January 25

Psalm 12

                    Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.  Everyone lies to their neighbor; they flatter with their lips but harbor deception in their hearts.  May the Lord silence all flattering lips and every boastful tongue-those who say, “By our tongues we will prevail; our own lips will defend us-who is lord over us?” “Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord.  “I will protect them from those who malign them.”  And the words of the Lord are pure, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.  You, Lord, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked, who freely strut about when what is vile is honored by the human race.

Psalm 12:1-8

             The words of the Lord are pure.  They are flawless.  They are untainted by fear or envy or greed or insecurity.  What God says, He means.  So much of our life is trying to figure out what people mean.  What is the subcontext?  What are the inferences and implications.  What are the motivations behind the words and what are people trying to manipulate me into thinking, feeling and doing?  People insult their friends to show affection and compliment their rivals in order to create opportunities for advancement.

            It is hard enough for me to keep track of what people say and what they mean.  It is ridiculously harder for people who are literal thinkers.  Teaching sarcasm and humor and metaphor to my son has raised my awareness of how little connection there is between what people say and what they actually mean.  I had to continually council my caregivers to be hyper-aware of what came out of their mouths.  If you joke about a provider not liking a person, that may become internalized and you may have just destroyed a great relationship.

            I get it.  Language is a tremendous way to show how clever we are.  It is always more appealing to choose laughing over crying.  But the words that are spoken always have impact…either positive or negative.  They are either building people up or tearing them down and when the words that we say do not convey the reality of our thoughts and feelings, the results may not be what we intended.

            God is not like that, although we assume that He is.  He says what He means and does not hide his true agenda.  When He says that He loves us, we listen for the unspoken “if” statements: If we obey, if we believe, if we are good, if we speak a certain language or worship in a certain way, if we avoid a specific sin.  Actually there are no conditions.  God’s words are pure.  His promises are pure.  They can be trusted and taken at face value.  That is incredibly appealing for my literal son who just wants to be able to respond to people who say what they actually mean.

                                        

A moment to reflect:

Work on saying what you mean today, especially when it comes to telling your children how you feel about them.

Refrigerator Art of the Day:

D Age 15