God is judge

 Psalm 7:1–17 (ESV): 

O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; 

save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, 

2  lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, 

rending it in pieces, with none to deliver. 

3  O Lord my God, if I have done this, 

if there is wrong in my hands, 

4  if I have repaid my friend with evil 

or plundered my enemy without cause, 

5  let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, 

and let him trample my life to the ground 

and lay my glory in the dust. Selah 

6  Arise, O Lord, in your anger; 

lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; 

awake for me; you have appointed a judgment. 

7  Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; 

over it return on high. 

8  The Lord judges the peoples; 

judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness 

and according to the integrity that is in me. 

9  Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, 

and may you establish the righteous— 

you who test the minds and hearts, 

O righteous God! 

10  My shield is with God, 

who saves the upright in heart. 

11  God is a righteous judge, 

and a God who feels indignation every day. 

12  If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; 

he has bent and readied his bow; 

13  he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, 

making his arrows fiery shafts. 

14  Behold, the wicked man conceives evil 

and is pregnant with mischief 

and gives birth to lies. 

15  He makes a pit, digging it out, 

and falls into the hole that he has made. 

16  His mischief returns upon his own head, 

and on his own skull his violence descends. 

17  I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, 

and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. 

In this psalm, David is reflecting on the consequences for those who follow God, and those who don’t. David knows, accepts, and even welcomes God’s judgement. He knows that God, ‘tests the minds and hearts’ of us all, and he even invites God to, ‘judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me’. Do you have the confidence in how you are living to ask God to judge you?! David does. He has such confidence in the fact that he is living life right before God that he invites God to consider his actions to see if he has gone wrong. David is so convinced of his right standing with God and man that he asks for punishment if he has gone awry (v3-5). Do you have confidence to do the same? Are you sure that you are living right before God? 

I am amazed at and admire the conviction David has of his own righteousness. If I thought about God judging me, I would become acutely aware of my faults and sin. I would certainly feel uncomfortable challenging God to judge me and punish me if I am at fault as I know that there are areas where I am. No-one is perfect, so we all have areas in our lives where we falter and fail at times, and David was no different. So, I do not think that David is claiming to be perfect in this psalm, but instead that he is speaking of a particular situation where he is suffering. We can tell from this psalm that this is a situation where people have come against him and he has evaluated his dealings with them. Then he has come to the conclusion that he has not been at fault. David can see that the accusations and treatment he is receiving is unwarranted. Therefore he asks God to judge him in this situation, he is convinced of his innocence, yet he is open to God showing him if there is something he has done wrong. What a humble heart David has! Even when he is convinced of his innocence on a matter, he is prepared for God to speak and to show him what is going on. David is also prepared to suffer the consequences if God does find error in his ways - are you willing to do the same? When you feel unfairly treated, do you invite God to test you and show you if you're at fault so you can put it right, even if it seems small and trivial in comparison to your suffering? Do you call on God to judge? 

Like David, you can call on God to help, to intervene, to show, ‘if there is wrong in my hands’. David had dealt well with these people who had turned on him and become his enemies. Sometimes this can happen to you. If you are someone that seeks to love and follow God, it can happen that those who were once close become estranged, those whom could be trusted will become enemies. People that are not following God do not have an affinity with those who are, and that can cause tension, jealousy and hatred. The encouragement from this psalm is to treat all people well - that is your responsibility. Fighting back and judgement is not in your hands, it is in God's. 

God is a fair judge, he judges all people - those that follow Him and those that do not. If you know that some of your responses are not suitable for someone who is following God, then as much as it may pain you, change them. You may feel your reactions are justified and that people would understand as these people have mistreated you. People may understand, but God tests your heart and mind. So who are you trying to impress with your behaviour? Are you responding from a place of knowing you are a child of God or from a place of pain? Be assured that if others are; pursuing you, being unkind, persecuting you and generally making life difficult, God sees. He saw what was going on with David. 

