Restored

DEVOTION

PSALMS

RESTORED

Ps 53

53:1 For the director of music. According to mahalath.  A maskil  of David.

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.

2 God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. 3 Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

4 Will the evildoers never learn — those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on God? 5 There they were, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread. God scattered the bones of those who attacked you; you put them to shame, for God despised them.

6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

NIV

This sort of puts to rest the idea of the term, “Good Christian”. Of course this song  starts out with the fool who doesn’t even believe there is a God. Those kind of people are indeed corrupt and their ways are vile. Many of them might well be nice people, and do nice things in this world. But according to God, if they say he does not exist, they are a fool and whatever they do, in the eyes of God it is not good. Now we come to all the sons of men, which include all believers. God searches to see if anyone understands and seeks Him. We believers have at least done that. We have searched for God, or at least heard him when he called us, when he revealed himself to us. We understood we were sinners in need of salvation. We responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit by saying, yes. Yet God says everyone has turned away, they all have become corrupt, there is no on who does good, not even one. Is he just talking about the fools or about all the sons of men? Maybe we are excluded from that class of people because we have been given the right to be called children of God. However even having that right, we are also sons and daughters of men. Jesus, although he is the Son of God, referred to himself as the Son of man. He was in the flesh and subject to the temptations that attack the flesh. He was perfect because he was God, and he needed to be the Lamb of God, free from and spot or blemish. He had to be perfect so he could take away our sin. We, on the other hand, are not perfect. We have corrupted our ways. We surely admit God exists and we have absolutely accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. So we are no fool, but we are corrupt, we sin. We cannot say that we have no sin, or that we do not sin in word, thought or deed. However, we believe and are thankful we have a Savior out of Zion. Because of Jesus, of our being in Christ, God sees us as holy and blameless in his sight.  We have received our salvation out of Zion.  Our fortune has been restored.  Just as an old car with rust and dents and an engine that does not work is restored is in the hands of a skilled restorer, we are in the hands of God, a clay vessel, being molded into his design, being restored into his original design. We can be glad and rejoice.