The Wreality of Our Wrathful God (warning - this is not a warm fuzzy Christmas post)

I was reading Psalm 51 yesterday and when I got to the end I just kept reading and hit Psalm 52, which, to my knowledge is not a very well known psalm. Here's what I found: "Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living... here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold." I can hardly figure why this psalm isn't as popular as Psalm 51. Then I figured it out - this is the proactive psalm ... Psalm 51 is the reactive psalm. In Psalm 51 David is reacting to a sin already committed. Now, it is the appropriate reaction - confession and repentance. But I would prefer to meditate on Psalm 52 and heed the warning that can keep me from the sin that would need to be repented of.

I think this is God hit me with when I read Psalm 52 ... don't be that guy Robby. Yes, I am saved by God's grace and can never do anything to lose His love. But that doesn't mean I can never do anything to get lovingly punished. God has given me Himself as a stronghold (by His grace), but if I do not make God my stronghold (which takes faith), then I make myself susceptible to His righteous wrath against sin ... but not as a wicked outsider, as a son that He loves. But the mistake I have been making is thinking that only the wicked outsiders get the kind of severe treatment described here. The sons that He loves get ... a slap on the wrist? I don't think so. I think if we continue in patterns of sin we open ourselves up to some severe consequences. And God is justified in exercising His righteous wrath, even against His children which He loves. In fact it is because He loves us. It would be unloving for Him to deceive us into thinking that sin has no consequences by not disciplining us for sin.

But Psalm 52 doesn't end with the bleak picture painted so far. Verse 8 and 9 provide an excellent alternative to ignoring God's wrath and living in sin: "But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints."

Today ... proactive psalm for me. I will not be like the man who did not make God his stronghold. I will trust in God's unfailing love.