“I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo I have not refrained my lips, Lord thou knowest. 10. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.”
If you ask a lot of people about their religious beliefs, they will tell you that they are not going to talk about that because it is personal. There is an idea today that what one believes is his business and no one else’s. This might be true of some religions but it is certainly not true of the Christian faith. We are not supposed to hide the light that Christ has put within us and allows to shine out of us. The whole world needs to know. David certainly did not hide his faith in the Father. He wrote that he had “preached righteousness to the great congregation.” He declared that he would not “refrain (his) lips.” In other words, he was willing to talk about what God was doing in his life. He did not hide God righteousness in his heart. I think that David did this by the way he lived. I remember what David did with Bathsheba. He did not say “I am a perfect man.” He was willing to share God’s righteousness. David was willing to declare the faithfulness of God. We can certainly do that, because we know of God’s faithfulness to send His Son to die for our sins. David did not conceal God’s lovingkindness. Why would he and why would we? We should gladly proclaim that our God is a loving God who will always love us. David also did not conceal God’s truth from the “great congregation.” We certainly should not be ashamed of God’s truth as revealed through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” Why would we conceal this great truth from the world? Throughout the Bible, especially the New Testament, we are told to go and tell other people about what Jesus has done for us. This does not mean that we are to push our religious beliefs down people’s throats. We can’t do that anyway. It means that we are to unashamedly live for Jesus and speak to others about Him, and we are to do it lovingly. Why would we hide our faith from other people? First, I think we might hide our faith because we are afraid of being called “doofusses.” (My computer tells me that doofus is not a word, but we know better, don’t we?) This is how the world looks at Christian people today. Another word that comes to mind is that we are afraid of being called “ignoramuses.” By a large part of the population, we are viewed as a bunch of ignorant, uneducated people who have no idea about what life is all about. C.S. Lewis, a brilliant British professor, would have taken issue with that. Hey, I’m not without education myself. (If I act like an ignoramus from time to time that is not because of my faith. Lol) Second, I think that we might hide our faith because we are ashamed. This was not unheard of in the Bible. When Paul was considering going to the sophisticated, urbane, pagan city of Rome, he made it clear that he was not ashamed of the gospel and told them why in Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” It is still the “power of God unto salvation,” that is intended for all who will believe in Jesus Christ. We should not be ashamed that we have given our lives to One who makes our lives deeper and better. We should not be ashamed that we love the One who first loved us. We don’t need to wear our faith on our sleeves and be defensive about it, but we should unashamedly live it before others, and when God leads us to speak out for Him we should. So, what are you hiding? Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|