Psalm 101 is a kind of "resolution Psalm", because in it, David makes a whole lot of resolutions about how he is going to live his life as a man of God. Among other things, he resolves to sing of mercy and judgement to the Lord, behave wisely and walk in his house with a perfect heart, set no wicked thing before his eyes, not associate with wicked people, employ faithful people, not associate with liars and swiftly punish evildoers. (Remember that David was a king and so had lawful authority to do that last thing.) This Psalm gives Christians plenty of food for thought, especially Verse 3, which talks about not setting wicked things before our eyes. Also, the Psalm has several things to say about the kinds of people that Christians should avoid associating with. Now when I say that, I mean have close fellowship with. Obviously, you have to talk to people to witness to them, and you can't avoid doing business with unbelievers. However, merely going to a shop that happens to be owned by an unbeliever and buying something from them does not constitute fellowship. You might make a little small talk with them, especially if you are a regular customer, but that is still not fellowship as such. David gives an example of fellowship in Verse 7: "He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight." (Psalm 101:7) When you fellowship with people and have close association with them, that often involves them coming to your house, or you going to theirs. You see them at close quarters on a regular basis, and in that sense, they tarry in your sight. In more modern parlance, they're people you "hang" with.
The verse we're going to examine today provides another type of person that Christians should not "hang" (or "hang out") with. This is part of the Pride Month series, so you can probably already guess where this is going:
"Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer." (Psalm 101:5)
Actually, there are two kinds of people mentioned there, but obviously, I want to focus on the second. Briefly on the first: people who privily (secretly) slander their neighbours are what the Bible calls talebearers. In more modern terms, they're gossips. But the kind of gossip they spread is both malicious and untrue. Now there are times when evil needs to be exposed in order to hold a perpetrator accountable and provide justice to those who have been wronged. There are also times when exposing particular evils is in the public interest. However, people who gossip are not interested in exposing evil. They don't care about justice or what is best for society. They just want to stir up trouble, and this is what the Bible condemns. The thing about slander is that it involves false accusation. Here is a simple example of the difference between legitimate exposure of evil and malicious slander. Legitimate exposure: "John's daughter has just come to me and told me that he beat her up. There are clear marks and bruises on her body and I think we need to call the police." In this hypothetical case, John has done an evil thing to his daughter. She has confided in a trusted neighbour, and that neighbour consults with another person about what to do next. In this case, the neighbour is not gossiping or slandering, but trying to do the right thing to protect an innocent girl from further harm. Now for an example of malicious slander: "Hey, guess what? I saw Jim getting pretty cosy with his daughter the other day. They were hugging and stuff. Very suss. Spread the word". In this case, Jim is a normal father expressing normal affection for his daughter. There is nothing untoward about what he is doing, but in the mouth of a slanderer, it could easily be turned into something it's not. The motive of this person is to make trouble for Jim and make an innocent person appear guilty of something they wouldn't dream of doing. A person who behaves like this is someone to steer well clear of. Besides, if they slander other people to you, one day they will slander you to other people as well.
OK, now to examine the second kind of person to stay away from. David says that he will not suffer (allow or tolerate) people with a high look and a proud heart. A "high look" basically means a haughty or lofty expression. We have all seen people with what you might call smug facial expressions. They look like they're full of their own importance and consider themselves to be Very Important. It is this type of expression, which conveys smugness and arrogance, that could be termed a "high look". In this case, such a look reflects pride in the heart. And someone who has such a degree of pride in their heart that it's written all over their face is not someone that a Christian should be associating with.
Why should Christians stay away from proud people? Well for one thing, the Bible is clear that God wants us to be humble. Even in our saved condition, humility does not tend to come naturally to us (because of the corrupt body we still inhabit), which is why the Bible regularly tells us to humble ourselves. But if you're always hanging out with proud people, it can be contagious. The Bible warns us, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Corinthians 15:33). In other words, if you have regular fellowship with someone who is proud, arrogant, boastful etc., it will rub off on you sooner or later. There is a well-known idiom, "Birds of a feather flock together". A saved Christian and an unsaved proud person are not "birds of a feather". So you won't be able to "flock together" for very along, unless you make yourself more like them. Which is often what happens. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we tend to copy the behaviours and attitudes of people we fellowship with to make them like us more. But if you copy someone's pride and arrogance, that is going to corrupt your Christian manners. It will adversely affect your testimony and displease God, resulting in chastening.
We cannot avoid proud people altogether, but we should avoid fellowship with them. Not only unsaved ones either. Sometimes born-again Christians can get pride in their hearts, and until they repent of that, they are not good company to keep either.
No comments:
Post a Comment