Have You Thought Wrong?

​Psalm 50:21 ~ “These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.”
 
There is a misconception about God that is often found in the world—and that is, God is just a larger version of ourselves. What I mean by that is this: many people who consider the character and nature of God begin with the concept of a Divine Being who is more moral and of greater might than themselves, but not truly different. Their starting point is their own person, then they merely expand the view to try and understand the LORD. Those who think this way might live in sin, contemplate rebellion, and instigate behaviors that are fully contradictory to His word and then declare that “God understands,” as if God was altogether like them.
 
So, as we consider our text for today, we need to see the context of this passage. Psalm 50:19-20 says, “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son.” Let me encourage you to read the entirety of Psalm 50. From the text just cited, we discover that there is a wickedness and deception that is given free rein in the behavior of men. Then we come to the first statement of our text today: “These things you have done, and I have been silent.” How many times do we think that there is a sin that God will not condemn? We may not say it out loud, but surely the behavior of some indicate that they think they have been given a free hand from God Almighty to live according to their own designs. Yet the patient silence of the LORD is not His implicit agreement with the wicked and vile behavior of mankind. The debauchery of our world that goes unpunished is not God’s silent agreement with those who are engaged in such practices.
 
My friends, do not mistake the silence of our LORD as anything other than His patience with mankind. Consider Romans 2:4, “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” Let me warn you, even now, if you are living in a pattern of sin and have not yet been disciplined by God, He is giving you time to repent. David was given time to repent. From the time Bathsheba was pregnant until she gave birth, God waited upon the king of Israel—and then the LORD sent the prophet Nathan (see 2 Samuel 11:26-12:7). God gave Nebuchadnezzar a year to repent before the promised calamity fell upon the king of Babylon (see Daniel 4:27-33).
 
The foolishness of sinful man, however, is found in the next part of our text today: “you thought I was one like yourself.” Beloved, we get into a wealth of difficulty when we begin to see God as merely a better version of ourselves. He is not like us at all. He is righteous, we are sinful. He is all-powerful, we are without power. He is the only Independent Agent, totally self-existent, and has need of not one thing. We are always desperately needing the very elements of life to sustain us (try living without air). He is everywhere, always and all at once. We exist in a microcosm of miniscule proportions and only at a singular moment in time. There is no means of comparing us with the LORD. We were created in His image, not the other way around. Isaiah 45:18 says, “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): ‘I am the LORD, and there is no other.’”
 
We come to the final statement of our text today, and it is one that must cause us to tremble: “But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.” The silence of God will not remain. The LORD will speak and His voice will shake the heavens and the earth in His judgment and wrath. His patience is there to bring us to a place of repentance. His kindness is meant to guide us away from sin. He has endured long the sinfulness of mankind, but soon that day will pass and He will bring His charges before all who refuse to repent. Revelation 2:21 gives illustration to this, “I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.” A quick reading of Revelation 9:20-21 illuminates the rebellion of man even more.
 
The world has the wrong notion of God. Only in the Scriptures is He fully revealed. He is nothing like us. Do not foolishly believe that the silent patience of the LORD is His agreement with your sin. But His silence will soon be over, and those who refuse to repent and turn to Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins will find themselves on the receiving end of God’s wrath. Do not, dear friends, think wrong of God.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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