Psalm 10:4 “In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.” (NIV)
Psalm 10 is a very important psalm, for it provides a checklist on who the truly wicked person is. Most of us would like to skip this psalm because we surely are not wicked and therefore don’t need God’s checklist to assess where we are in this life. Unfortunately, nothing could be farther from the truth, since Paul exhorts us in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Don’t dismiss the commandment of self-examination which is designed to lead to repentance, renewal, and rededication of our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and his church on a continual basis.
We may think this unnecessary since we consider ourselves spiritual and not wicked, but remember what God tells us in Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The truth is that we all fool ourselves about who we are and what our motivations may be, and a self-examination using the antiseptic of God’s word must be done so that we might not be fooled into a state of hypocrisy, lethargy, and self-satisfaction. So let’s examine together the characteristics of the wicked man, and should we find these things in our own lives, let’s repent and request God’s forgiveness and help in redirecting our priorities and energies.
- The wicked do not seek God and their thoughts have no room for God (Psalm 10:4).If you have no room for God or his word then you have a defining characteristic of a wicked person. There is no time for spiritual matters in the life of a wicked person.
- The wicked are over-confident and arrogant in their own abilities and strength (Psalm 10:6). They boast that I will always be happy and never have trouble. We know trouble accompanies man as night follows day, and to live in such pride that you dismiss God is a reckless place to be.
- The wicked refuse to accept accountability for their actions (Psalm 10:11). The wicked never feel accountable to God for their behavior and throw off all restraint to lead selfish lives.
It doesn’t take much in this world to become unhinged and unmoored from the anchors of the godly life when you have a fleshly mind, lack of humility, and feel no accountability to a power other than your own. We see and meet people daily who are defined by these characteristics and yet would insist that they are not wicked. In the end, that’s the greatest tragedy of living the wicked life, in that we never come to grips with the reality that we have gone off track and cannot possibly find our way without returning to God.
TODAY, FATHER, I PRAY THAT YOU GIVE ME A HEART OF HUMILITY AND A DESIRE TO SEEK YOU IN THIS WORLD THAT I MIGHT SHUN WICKEDNESS AND LIVE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. AMEN!
Article Source: Mike White @ Summit Church of Christ
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