Subscribe to feedBad news for those who think God rescues and rewards all regardless of righteousness:
The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
Psalm 18:20-24
Good news for those who feel they can never satisfy the standard of God’s righteousness:
For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? – the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless.
Psalm 18:31-32
God shows favor to the righteous, but it is God who equips, strengthens and makes the sinner into a saint, makes the unrighteous man into a righteous man. It is all of God, not of me.
Good post as always.
When I read (Psalm 18:20) I can’t help but start to call David self-righteous. However, when I read on through and get down to (Psalm 18:24) David re-qualifies his righteousness as being the cleanliness of his hands in God’s sight. After all we read about King David in scripture, this is a powerful affirmation of God’s forgiveness and how he views us through Christ. It is staggering how much we can obtain, if we only take the time to slow down and truly give some thought to what we are reading. This post made me do that. Thanks man.