The lovingkindness of God endures all day long

by Mike Ratliff

I Trust in the Lovingkindness of God
For the choir director. A Maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
1 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.
2 Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, O worker of deceit.
3 You love evil more than good,
Falsehood more than speaking what is right. Selah.
4 You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever;
He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent,
And uproot you from the land of the living, Selah.
6 So that the righteous will see and fear,
And will laugh at him, saying,
7 “Behold, the man who would not set God as his strength,
But trusted in the abundance of his riches
And was strong in his destruction.”
8 But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the lovingkindness of God forever and ever.
9 I will give You thanks forever, because You have done it,
And I will hope on Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your holy ones. Psalms 52 (LSB)

No matter how far away from the light the visible Church drifts into apostasy and darkness, we must remain faithful and understand that God is sovereign. Those God gives over to their idolatry are spiritually blind. They cannot see that while they believe they are serving God they are actually walking in rebellion. It seems that at this time God is placing me in a position of reflection on His grace and His love and that neither of them will ever fail. We must pray for those in darkness and never stop telling them the truth. Perhaps God will have mercy on them and call them to come out of the Scarlet Woman, from darkness into the light.

Psalm 52 is a Maskil or Contemplation of David. He wrote it after Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, and said to him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.” This resulted in Saul condemning the priests with Ahimelech. None of the Israelites would obey Saul’s command to kill the priests, but Doeg proves that he has no fear of God by taking a sword and killing them by his own hand. David wrote this “contemplation” as he reflected on the futility of evil and the final triumph of righteousness all within the sovereign control of God for He is over all moral events of history.

Those who are in spiritual blindness do not have the peace of God nor His wisdom. Instead, we see that they are rash. They actually boast of their evil. In contrast, the steadfast love, the goodness of God, endures continually. Like Doeg, the wicked, those who are outside of God’s grace, devise or plot destruction. It may be physical. It may be the overwhelming desires to posses another person. For instance, a few months ago a young man in our city kidnapped, raped and killed a young lady who had just graduated from High School. Why did he do it? He simply desired to possess her and he took her despite the fact that it was wrong and obviously evil for him to do this. On a religious note, think of those in leadership in churches who are moving as fast as possible into apostasy as they attempt to recreate Christianity. One of the vital parts of implementing the Purpose Driven Church model in a church is to not do it publicly or in the open until it is in step three or four. If it is made public that the leadership is doing this, then it can be stopped by the people, but once it has become that entrenched, those with eyes to see and ears to hear must leave or be remain in fellowship with those in apostasy. The fact that it must be implemented secretly should make it obvious that this is deception and God never works like that. In fact, God says in v5 that He will likewise destroy or break down forever those who are doing this.

When God does bring His judgment to bear on these evil people, those in the light, the righteous, will see it and that will enforce their fear of God. However, they shall also deride those who are destroyed for their rebellion against God and His truth. Those who God has preserved from this are like a green olive tree in the house of God. They trust in the mercy of the Lord forever. In the age to come, they will be in the presence of God forever and will praise Him continually, worshipping Him in spirit and truth.

As we reflect on God’s wonderful love for us, we must also wonder at the magnitude of what an act of mercy it is for Him to love us when we are most unlovely. We deserve the same fate as the wicked. However, God has shown us mercy and we must dedicate ourselves to living this life He has given us fully abiding in our Lord, taking up His yoke as we lean on Him to help us carry our crosses within our obedience to Him. God’s love endures forever, therefore, let us move forward with Him in obedience to His will in all things.

Soli Deo Gloria!