October 25 - Psalm 120

October 25 - Psalm 120

Save me from lying lips and deceitful tongues … I am a man of peace, but those whom I live among hate peace, they are for war.

When we tell a good story, we don’t feel as if exaggeration is a problem.  When we enter an interview, exaggerating our positive attributes seems like the right thing to do.  When we tell of how someone has misused us or abused us, a little bit of exaggeration gives us firmer ground to stand on and gains us a little more sympathy.

Before we know it, exaggeration leads to lies and deceitfulness because it seems right that we should ensure people are on our side!  Whatever it takes to get people to do what we want them to do is just fine.

And as for war, it might not be guns a-blazing, but we certainly enjoy stirring up trouble if it will keep people looking at others in a bad light so that we can look all lily-white.  We are a self-interested bunch of people who like to talk about honesty and civility, but have a difficult time implementing into our lives.

It really does seem as if the world today has lost any sense of civility.  That I read these words from the Psalms almost gives me hope. It reminds me that nothing much has changed, no matter how I feel as if things continually get worse and that the world is falling apart moment by moment.

The next time you feel as if you are about the tip over the edge because you feel as if the world isn’t fair or you are being mistreated by someone remember that David lived in Meschech, among the tents of Kedar. I am not going to take the time to research those locations right now, but he lived among men who preferred war to peace, battle to restoration, lying to honesty, anger to civility.

We live in a world that isn’t willing to support peace, but we are a people of peace.