Psalm 119: Focus On God's Word Pt. 126 Judgement For Individual And National Sins.

We have come to the next verse in this section of Psalm 119. 

Praying to have our reproach turned away. 

Psalm 119:39  Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good. 

The Psalmist turned his attention to sins that impacted him. He does not specify what sin he may be thinking of, but this is very relevant for all believers in Christ. 

The idea of having our reproach turned away is asking that God would remove it from us, so that it is gone. The motivation for doing this is so that His blessed name is not mocked or tarnished.  

This is a prayer of the Psalmist that we can pray for ourselves. We must ask God to help us avoid dishonoring Him by our own actions. We must ask God to roll away the reproach from any sinful acts of our nation. 

A nation can sin and be judged by God.  

Israel's sins as a nation, is a frequent topic in the Psalms, and it may well be that the Psalmist felt contaminated by Israel's incessant idolatry.

As you can see, both possibilities can potentially impact us and bring dishonor to God. 

For example, both Israel and Judah were conquered and sent into Babylonian captivity, even though not all the Jewish  people were idolatrous. 

On the other hand, Israel lost a battle under Joshua's leadership, when one man sinned, by taking spoils of war that God said to destroy (See Joshua 7:1-26). 

Second, all believers still carry around our old man, that sin nature inherited from Adam. 

Like King David, the potential to sin is still within us. The Psalmist may be concerned about a personal sin that he committed. 

Think about King David for a moment. He is called the sweet Psalmist of Israel and a man after God's own heart. 

Yet, in a moment of temptation, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, so that he could marry her. 

Righteousness blesses nations but sin is a reproach. 

Proverbs 14:34  Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. 

I know many believers today feel contaminated by the collective sins of living among a people who increasingly say "No" to God and "Yes" to sin. 

A nation that chooses to turn away from God by rejecting His truth, will inevitably plunge into horrific sin. 

Such sin is a reproach to any nation or people. Sin brings shame and makes our nation an object of ridicule or scorn.

A nation that embraces God and His Word, can be beacon of hope shining into a sin darkened world. 

Mockers will pile on reproaches against God.  

Psalm 42:10  As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

This text is a good example of the kind of reproach that weighed heavily on the Psalmist. Mocking and scornful words from his enemies stuck to him like a blow from a sword. 

What upset the Psalmist the most, was their contempt toward Jehovah. Each day vile people heaped reproach upon the Psalmist and God, and this moved him to seek God's mighty help. 

2 Chronicles 7:14  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 

Personal sins are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. 

1 John 1:7-9  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9)  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Personal sins must be handled in the manner prescribed by God. This represents a practical, daily living by our Christian faith. If we do not deal with our sins, God will chasten us. 

When we confess and forsake our sins, God is faithful to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Praise God that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, all unrighteousness. 

Confessing and forsaking is part of the ongoing sanctification process that God put in place, to help us depend upon Him, so that we can live for His glory. 

This process includes completing the "put off" or "put on" actions Paul wrote of, as well as mortifying our old man with it's fleshly lusts (See Romans 8:13, Colossians 3:5). 

We must walk in the Spirit to avoid lust of the flesh. 

Galatians 5:16,17  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17)  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 

We experience spiritual warfare. Our flesh and old man, fights against our new man in Christ, and we can be overwhelmed during the ongoing battle. 

Spiritual warfare creates the conflict Paul vividly describes in Romans 7. He found that he was unable to do the good things he wanted to do, but that it was all too easy to commit sin. 

In writing to the Galatians, Paul described spiritual warfare as our flesh lusting against the Holy Spirit and the Spirit fighting back against our fleshly lusts. 

Such struggles can render us helpless, spiritually paralyzed and unable to move forward in our faith in Christ. 

Praise God that He gave us His Spirit, to help lead us away from sin. He will convict our mind and conscience when we entertain thoughts of sinning. 

He will exalt and show us our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might set our affection upon Him. When we see Jesus Christ clearly, the attractions of this world lose their appeal.

Believers in Christ can and do commit sin. 

1 John 1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 

Personal sin includes doing any of those things that we are told to "put off", because they transgress God's law. All believers still sin and if we say we have no sin, we are lying. 

Personal sin would also include failing to do those things that we are told to "put on" because these are blessings from God for us. 

The apostle John made it clear that believers still have the capacity to sin. We know this is true by our experience since being born again. 

How quickly we may have a wrong thought or wrong feeling, or speak angry when someone rubs us the wrong way, or when something does not turn out in the way that we planned. 

God holds us accountable for individual sins we commit, but He also graciously provides us a way to be cleansed from them (Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:7 to 2:2). 

Either way, the reproaches spoken of by the Psalmist, are those sins that are common to all men and nations. 

The word "reproach" means to be scorned or viewed with contempt. It means to be taunted by an enemy or disgraced in some manner. Sin brings reproach upon the word and works and Person of God.

God will cleanse when we confess and forsake. 

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

God's remedy for our sin is that we confess it, forsake it and God will take care of cleansing us. 

Don't be overcome by guilt and shame when we sin. Rather, take God at His Word, and apply His remedy, and He will take care of us. Ask Him to turn away our reproach and He will do just that. 

Thoughts to Ponder...

The Psalmist raised an important spiritual issue concerning what to do when we have sinned, or when we live in a society that is plagued with sin and perversion.

We probably all know this by now, but we need reminders and this is why we encounter repetition in the scriptures.

When we sin, God requires us to confess that sin, and forsake it to the best of our ability.

When we have confessed and forsaken our sins, God will do His part. He is faithful and just and He will cleanse us through the blood of Jesus, our Advocate. 

What about when a nation sins so flagrantly against God that He brings judgment upon it?

2 Chronicles 7:14  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 

Here is God's remedy. If the people of Jehovah, those of us who are born again, humble ourselves and pray, earnestly seeking His face, and turn from our own wicked ways, God will hear our prayer and He will forgive our sins and heal the land. 

In the New Testament, we are commanded to lift up our hands and pray diligently for those in authority over us.

We know that almost every great civilization has imploded from moral decay, because the nation collectively turned its back on God. 

We know from examples in scripture that when nations are judged by God, even those who did not sin, still were impacted by judgment.

We know from Romans 1 that sometimes a nation sinks into such horrendous sin, that God gives them up to to all their wickedness. 

We reap what we sow and when God gives up a nation, that is severe judgment and the nation will die from moral decay.

We must keep confessing our sins and forsaking them. We must keep praying for our leaders and our nation. We must share the gospel and expose the ugliness of sin to the light of God's truth.

Finally, we must simply trust Jehovah because we know He will always do the right thing, even if we are caught up in judgment for the sins of the nation.

Remember, the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much at the throne of grace. 

Perhaps our Lord will grant a space of time for renewed witnessing and sharing the gospel. 

Perhaps He might send revival into our hearts to help us be spiritually prepared for whatever happens to our nation.

Live for His glory, believer. Everything else will be taken care of by our Father.

Bob