Scripture – O Lord, by your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life Psalm 17:14a
Observation – David is asking God to save him from wicked men. He differentiates between righteous people and wicked people based on their eternal destination. The righteous will spend eternity with God and the wicked, while enjoying success in this life, will spend eternity in hell separated from God.
Application – It is in an incredible, almost universal, characteristic of human beings. We all know with 100% certainty that we are going to die. There will be a day in the future when our heart stops beating and everything that we knew for 80 or 90 years comes to an end. If we live that long, the latter years will most likely be filled with less activity and more naps than our younger years. Yet with the perfect knowledge of the absolute certainty of death we still focus on the rewards of this life versus storing up treasures in heaven. God put us on this earth and he created work. Our work is important and doing everything with all of our heart and with excellence brings glory to God, he is very pleased when we work hard. He also rewards those who excel, often times with more earthly responsibility, accolades from our peers and financial benefits. This is all good and we are called to enjoy what God has blessed us with but we are also called to invest in God’s eternal kingdom through the giving of our time, money and energy.
Prayer – Lord I pray for those who know you, that they would take inventory of their lives and make changes if they are not investing in eternity and I pray for those who reward is only in this life, that they would repent and follow you. Amen.
What are you doing? Do it better 