Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Psalms 14:3: “They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one.”
I remember in Bible College I had a class on “How To Study the Bible.” Our instructor told us we read the Bible like we read a love letter. We read the first line: “Dear John…” Immediately we question: “Why did she say’‘Dear’ and not ‘Dearest’ or ‘My dear?’ Is she losing interest? Has the passion gone out of our relationship?”
I look at the Bible like a love letter and when I read a Psalm like Psalm 14 I wonder: “Is God angry with us, does He hate us? Why is He so harsh with us?” You read this Psalm and it is like he considers us completely worthless slime and but for His salvation we would all be a bunch of irresponsible gangsters shooting someone who looks cross eyed at us.
This is some love letter. You certainly are no going to make many points with a potential lover by called him a toad and blasting him out of the water, and then announce that thanks to your presence and influence on his life you saved him.
I remember reading where the worst form of communication is by memo or e-mail. The reason for that is because you can not hear the voice of the person you are trying to communicate with or look into their eyes. If you boss sent you an e-mail saying; “Well, you really messed that up good, didn’t you?” You are going to lose sleep that night wondering if your boss was really angry with you and ready to give up on you or was just joking.
We face the same problem in reading the Bible. Since we do not see God or hear Him speak, we are never really sure if he is ready to potty train us with lightning volts or He simply has a boys will be boys attitude. Your interpretation of an e-mail or memo will often depend upon the intimacy of your relationship with the person writing the memo. If you and your boss always go out to lunch together an are joking together you may smile when you read the memo about “messing up.” However if your boss is distant and aloof, you may sign into Career Builder’s .com.
For many people God is an aloof and distant God and thus Psalms 14 becomes a real indictment and creates fear in us that we can do nothing that is good to appease an angry God other than accept His salvation.
I find that as I continue my journey to God’s heart, I am beginning to see how pure His heart is and how inadequate I am to reflect His light. Isaiah 4:6 tells us that all our righteousness are as filthy rags. There is that word “filthy” again. The word in the Hebrew is “alach” which means to be corrupted or spoiled. To be corrupted or spoiled means there is another party, and authoritative party involved. So when God is saying that we are spoiled He is saying that He is the authority that we are taking advantage of. When a child is spoiled it means he is simply taking advantage of his parents love. Thus when we are spoiled what we are doing is taking advantage of God’s love. We know He loves us, that he will forgive us so what the heck, why not indulge in some sinful passion, He loves us and He will forgive us. God is recognizing that the very nature of His perfect love, runs the risk of spoiling us. The word for “filthy” or “spoiled” is spelled “Aleph, Lamed, and Chet.” The Aleph teaches us that we can become ambivalent and see only one side of the picture, that is our side and our needs and not even consider the needs of the one who loves us. We just know that He loves us and if He loves us, then He will give us health, wealth and happiness. If He does not then He is just being a mean God and that proves He does not love us, just the way a spoiled child would act. The Lamed tells us that God’s love can get out of hand, we can become driven, never satisfied, always crying out to God for more and never being thankful for what we have, just like a spoiled child. Finally the Chet warns us against always indulging in arrogance and rudeness. Like a spoil child we hold God’s love against Him. We say: “If you really love me you would…”
Indeed the picture I see in Psalms 14 is a revelation of God’s heart. He is showing Himself as a loving parent, wanting to give us everything we desire and yet knowing how easily spoiled we can and do become. The picture is not one of an angry God ready to shower us with fire and brim stone, but as a parent, wringing his hands saying: “I love them so much, I have given them everything and yet all they want is more and it is as if they despise Me.”
The last word I wish to mention is one I have spoken often about. It is the word “good.” “There is none that do good.” That sounds awful, yet the word “good” or “tov” in Hebrew simply means to be in harmony with God. When we act like a spoiled brat: “God gimme this or do this or why do you do that? Or you don’t love because you…” we are not in harmony with God.
Being in harmony means being the good child, the one that accepts what his parents give him or will not give him. He is grateful and is always ready to give his parents a big hug for no other reason that they are his parents and he loves them.
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