Pam's Perambulation

³ Trust the Lord and live right!
    The land will be yours,
    and you will be safe.
⁴ Do what the Lord wants,
    and he will give you
    your heart’s desire.

⁵ Let the Lord lead you
    and trust him to help.
⁶ Then it will be as clear
as the noonday sun
    that you were right.

⁷ Be patient and trust the Lord.
    Don’t let it bother you
when all goes well for those
    who do sinful things.
⁸ Don’t be angry or furious.
    Anger can lead to sin.
⁹ All sinners will disappear,
    but if you trust the Lord,
    the land will be yours.

Ooooh!  Don’t be annoyed by anyone… (or as the KJV says, “Fret not yourself” – love that!) That is so a message I need to hear.  Oh, there’s more of that sentence.  Don’t be annoyed by anyone who does wrong.  Still an equally important message.  We are not responsible for their actions – but we are for our own.  Whilst we’re busy looking at what others are doing and sitting in judgement on their mistakes, are we missing our own?  Does it make us feel better to sit in righteous indignation?

I sometimes think that these “fly on the wall” tv series are designed to make us feel better about ourselves.  To be able to look at the lives of others and think, “I would never do that”, to judge those we have no idea of their lives, and consider ourselves better.

The message of this Psalm is don’t worry about those who do wrong, let God deal with them.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t campaign against wrong, for example the atrocious fancy dress costumes highlighted last week that after a social media campaign were withdrawn, but that we shouldn’t worry if those who do wrong seem to be getting along and doing well.

We should trust God and do what he asks of us – not dissimilar to God’s reply to Habakkuk…