Readings for today: Psalms 119:89-76
A few years ago I read a book that helped me parse the difference between wisdom and foolishness. Wisdom, according to the author, is when we see the truth and adjust our lives accordingly. Foolishness, on the other hand, is when we demand that truth adjust to our reality. To put it another way, wise people will meet the demands of life while foolish people will demand that life meet their demands. Wise people receive feedback when it is given. They own their own performance, mistakes, and issues and take responsibility without externalizing blame or giving excuses. Foolish people become defensive very quickly when confronted. They refuse to own their own shortcomings and often externalize by blaming those around them. Wise people listen. Fools dismiss or ignore.
Are you a wise person or a fool? How do you know? Well, how do you feel as you read the words from Psalm 119? What happens internally when you consider the demands of God’s Law? Are you the kind of person who embraces God’s commandments, however imperfectly? Are they your delight? Do you find yourself seeking to bend your life in submission to what God has revealed in His Word? Or are you the kind of person who resists God’s laws? Dismisses them? Ignores them? Rationalizes away your sin? When you read or engage God’s Word, do you seek to bend it to your will? Your life? Your desires? Or do you seek to submit your life to Him? Are you a wise person or a fool?
The Psalmist is clearly wise...
“I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life...”
“Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day...”
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
“Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”
”Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
“Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.”
“The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”
(Psalms 119:93, 97, 103-105, 111, 160)
The Psalmist loves God’s Word. Loves God’s Law. Loves God’s commands. The Psalmist seeks to do all he can to adjust his life to God’s Will. To live his life under God’s sovereign rule and authority. He makes no excuses for his sin. He doesn’t hide his shortcomings. He faces his failures honestly and transparently.
Sadly, so many in our culture today are fools. Even more tragically, they sit in our pews and attend our worship services. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 10:2, they have a “zeal for God but not according to knowledge.” They love God but not in the way He deserves or demands. Instead, they “do what is right in their own eyes.” They bend God’s truth to their reality. They seek to make God’s Word null and void either through outright rejection or simple ignorance. They refuse to submit their lives to His will. As a result, they live lives of quiet desperation. They are not evil people. They do not have bad intentions. They simply are misguided. As Paul says in Romans 1, “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools...” (Romans 1:21-22)
Let me be the first to say this all too often describes me! On some level. At certain seasons. In particular circumstances throughout the course of my life, I have tried to bend God’s will to my own. I have tried to rationalize away my sin. I have tried to twist and turn God’s Law to make it fit my life. To no avail. I have thrown myself against the will of God so many times until I finally broke. Finally surrendered. And with that surrender has come wisdom. Not perfection. Wisdom. Self-knowledge. Self-understanding. Seeing myself for who I truly am, warts and all. And learning to trust God’s ways above my ways. God’s thoughts more than my thoughts. God’s will more than my feelings. This is what it means to be wise, friends. The fear of the Lord truly is the beginning of wisdom!
Readings for tomorrow: Song of Solomon 1:1-5:1