Psalm 34:21-22 Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. 22 The Lord will rescue his servants; no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.
I love the way David closes this Psalm. I love it because, if you remember form the first devotion, I told you I am a numbers guy. Numbers are very black and white. 2+2=4 all the time. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it or if the numbers are interpreted a different way. Math is black and white. There is a right answer and there is wrong answers. David closes out Psalm 34 in a very black in white way.
In verse 21 we see the black and in verse 22 we see the white. In verse 21 David tells us that the evil will slay the wicked. The wicked are those who do not accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. They choose to follow evil even though they may not see it that way. Many people think they are “good.” They are nice, they pay taxes, they try to treat others well. Some of them maybe even have a Bible and go to church sometimes and or they are at least what is referred to as chreaster christians. You know, they go to church on Christmas and Easter. They haven’t broken any of the MAJOR commandments so they are good enough. The problem is with God there is no good enough.
In fact it takes seeing that we aren’t good enough to become righteous. It takes realizing that there is never anything we can do to be good enough, to be righteous in God’s eyes. If you really think you are good enough you need to read Isaiah 64:6 “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Did you catch that? Our ‘righteous acts’ the best of our best is like filthy rags. The original word used there referee to female hygiene products. That is what your “good enough” is like in God’s eyes.
So if you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior you are wicked. You are a follower of evil and the very evil you follow is the evil that will lead you to death. David goes on to say “the foes of the righteous will be condemned.” You are a foe of the righteous. We are told in James 4:4 “Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” So you see it is simply black and white. You are either saved and made righteous through the blood of Jesus or you are not saved and are an enemy of God’s. If you are the second you need to make sure you read and understand the end of verse 21 when David tells us, “the foes of the righteous will be condemned.”
Condemned is defined as, to be wrong, guilty, sentenced to punishment. I am sorry to say it but if you have not accepted Christ you are on the wrong path. The path you are on leads to death and destruction. You are guilty of sin and will pay the punishment for it. Romans 3:23 tells us the price, death, “For the wages of sin is death.” Many think that means a physical death, the dying of this body we live in but it goes so much farther. Even the physical body of the saved will die. The difference is those who do not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior will also face spiritual death. Their soul will live on, sadly in a place called Hell. However, that isn’t the worse part of spiritual death. The worse part is that spiritual death actually refers to separation from God.
If you remember a few times throughout this book I have told you about a wonderful little three letter word, “but.” In the previous paragraph I quoted part of a verse from Romans 3:23 but I stopped the quote before I got to that wonderful three letter words that turns everything upside down. Read what the verse says in it’s entirety, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is a pretty awesome but! I told you this is black and white and the but opens the door to the white.
The penally for our sins is death but there is a way to have that penalty paid. David tells us in verse 22, “The Lord will rescue his servants; no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.” You see the other side, you see the but. If you are a servant of Christ, if you have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior you will not face condemnation you will not face spiritual death. You will not spend eternity separated from God. David tells us that God will rescue us. He will deliver us, He will snatch us from the grips of this sinful body and sinful world.
It is black and white. It is yes or no. You are either a servant of God’s or you are His foe. No one knows which you are except for you and Christ. You get to choose, you get to decide. Like every choice there is a consequence. For this choice there is defiantly a bad consequence BUT there is also a consequence that is the greatest consequence ever! Which do you choose?
Things to Think About
1.) Has there been a time when you have accepted Jesus as your Lord in Savior? If so write your testimony about how you came to Him.
2.) If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, why haven’t you? Why do you continue to make that choice?
3.) David shares these words for us so that we will understand the important choice we have. When is the last time you explained this choice to someone else? What keeps you from sharing it more and how can you change that?