Great stuff in our Psalms that contrasts those who trust in the things of this world, which temporary versus those who trust in God
We start out with a look at those who trust in the riches of this world:
Psa 17:14 from men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their
abundance to their infants.
The men of the world is referring to people who are living on easy street as the Psalm says, they have plenty of wealth, their kids are happy and their grandkids are going to have a big inheritance. They love their portion in this life, but therein lies the problem, this life is going to end, and we can’t have our cake and eat it too, we have to love one thing or the other. Jesus tells us those who will be saved are the one’s who deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him, in sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us we cannot serve 2 masters, we can’t love God and love the world at the same time, it is one or the other, obedience or disobedience, sin versus righteousness, Christ or not Christ, but not all of the above.
The second half of today’s reading talks about what the righteous person can look forward to after death;
Psa 17:15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.
When I awake is referring to the life after this one, or what happens after we die, and then is when the Psalmist will be truly satisfied, when He is fellowshipping with Christ, because the writer tells us “when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness”.
So 2 paths to take, a life of following Christ and denying ourselves the sinful desires of this life and putting our faith in hope in Jesus to take us into the next life, — and that’s exactly what the Bible tells us; John 3:16 – very famously says “those who believe in Christ will not perish”.
The other way is a life of fulfilling all our pleasurable desires; living our best life now, miring in our sin, explaining it away and foolishly thinking the best is happening in there here and now.
Jesus tells us this too; the narrow gate versus the wide gate. The best life now philosophy is the wide gate Christ tells us about in Matthew 7 13 and 14 — “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
So remember, the life that hates sin and love Christ and makes Him the center of our world, that is the life that does not perish, but the life that loves all the bad stuff out there in the world and mires and wallows in it, that is the road that leads to destruction. The good news is, we all liked sin at one point, we all lived that bad life, that bad life that takes down below, but we can do a U-turn and head the other way, the right way, Jesus’s way and we do that by trusting in the Gospel and declaring Christ as King, not just with words though, with actions too.
