Devotions
“Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one that does good, not even one” (Psalm 53:3).
David, the king whose heart sought out the Lord, is regarded among the greatest kings and is cited significantly by the apostles. David was given military success and anything he could ask for, yet is also a king that was humbled when he committed murder and adultery. The shame he had to endure cost the lives of multiple sons as the sins David did in secret were repeated in broad daylight.
We often have a hope that we can have stable and peaceable times, such as David passed on to his son Solomon to enjoy, and forget that even the best, even the wisest of rulers can be led to folly and ruin. Even the best of governments with the most checks and balances can suffer woeful division, such as when Queen Esther had to plead for the lives of the Jews who were going to be killed under a government that held the king to the letter of his decrees.
The hope for a great Christian nation, will always come with struggles attached as sinful people show their ease at being swayed and corrupted. The foe could be enemies from within or even our own sinful nature that so easily gets the better of us. David was not able to keep his family in check, and Solomon was given over to idol worship. So easily the greatest and wisest fall, but it is God not man that ensures that justice is preserved in the days when disaster strikes.
God is used to finding no one there, and have to put on his garments of righteousness to fix what mankind botched up. Authorities, no matter how great and righteous, can easily fall, and not even the greatest set of checks and balances can keep a nation afloat in times when evil is called good and good evil. It is God that brings people out of the darkness of a fallen world, and resets their foundation so they can build aright.
We may not have a David or a great judge to save us in times of danger, but we have a God that continues to rescue us despite our corruption and sin. He who brings our society out of ruin, has also died for our sins to bring us out of a ruined world. throughout history we see the consequences of the deeds of mankind, and how even the most righteous deeds can be easily laid to folly by our sinful conduct. No matter how many barriers against sin we put up, we find how easily these barriers can be brought down, as sin is not just a foe from the outside, but is already in us.
In times when wickedness prevails, we are to pray to God looking for his solution more than the one other people have in mind. Without God, even governments collapse and fall, because there is no one that is righteous- not even one.