July 19, 2021 | by: Gregg Hunter | 1 comments
Posted in: Psalm 25
One of my favorite praise choruses is “Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord.” Maybe I love it because the ladies’ echo provides a great movement to the chorus. Maybe I love it for the simple repetition that is almost meditative. Or maybe I love it because it is a simple quote of Scripture, set to music.
Probably all three, but especially the last one. One of the great truths that is expressed throughout Scripture is that the Lord is good to the humble. Knowing this truth should be great motivation for us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord!
This truth is expressed in numerous Scriptures; one of them is Psalm 25:8-10. Please read those verses now.
This passage has some wonderful, if unexpected, pairs: “good and upright,” and “mercy and truth.” These adjectives describe the Lord and His ways, but on the surface, they don’t seem to go together. If the Lord is upright, and strictly obedient to His law, then He surely couldn’t be good to sinners like us. If the Lord is full of mercy, then He can’t uphold the truth and punish us for our sin. How does God’s goodness and mercy relate to His uprightness and truth?
These pairs only meet at the cross!
In the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God demonstrated that He is good and merciful to sinners, but still upright and honest in dealing with the truth of our sin. Our sin demands an enormous punishment, and God meted it out justly—He just sent a substitute to take our place. In sending a substitute, God showed us incredible mercy—He is so good! In punishing His Son, God showed incredible justice—He is so holy!
But God only demonstrates this combination of goodness and uprightness, mercy and truth to a particular group of people. In Psalm 25, David calls these people “sinners,” but more importantly, he calls us “humble.”
All sinners will experience the uprightness and truth of God when He pours out His wrath on sin in the great Day of Judgment. But those who humble themselves now will experience that sweet blend of mercy alongside of God’s truth.
The Lord is true. The Lord is upright. But to the humble, the Lord is also good and merciful.
Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord, for the Lord is Good to the Humble.
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1 COMMENTS
Mar 14, 2021
It is sometimes hard for me to wrap my human/fleshly nature around the fact that God could love me. Yes me- a sinner: saved by God's grace. God is daily teaching me to be humble. Humbled yet given Grace. As a mother, I know that I would lay down my life for my child. But to give my child's life for another is incomprehensible. But God did this for me and everyone which chooses to accept him as their Lord and Savior: everyone who will die to self to follow him. Amen!