What the wicked do, and what we do in response
(Here is a short step aside from our series on holiness-as-wholeness.)
Psalm 119:95 says, "The wicked lie in wait to destroy me, but..."
How would you finish that sentence?
"But I stare intently at them, anxiously alert to their every move."
Or, "But I devote every waking moment and every conscious thought to ruminating on their wickedness, the ways they're lying in wait, and the destruction they plan for me."
This is what many Christians do. They fixate on the world's wickedness. They feast on report after report of some new plan bad people are said to be hatching. They're absorbed by the destruction that their perceived enemies have waiting for them.
But that is not how the verse ends.
"The wicked lie in wait to destroy me but I consider Your testimonies."
What does this mean? That despite what the wicked are doing, the godly person does not fixate on them, does not bend their life around what wickedness plots, does not make themself sick with anxiety over what the wicked are doing.
No, the godly person pulls their attention away and considers God's word, His promises, His character, and His ways.
Because what matters for God and for His people is not what the wicked do but what we do. What do we think about? What are we absorbed with? What is growing within us? What is produced by us?
If we think about the wicked and are absorbed by what they're plotting, then fear and anger and hate will grow in us and will producing lives that look nothing like Jesus (but do, oddly enough, look a lot like the wicked).
If we think about the God of Scripture and are absorbed by the Gospel and the work of the Spirit, then peace and joy and love will grow in us and will produce lives that look more and more like Jesus.
So let me encourage you to hear the Psalmist's wisdom. As we find ourselves drawn to neurotic absorption with the wicked and their designs, let's turn toward the word. Shut off the TV, close the browser, skip the episode: be still and know that the Lord, He is God. Be still and know, He has overcome the world. Be still and know Him.
Photo by Sven Scheuermeier on Unsplash
