“You prove to be loyal to one who is faithful;
you prove to be trustworthy to one who is innocent.
You prove to be reliable to one who is blameless,
but you prove to be deceptive to one who is perverse.”
Psalm 18:25-26
These two verses in Psalm 18 proclaim God’s faithfulness to His steadfast love, trustworthiness, and reliability towards His people, as well as the ruin of the unrighteous.
God doesn’t need to “prove” Himself to anyone. God is Who He is. It is WE who need to discover how God’s love is steadfast, how He is always trustworthy, and the myriad of ways in which we can rely upon Him, regardless of the situation.
HOW IT WORKS
As we are faithful to God’s Word and to His commandments, it is then that we begin to truly perceive how “loyal” He is to us.
God is always loyal (steadfast and unwavering in His love for us). It is only when we, by His grace, act in faithfulness towards Him can we see that great truth.
In a very flimsy analogy, it’s like looking at one of those kaleidoscopic pictures, attempting to find the flower (or some such object). It’s only when we quit focusing on the item and see the “big picture” do our eyes adjust and voila! a flower appears. It’s only when, by faith, we seek to serve God do we truly begin to see Him.
If we stand innocent before God (no one is without sin, but we can be innocent as a child in His presence), we comprehend how thoroughly trustworthy He is.
The innocent need protection; the innocent need provision; the innocent need comforting. God provides all those things and more to those who desire to remain in His presence. As we look to Him for our genuine needs, we begin to see that we can trust Him without hesitation.
As we live blamelessly, God reveals Himself to be reliable (righteous, constant, incorruptible).
Many of you understand that ‘blameless’ in spiritual terms doesn’t refer to being without sin; but rather, it denotes a person whose deepest desire is to live without sin. Even though we all sin, by the grace of God, the saving act of Christ Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live daily lives that seek first to glorify our LORD and resist sin and temptation. That is living blamelessly.
When we arrive at a place of ‘blamelessness’ our eyes, our heart, our spirit see God as the only one we can rely on. He is our Now and our Future. We understand that apart from Him out lives hold little meaning and no lasting, and blessed future.
He alone is righteous and it is through His Son, Jesus, we become righteous >in His sight<. We are never able to be, or act, righteously on our own power, no matter how hard we try and no matter how deep our personal desire to “be good”. (Reality Check: the Righteous Brothers of the 60’s and 70’s, weren’t.).
GOD and the WICKED
The latter part of vs 26 has proven difficult for translators and commentary writers. In verses 25 and 26a it is relatively easy to see that God reveals more of His character as we act on His grace toward others. But, relating God’s character in a less favorable light is tough to swallow.
I offer this thought:
To the perverse (literally, ‘twisted’, those who choose to live their lives in sin, apart from God**) God will use their perverseness to cause them to outwit themselves. An analogy would be the bomb-making terrorist who unwittingly blows himself up before he can hurt anyone else. The wicked man makes his sinful plans and finds himself undermined by his own perversity.
God is not evil and cannot (can not) act wickedly, even towards the wicked. However, God can appear to seem ambivalent to those who are wicked, and by doing so, cause them to stumble into their own pit.
Psalm 10 speaks to this very concept:
2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
4 In the pride of his face[b] the wicked does not seek him;
all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
The wicked renounce God because they believe God doesn’t exist – and even if they do believe in a creator, they believe God is oblivious, or impervious, to the acts of Men.
** Do you have family and friends who reject or renounce God? Chances are you do, unless you live in a Christian ‘bubble’. Has it ever occurred to you that the Bible (and, God) sees them as ‘twisted’ and ‘perverse’? It is for >their< sakes that Christ has not yet returned.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you (them), not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
That’s a great blessing of God, however, it is imperative that we who believe take this seriously and help the Lost find faith in Christ because of the next verse in the passage:
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” 2 Peter 3:10
Amen! Brother