Psalm 119:114–117

Commentary

Do good, not evil

The opposite of doing good is doing evil. The psalmist is determined to do good. That is why he says, ‘Away from me, you evildoers’ (v.115a). The evildoers are ‘double-minded’ (v.113). They stray from God’s decrees and are deceitful (v.118).

Choose to avoid evil and do good. Love God’s words (vv.113,119). God is your refuge and shield (v.114a). Put your hope in his word (v.114b): ‘I’ll give total allegiance to your definitions of life’ (v.117, MSG).

The psalmist writes, ‘Sustain me according to your promise, and I shall live; do not let my hopes be dashed’ (v.116). Our hope being deferred is bad enough. The book of Proverbs says, ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick’ (Proverbs 13:12). Bring your hopes before God today and pray, like the psalmist, that your hopes will not be dashed.

Prayer

Titus 3:1–14

Commentary

Always be ready to do good

There is such a striking contrast between Paul’s life before he experienced a relationship with Jesus Christ and his life afterwards (and I relate to this in my own experience). Paul writes, ‘We too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another’ (v.3).

However, Jesus utterly transforms us: ‘when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy’ (vv.4–5). Doing good is a response to God’s kindness and love for you. We often think of the kindness of our family and friends, but God is infinitely more kind than that. If God has been so kind to you, it is a natural response for you to be kind to others.

Out of his kindness and love, God has not only forgiven you, he has also given you the Holy Spirit: ‘He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives’ (vv.5–7, MSG). It is the Holy Spirit who enables you and empowers you to do good.

Therefore, Paul can write of the kind of lives we are now to lead: ‘Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding’ (v.1, MSG). This is our civil responsibility – to obey the laws of the country – unless they are contrary to God’s law.

But obedience and submission to rulers and authorities is not enough. We must ‘be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility towards everyone’ (vv.1–2). He urges them twice more to devote themselves to doing what is good (vv.8,14).

It is striking that Paul’s focus here seems to be on their relationships with other people. Paul is encouraging an ‘other-focused’ mindset, rooted in humility, truthfulness and consideration for others. While you are to be motivated by love, sometimes it is by actually serving others that you learn to love them.

Even after you have been reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit, there will be temptations to get sidetracked and become unproductive. Don’t get involved in incessant arguments. Paul writes, ‘Avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless’ (v.9).

Paul is concerned that the Christians in Crete be distinct and different from the culture in which they live. He writes, ‘Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives’ (v.14).

You live out what you believe in front of a watching world. If we are lazy and unproductive, it will be noticed. You are to reflect ‘the kindness and love of God our Saviour’ (v.4) as you ‘do good’.

Doing good and living a productive life does not necessarily mean that you need to change your job. When I was practising as a lawyer, I remember considering whether God was calling us to ordination in the Church of England. I was very struck by the mention of ‘Zenas the lawyer’ (v.13). It reminded me that if I were to stop practising as a barrister, it was not because there was anything wrong with being a Christian lawyer. Wherever you are in life and whatever your job or ministry, it is possible to go around doing good.

Prayer

Lamentations 1:1–20

Commentary

Stay close to the one who went around doing good

‘To be human is to suffer. No one gets an exemption. Lamentations keeps company with the extensive biblical witness that gives dignity to suffering by insisting that God enters our suffering and is companion to our suffering,’ writes Eugene Peterson in his introduction to the book of Lamentations.

The book, as the name suggests, focuses on the sorrow, sadness, grief, pain, loss and tragedy that the people of God experienced during the exile. Our circumstances may be different, but our suffering is just as real.

The writer laments how the once great nation of Israel has gone into exile because of her many sins: ‘she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place’ (1:3, MSG), ‘… lost everything’ (v.7, MSG), ‘… Massacres in the streets, starvation in the houses’ (v.20, MSG).

As we read today’s passage there seems to be very little hope. It is all about judgment and suffering. The writer says, ‘Is any suffering like my suffering…?’ (v.12). That is often how we feel when going through difficulties and trials.

He writes, ‘My sins have been bound into a yoke; by his hands they were woven together. They have come upon my neck and the LORD has sapped my strength. He has handed me over to those I cannot withstand’ (v.14).

The picture is of his sins being like a great heavy yoke around his neck, weighing him down. He is weary and burdened by them.

This is the experience of exile, judgment and immense suffering. The physical exile lasted approximately seventy years, but there was a sense in which the spiritual experience of exile continued.

Thank God that Jesus came to announce that the exile was well and truly over, and that you need no longer go around weary and burdened by sins. Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light’ (Matthew 11:28–30).

This is the secret of doing good: stay close to the one who went around doing good. Hand over your burdens to Jesus and receive his rest. Take his yoke upon you as you learn from him – from his gentle, humble heart – because he is the source of doing good.

Prayer