CLEAR-MINDED CONVICTION - Psalm 119:113-120 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth - SAMEKH) #15

"There are," someone has quipped, "two kinds of people in the world.  Those who see everything as either black or white, and those who don't."

Clearly, not everything must be either "white" or "black."  Many if not most of our personal preferences are neither morally right nor morally wrong.  One of our recent Presidents didn't care for broccoli while others crave it every day.  You may root for either the Packers or the Bears.   In the grand scheme of things, it actually doesn't make any real difference.

But, in the grand scheme of things, what one consistently thinks about God and His Word is not merely a preference.  It's a matter of "white" or "black."  Inconsistency on certain matters like truth, of fearing God (or not fearing), is fatal.  

In other words, courting double-mindedness becomes a matter of destiny.   How sobering to live in a day when increasing numbers of Americans prefer to think in shades of gray about black 'n white truth.

I hate the double-minded,

but I love Your law.

You are my hiding place and my shield;

I hope in Your word.

Depart from me, you evildoers,

that I may keep the commandments of my God.

Uphold me according to Your promise,

that I may live,

and let me not be put to shame in my hope!

Hold me up, that I may be safe

and have regard for Your statutes continually!

You spurn all those who go astray from Your statutes,

for their cunning is in vain.

All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross,

therefore I love Your testimonies.

My flesh trembles for fear of You,

and I am afraid of Your judgment.

It is safe -- and accurate, according to Scripture -- to say that there will be no double-minded individuals standing before God in the day when destinies are declared.  Tens of thousands of people die daily and are immediately separated.  Jesus spoke of Lazarus (a poor wretch) and a rich man who died on the same day but individually went to two very different places: the former into a place of blessed rest, the latter to a place of relentless torment.

Permanently.   "A great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to (the other side) may not be able (to do so)..." (Luke 16:26, ESV).

Hebrews 9 says it bluntly.  "It's appointed to men to die once, and then the judgment."

No wonder the Psalm writer hated double-minded-ness, and those who persisted in it.  It has the veneer of open-mindedness, but the outcome of separation from God.  Such "cunning is in vain."  God spurns those who, without conviction, stray from Your statutes.  God disregards the wicked like worthless dross.

There is safety - today and in the forever tomorrow - in regarding God's statutes continually.  It is accompanied by a life-refining fear of the Lord, and the sobering reality of His judgment.

Get off the fence!  Love the Lord's testimonies!