THE WORD AND THE SINNER

We look at verse 16 today. God is speaking to “the wicked” (the sinner of our title), for there is little doubt that this is like a person whom we would call “unsaved”, or the ungodly man of Psalm 1. If we are Christians, then God calls us saints (set-apart ones). We must acknowledge that saints sin at times, but this is not the character of the one found in this verse.

It is interesting to contrast verses 15 and 16. In verse 15, we read, “call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee”. Then notice the change in verse 16, “But”. Earlier in the psalm, God had been speaking to “my saints”, v. 5, “my people”, v. 7. They were not a perfect people, but God would not include them in verse 16. The difference between them is shown (and caused) by their attitude to God’s Word. In verse 17, in describing the attitude of the wicked, God says, “thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee”. In Psalm 119. 158, the writer speaks of “the transgressors … they kept not thy word”.

It is plain that if these men had obeyed the Word they would have ceased to be wicked. The language implies that they had heard it, and-had said “No”! We should note in Psalm 50. 18-20 the result of casting away God’s Word. When God’s Word is spurned, it leads to disaster.

God has ordained that it should be by His Word that men are brought from the place of rebellion into the place of liberty. The Lord Jesus said, “He that heareth my word, and believeth … hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation”, John 5. 24. Paul wrote, “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe”, 1 Cor. 1. 21.

Psalm 119. 158 mentions the writer’s grief on account of men’s waywardness, and in verse 136 he says, “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law”. We think of the Lord Jesus as He looked over Jerusalem, “he … wept over it”, Luke 19. 41. He could see the tribulation that was to come because of the city’s rejection of Him (the Word), and He sorrowed deeply. If we believe the Word of God as we read it, we know that judgment is coming on the wicked, on the ungodly. Perhaps someone dear to us is in this category. Is the love of Christ in us so real that we share His compassion?