This psalm is another in a long list of dire prophecies. I don’t know that I have ever read it carefully before, but I was particularly struck by verses 16-22.
16But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips?
17For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.
18You make friends with a thief when you see one, and you keep company with adulterers.
19“You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
20You sit and speak against your kin; you slander your own mother’s child.
21These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one just like yourself.
But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.
22“Mark this, then, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver.
At first I was going to point fingers at any of a whole list of people who should worry about it being written towards them. Then I realized that it was probably also written towards me. Because I often forget to be thankful, I hate discipline, I befriend thieves and adulterers, I lie (occasionally – yes, I do), and I gossip. This is the reason we need Jesus to come again every Christmas.
Come, Lord Jesus!
An Aging Liberal Hippy from the Left Coast 