Today, read Genesis 11, Ezra 10 and Psalm 10.
This devotional is about Psalm 10.
In this song, the psalmist wondered why God did not judge the wicked (v. 1), called on God to judge the wicked because of how they have victimized the weak (vv. 12-15), and affirmed his confidence in God to care for and defend the weak (vv. 16-18). In between his direct addresses to God, the writer described the wicked in verses 2-11. At the very end of his description, the psalmist wrote this about the wicked man: “He says to himself, ‘God will never notice; he covers his face and never sees’” (v. 11).
That statement accurately sums up the mentality of anyone who sins. When we are conscious of God’s presence and aware of his watching eyes, we are able to say no to temptations. Like a shoplifter who is on his best behavior when he sees the security camera, each of us makes better moral choices when we are conscious of God.
The late theologian R. C. Sproul used a Latin phrase–Coram Deo “before the face of God” to sum up how a believer should live in this world. When we live before the face of God, it changes what and how we worship and how we live.
Apart from God’s grace, we all would live with the same moral abandon as the man described in this Psalm. We would sin as we wanted, comforting ourselves with the story that God will never know or notice. Jesus came to reveal God to us and to die for us so that we could live “before the face of God.”
Are you conscious of God during your daily life? Do you consider that he hears every word you say and watches your actions? If not, ask him to help you remember his presence with you and live in light of it daily.
