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I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep Your commands. Consider how I love Your precepts! Give me life, O Lord, according to Your steadfast love. The sum of Your Word is truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever. (Psalm 119:158-160)
“I look at the faithless with disgust.” That is not a very nice thing to say, but the psalmist has a reason for his disgust: “They do not keep Your commands.” Shouldn’t we love others, even unbelievers who reject the Lord and His Word? Yet we have to admit that sometimes we look at the world around us with disgust. We hear faithless and false teaching from those who wrongly claim the Name of Christ. The immorality so often on display in our culture shocks and dismays us. Hatred and quarrels abound among strangers and within families. There are so many people who do not keep God’s commands. We sometimes feel that same disgust!
Other saints also looked with astonishment, and perhaps disgust, on the sinful behaviors that confronted them. Moses’ anger “burned hot” when he saw the idolatry of the Israelites (Exodus 32:19b). Righteous Lot was “greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked” (2 Peter 2:7b). The apostle Paul was astonished at the immorality and arrogance found among the Christians in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 5:1-2). We are disgusted—and then we look in the mirror of God’s Law. There our own disgusting disobedience is clearly revealed. The psalmist knows about this mirror too, and writes, “There is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3b). The apostle Paul takes up the same theme: “For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (Romans 2:1b).
The faithless do not keep God’s commands, and neither do we. The Holy Spirit works through God’s Law to reveal our sins and call us to honest reflection and repentance. The Spirit also works through the bright truth of the Gospel, the welcome news that God sent His Son to be our Savior. Jesus took all of our disgusting sins, the sins of the faithless and the sins of the faithful, into His sinless body on the cross. He suffered the death that we deserve. We feel disgust and grief over our own sins and turn to the Lord in repentant humility. Through faith in Jesus, we receive forgiveness for our sins and the gift of eternal life. Receiving forgiveness for Jesus’ sake, we in turn proclaim repentance and forgiveness to others in Jesus’ Name. The Holy Spirit works through the mirror of God’s Law and the glad news of the Gospel to shape a proclamation that, in the words of the psalmist, adds up just right: “The sum of Your Word is truth.”
WE PRAY: Lord God, lead me to repentance and forgive my sins for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler.
Reflection Questions:
- What is your usual reaction to someone who’s committed some detestable sin(s)? Are you ever able to get past that reaction and think in love toward that person?
- How does God’s Law plainly show us our sin?
- What has God done through Jesus to make you and me—contemptible sinners that we are—clean and righteous in His sight?
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