#DailyDevotion Don’t Fear The Plans Of The Wicked
Psalm 10 7His mouth is full of cursing, deception, and oppression; under his tongue lurk mischief and wrong doing. 8He sits in ambush in the villages; from his hiding places he kills the innocent; his eyes are looking for victims. 9He lies in his hiding place like a lion in his den, waits there to catch the helpless, and takes the poor away, dragging him in his net.
The psalmist continues with the wicked man. They seem like nice people often. They may not regularly be seen doing wicked things. They may even do nice things for people sometimes. That is why they are so dangerous. If you pay attention to them, if you listen to them, they will disclose themselves by cursing (wishing evil on others, deception (using truths to deceive people), and oppression (controlling people). They are full of mischief (and not the fun kind) and wrong doing. I don’t think they even think they believe are doing anything wrong when they do it. Their thinking is they deserve whatever it is their hearts are lusting after.
Depending on your location you may are may not see them sitting in ambush and killing the innocent. Their eyes though are always looking for victims. You may see this more blatantly in larger cities. In smaller ones, their victims tend to be new people who do not know them though they may catch even those wary of them unawares at times. These are usually helpless people at times. These wicked people need not be those we think of as poor. No, they make their living by taking advantage of the poor. They are from all economic levels of life.
But now we see this especially in those who sought the life of our LORD Jesus Christ. The Pharisees, Scribes and the priests who loved money and power. Jesus’ teachings were cutting into that since by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was becoming more popular. He is the least in the kingdom of heaven and the poor among us. They laid a trap for him through a “friend” and had him killed, thinking they would inherit the kingdom. Jesus let them do this to save them and us from our sins.
10The victim is crushed and sinks down; because of his power he falls helpless. 11But the wicked man says to himself, “God doesn’t care. He hides His face and will never see it.”
It’s like they never think this will ever come back on them. The wicked think God doesn’t care, that He doesn’t see these things. The LORD God, our LORD Jesus Christ has higher purposes with their wickedness. He is turning their wickedness into good for those who love Him, who are called according to His purposes. That goes for the evil things these people perpetrate against you and especially for what the wicked did to Jesus. Through their killing Jesus and the Father raising him from the dead to His right hand, they and we are able to access the Father’s love, mercy, kindness and forgiveness. The Kingdom of Heaven is opened to us through this reversal of the actions of wicked men.
Heavenly Father, when the wicked carry out the plans, we pray you to frustrate them and not allow them to be carried out. Guard and protect us from their evil ways. Yet, if in your infinite wisdom you allow their iniquity to occur, let us in faith see the fulfillment of your plan in turning evil to good, even as you have shown us in the death of your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Very apt today as we remember St. Stephen. Thank you.