God can and will intervene when it is right. David sought God’s intervention and was confident in the way he had handled those who had turned against him. Ensure that you handle difficulties with integrity. Ensure that your words and behaviour do not do you discredit, because then God can come and judge and fight for you. People that turn away from God and come against God’s people are in trouble. They go their own way and end up becoming, ‘pregnant with mischief’, they end up falling into a pit of their own making (v15), and ‘his mischief returns upon his own head’. They do not realise it, but the evil and harm they plan for others harms themselves. God knows and sees their deeds, just as He sees yours. So today, do not worry if you are treated unfairly, that there are people out to get you. Instead, make sure you're living right and be assured that the judgement of God comes to all. You do not need to deal out punishment and aggravation, you need to focus on your right-standing both before God and man. Ensure that you can rightfully come to God as David did and concentrate your efforts on honouring God and others. God will be your judge, and He will also be theirs.

sinfulness of unbelief

*12*Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. *13*But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. *14*For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 
Hebrews 3:12–14.

Are you walking free from sin? Or are you getting tangled up in it?

These verses tell us that the root of the deceitfulness of sin is because of, ‘an evil, unbelieving heart’. It makes sense that sinfulness and disbelief go hand-in-hand - Evil stems from unbelief. Think of it this way - someone who has never believed in God has no knowledge of Him, so they go about their life and get up to all sorts of wrongdoing, yet they do not have a sense that it isn’t right because they have no experience or knowledge of anything different - their unbelief has led to sin. This gradually infects the heart, causes it to be hardened and increase in evil, all because of unbelief.

So it follows then that those who DO have belief should be free from sin. This is true in the fact that Jesus has died in order to wipe away our sins when we turn to him and turn our hearts away from wrong, but you and I know, that we still get it wrong. we still fall for temptation and sin. So, what do the verses above mean for us? Well, if you are a believer in Christ, and you continue to wilfully sin, do you realise that you are choosing to, ‘fall away from the living God’? If you purposefully sin then you are wilfully separating yourself from God. I hope that causes you to pay attention! It is scary, but it is true. When you purposefully do what you know is not right, you are turning away from God in unbelief and falling away from Him - have you ever considered it like that before?

If you are convincing yourself that your wrongdoing is actually not that bad, that everyone does it anyway, that it is not hurting anyone else, then aren’t you just making excuses and trying to downplay sin? This is the ‘deceitfulness of sin’ and the ‘unbelieving heart’ will make excuses and allowances where none should be made. If your belief in God is not strong, then nor will your tolerance for temptation be.

As we can see, sin is not an isolated problem, nor even the root problem itself, unbelief is.

Somewhere along the line your vision of who God is has waned. At some point your trust and security in Jesus has dwindled, and you have allowed your own ideas and temptation to win instead. That is why these verses encourage us to keep our 'original confidence'.
Do you remember the heart-leaping times with God where your spirit is overwhelmed by His love? when you smile just because you are alive and God is with you? Do you remember those times that Jesus felt closer than your brother?
If you have lost that sensation, that assurance and confidence in who God is, then be aware that unbelief can sneak in and steal your heart. You can start to look about for other ways to satisfy. Sin seeps in when belief dips. Maybe you feel let down by God so your trust in Him has dwindled, or maybe things have felt a bit flat recently. I am here to tell you God hasn't changed. He is still the same God that mets your needs, hears your prayers and died for you on the cross. He is still the same God who gave up his majesty, strength and rights to give you a place in his kingdom. He is still the same God who created your innermost being, who has planned your life with purpose and walks with you in it - have you lost sight of Him? Do you consider that God is in your life everyday?

Keeping a focus on who God is squashes unbelief. Doing things that increase your faith like; speaking with Godly people, spending time in prayer and Bible study- these things will increase your belief and will give you power to fight sin.

Are you ready to do that?

It is not too late to deal with you wrongdoing.
Today is a new day, and can be a new step forward for you to escape sin. Jesus has made it possible for you to live a life free from 'the deceitfulness of sin', and stay connected with God. Are you choosing to live that life?

I exhort you to recognise your share in Christ, recapture your confidence in who He is and denounce afresh the deceitfulness of sin. Jesus has paid the price. He has freed you. Is your belief big enough to walk in that freedom?