... in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. Through the prayers of our
holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King,
the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill all things,
Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us
from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy
Immortal, have mercy on us (three times).
Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the
beginning, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
To the Chief Musician on Sheminith, A Psalm of David.
Help, Lord: for the
godly man ceases. The faithful fail from
among the children of men. They speak
vanity every one with his neighbor. With
flattering lips [and] a double heart,
they speak.
The Lord shall cut
off all flattering lips, [and] the
tongue that speaks proud things: who have said, “With our tongue will we
prevail. Our lips [are] our own. Who [is] lord over us?”
For the oppression of the poor, for the
sighing of the needy, now will I arise, says the Lord. I will set [him] in safety [from him who]
puffs at him. The words of the Lord [are] pure words, silver
tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. You shall keep them, Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
[1] Wicked
political administrations are nothing new.
David contended with many of them: the Philistines, Saul, men in his own
service, even a son. David sees himself
as a poor man: poor, but godly and faithful.
David knows that he and his throne only exist and are purified because
God keeps them. Even so, our lives and
successes only exist and are purified because God keeps them. The wicked are still with us.
The faithful are disappearing, because the wicked are
exalted. Because the wicked are exalted,
the faithful are being perverted and led astray with temptation. The faithful have taken their eyes away from
Yahweh, have set their hopes on material prosperity, and have become double hearted,
or double minded in the process. This
will certainly be true during Solomon’s reign; after Solomon, the kingdom will
be divided over it. It is tempting to
admire and follow people who lie out of both sides of their mouths at the same
time, especially when they are successful at it.
Yahweh is the judge of all such things. The repentance of the faithful is a painful
process. For the flatterers, Yahweh’s
judgment speaks of an eternal fatality.
The flatterers will have their lips cut off, and their tongues cut out,
a picture of being left alive, but unable to speak. The repentant faithful will revive to sing
the praises of Yahweh; but the flatterers will be silenced forever.
On behalf of the faithful poor and for their defense Yahweh
arises in judgment. The flattering
wicked have made their success unjustly on the backs of other men: they have
lived by domination and oppression, only to be dominated and oppressed as just
punishment. As silver is difficult to
separate from its corrupting oxides, so the faithful are difficult to purify
from wicked flatterers; yet, Yahweh is not deterred as He continues to
perfection.
There is no place for vile people in the kingdom of
heaven. The heat and pain of the
smelting process will expose people for what they are, either the silvery faithful
or the corrupted wicked. Yes, the wicked
are all around us. Yet in Yahweh’s
greater scheme of things, they will not be around us for long.
[2] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations,
please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish. No rights are reserved. They are designed and intended for your free
participation. They were freely
received, and are freely given. No other
permission is required for their use.
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