.”
This is saying that as we see the deficiency in others that it’s okay to find disdain in it. But instead of taking action against them in response to our disdain or even “sweeping it under the table” in blind love, we should charge ourselves with what disdain we find in our own actions. And simply remove them.
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You used a phrase that caught my attention, "in blind love". Isn't that what it is all about? The greatest of these is love??? You are so right there is so much evil in our world. Every four seconds a child is abused. That stat just breaks my heart. Do you ever wonder if there is so much evil because there is so little love??? There will always be evil that is just the way it is. The time will come when there will be no more evil but, that is when Jesus comes back. Until then, couldn't we do away with some of the evil by increasing some of the love?
ReplyDeleteMichael, I certainly agree with you that we should always love. We need more of that. We should love even unconditionally, but that love should be intentional because of a transformed heart in Christ.
ReplyDeleteThe emphasis of my statement was on the "Sweeping under the table" not the "blind love" in itself. pretending something is not evil or not there is certainly not the example of Christ or the apostles. They loved and dealt with things. Jesus loved the woman caught in adultery but was also a proponent of her healing. We are to fight for the oppressed (The target of evil) and against injustice. In love we are to be an advocate for the underdog which means an intentional effort. The evil does not go away just because we love.
However, the key point of my last few sentences is that this scripture is saying to make sure it goes away in us. If we turn a blind eye to it, we may never see our own evil.
True brother, we must take a hard look at ourselves. I think a lot of time we look at others first. It is easier to point out someone else's downfalls then to point out our own areas of weaknesses.
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