Make Straight

DEVOTION

PSLAMS

MAKE STRAIGHT

Ps 5:4-8

4 You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. 5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. 6 You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors. 7 But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple. 8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies — make straight your way before me.

NIV

When we say God cannot look upon sin, using the words of Jesus on the cross to substantiate that claim, we could not be farther from the truth. If that were so, we could never be in the sight of God. It is not that he cannot look on sin, but he takes no pleasure in sin. He is not pleased when men do evil, and those who live in evil, which are those who are not in Christ will not see the paradise of God. But we also might see this as not having any personal relationship with God. We dwell in the house of the Lord, He dwells within us, we are the temple of the Lord. Again those who are arrogant, those who believe in their own accomplishments, cannot stand before God. He sees their arrogance, their sin and although he still loves them, which again is evident in Jesus on the cross, he will not allow them to stand before him. Some day they will stand before him to be judged, and their own arrogant sin condemns them so they will be cast from his presence into the lake of burning sulfur. This is their destruction. However, here we stand, according to his great mercy, in his house. We come into this house gathered in his name to worship Christ our Lord. We not only come into his house, but we are his house, we are the temple of the Lord. We live in his presence. We live in a constant state of worship, for he is our righteousness, he is our very life. Without Jesus we have no life at all. Without Jesus we are lost souls wandering through the darkness headed for death and destruction. We reverence him, we bow down in adoration and submission to his holy hill. We put his life before ours, this is why we seek him to lead us. If we did not want his leading, then we are not reverencing him. If we do not want him to lead us, we are actually wanting to lead ourselves. That old Bob Dylan song about having to serve somebody, either we are going to serve the lord, or serve Satan, but you have to serve somebody, carries a truth within. If we want our own way, rather than God’s way, it may not appear we are serving Satan, but serving self is one of the schemes of the Devil. His temptation of Jesus was centered on Jesus serving himself, get his own food from the stones, have all the kingdoms, being king with power, and using God to protect himself. We cannot allow self to overturn Christ. He has to be at the very core of our life. All that we are, all that we do and all that we say should be derived from our relationship with Jesus. It comes back to that not being able to serve two masters, God and self. So we ask him to make straight his way before us.