Psalm 85
“Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin. You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.”
This all is in the past tense, for good reason. The Lord had turned His face from the fortunes of Israel, for they had forsaken Him first. The Lord of Hosts will never abandon those who remain faithful, He has promised to remain with those who remain in Him. However, He makes no such promise to those who abandon the way, who chase after false idols and the things of this world.
Surely, Israel had departed from the way of the Lord many, many times. Which is why we see them, time and time again, go through tribulations. Every time, like clockwork, that they would abandon the Lord for the worship of Baal or their Asherah poles, the Master would hand them over to their enemies. They would be taken into captivity by the Babylonians, overrun by the Philistines, or, finally, be conquered by Rome. This was the final judgment upon Israel, Rome, for, as we see in the Gospels, the religious leaders not only abandoned the faith, they twisted the Scriptures to fit their own agenda.
Anyone who twists the Word of God so that it says what they want it to say is setting himself as judge and master over God. They twist the Word of the Lord in many and evil ways. I have seen a man who claims to be a reverend call Christ racist and say He needed to repent of sin. This man has set himself up as a judge over Christ, the only sinless man. Does this not seem rather foolhardy and arrogant to the Nth degree? Well, this is the perversion which the religious leaders brought to the Word.
This is why the Lord God Almighty let His chosen people fall into the hands of the Romans, of the Babylonians, of the Philistines. However, there is an upside to this as well. For as soon as the nation of Israel would remember the Lord and faithfully return to Him, He would liberate them from their enemies. “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.” To those who turn to Him in faith, He is faithful to “keep His commandments” and will bring salvation from iniquity. But to those who pervert the Word, well, simply look at what Christ said to the Pharisees and religious leaders. He minced no words for those leading the people astray, and certainly He spoke rightly. Those that twist the Scriptures to fit their own agenda are leading the beloved creations of the Most High God astray, and certainly He holds out no forgiveness for them. “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.”
Those who profess the Word but translate or interpret it intentionally wrong are doing so at the bidding of the evil one, so that more may be led astray. This is why we must be ever careful to make sure that our words are rooted firmly in the Word. This is why, when learning about doctrines and the commands of the Lord, we must set the desires of our flesh to the side and simply follow the commands written therein. Our fallen flesh may not like what we are following, so what? The devil may tempt us to abandon the True Word of the Most High God, the King of Creation, but we must deny him. His whispers lead nowhere but destruction, as we see in the verses above.
If we follow the devil, as Israel had here, then the Lord will turn His face from us, “if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” Those that continue on in sin, especially those that justify themselves with false Scripture, have none of the light of the Lord’s glory residing within them. They may claim to be followers of the Master, but surely they only obey their “father, the devil.” One cannot claim to be in Christ while at the exact same time denying His Word, His commands.
They make Christ out to be a liar, by turning His Words from the way of holiness to the way of selfishness. The devil quotes Scripture, and, even though he quotes it wrongly, his whispers still are powerful. His deceptions are far-reaching, and sometimes difficult to discern. However, praise the Lord! We can, always, through the power of the Holy Spirit, see and know what is the evil commanded of us by the evil one. For anything that is contrary to the way of holiness, that is of the devil. Anything that would drive us from obedience to the commands of the Lord of Lights is of the devil. Any darkness, any selfishness that comes to mind, it is of the evil one.
He is arrogant indeed, but his deceptions are easy to spot. They are black and white, darkness and light. The contrast between the “way unto salvation” and the highway to hell is delineated clearly, and, especially with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can know what is the good and right way of the Lord. Praise His Holy Name for the wonderful blessings He has bestowed upon us! For without Him we surely would be destitute sinners, without a hope of salvation, without a prayer for redemption. How awesome is the Lord, how glorious and majestic is His in all of His glory! For He has created us, He has given to us life, and a beautiful planet on which we may live. He has given us His Son, so that we might be covered by His blood. He has taken upon Himself the duty of salvation, so that we might be rescued from our sins. So that we can have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
