Man's Wickedness, God's Mercy

"An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes, For he flatters himself in his own eyes, When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed; He sets himself in a way that is not good; He does not abhor evil" (Psalm 36:1-4). I have often wondered why so many people are so hateful these days. This morning, I posted verse one of this psalm on Facebook because it had "fear of God" in it, which I believe is key to the whole cultural decay that we are seeing today. This very short psalm has some wisdom I want to share with you. Then this evening verse two spoke to me. At first, I didn't understand it, and my Bible notes did not help at all. They just made it more confusing, but this is what I gather it means: When it says, "For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates," it means he does evil and hates (others) because of his own iniquity. In other words, the wicked person (that is, you or me, you understand) does not want to find iniquity or sin or wrongdoing in his or her own heart, mind or soul, oh, no. So, instead of reckoning with the sin or wrongdoing, the person commits sin against and hates his or her neighbor. Isn't that the way it works? Nobody wants to admit their own sin, or their need for repentance, are doing everything they can to avoid confronting it, avoid being accountable to God or their neighbor and to get the guilt and shame off of themselves, so, they flatter themselves and hate others. This is also the mode of operations for the Pharisee, the self-righteous, and the hypocrite. But the remedy comes in verse five. "Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast" (Psalm 36:4-6). Jesus Christ took away our sin and suffered its punishment when he "was crucified and descended into hell," as it is expressed in the Apostles' Creed; "the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead." Jesus came to save sinners, which we all are. We will all stand before Him with either our unrepented sin and guilt or we will stand before Him in Jesus Christ, forgiven and ready to live forever with God and all who have been honest with themselves and God. That is a decision we all must make. We are not saved because we memorized the Apostle's Creed as I did many years ago. I was only saved when I was born again after actually repenting of my sin and allowing Jesus to save me from my sin and condemnation. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).