Evening Prayer of Trust in God.
[a]For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
4 Answer me when I call, O God [b]of my righteousness!
You have [c]relieved me in my distress;
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.2 O sons of men, how long will my [d]honor become a reproach?
How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? [e]Selah.
3 But know that the Lord has [f]set apart the godly man for Himself;
The Lord hears when I call to Him.4 [g]Tremble, [h]and do not sin;
[i]Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer [j]the sacrifices of righteousness,
And trust in the Lord.6 Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?”
Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord!
7 You have put gladness in my heart,
More than when their grain and new wine abound.
8 In peace I will [k]both lie down and sleep,
For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.
Wow, does this ever sound familiar. “How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?” and many folks saying, “Who will show us any good?” There is plenty of the former going on in our world, and yet we have the same trouble finding the good in this world. Not because there isn’t any good to be seen, but because those who know better choose to engage in a dog fight rather than following Paul’s advice to the Philippian church.
In 4:8, Paul tells them, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” It is far too easy to dwell on all the conflict and strife in our world, and especially in our country. And while we certainly need to be informed and not bury our heads in the sand, we must be careful not to get sucked into the mire and start slinging our own mud.
Instead, we need to be “imitators of Christ”, which is not something we do on our own strength. We need a lot more people who claim to follow Christ to actually imitate Him and be genuine in what they do and say. So when you’re tempted to reply to the “trolls” online, stop! Listen for your Father’s voice, and take the higher road, take the narrow path, so that the folks looking for good will see Jesus in us, and know that there is hope and light and life to be found.