Forty Days in the PsalmsNäide

Do you have the ability to notice things others don’t? One of mine (Shawn) is my consciousness about electricity. I notice when the lights are on, and no one is in the room. I notice when the refrigerator door is open longer than it should be. I notice when the heat is on when it’s hot outside or the cooling system is on when it’s cold outside. And sometimes, I can believe I am the only one who notices these things.

There is something about doing the right thing that can feel lonely. And either pride or the enemy of our soul can send us the message that "we’re the only one who cares.”

This happened to the prophet Elijah in a moment of discouragement. When many in Israel had turned to the idol (Baal) of the pagans around them, Elijah cried out to the Lord, “I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life” (1 Kings 19:10). God corrected his perspective: “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18). Elijah looked around and thought, “Nobody cares about God except me". But he was wrong.

In Psalm 12, David says in a similar way, “Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak” (Psalm 12:1, 2).

In one way, David is correct. In another way, pride has blinded him to his own ways. Here’s the truth. Compared to God, there is no one Righteous! We have all sinned (Rom. 3:23).

This is why Jesus had to be born and had to die. This is both the bad news and the Good News. There is no one truly Righteous except the perfect Son of God, Jesus Christ. The Good News is that because of the Cross and its Power, we can be made Righteous. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Today, when you feel like you’re the only one who cares, the only one who is praying, the only one in your family who sacrifices, the only one who is truly serving others, remember that apart from God’s Righteousness in Jesus Christ you are among the unrighteous. Besides this, God has millions who do care! Yet all of this is the Gift of God, “that we might become the righteousness of God.”

RESPOND IN PRAYER:

1. If you are tempted to think that you are the only one who cares, sacrifices, and loves God, ask God to reveal your own sin and bring it to mind. Then cling to the Gift of Grace that comes through faith in Christ.

2. Ask God to remind you today of those who remain devoted and faithful.