Psalm 7:10 My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.
All of us naturally seek affirmation. We seek someone or some group to say, “You are a good person. You are doing good things. You are cool.” We look for affirmation from authority. That is one of the reasons why there seems to be a proliferation of “experts” in almost every endeavor today. Indeed, there is knowledge that is increasing, but there are so many choices and specialists that it sometimes immobilizes us because we want to get the very best in everything, and we feel like there must be an expert for everything.
We look to people of position or power to affirm that what we are doing is the acceptable and right thing. The problem is that what is acceptable and what society in general considers right and acceptable does change.
We seek affirmation from the majority. This would be a social majority, that is, everyone together collectively saying, “This is right. This is wrong. You must do what society says.” Sometimes we talk about the “right side of history.” What is the right side of history? I think all of us want to do the right thing, but history is full of all kinds of atrocities that were considered right at the time. What makes us think we will be on the right side of history when the day in which we are living is history?
We look to social media for affirmation. Many people live in echo chambers where everything they hear is what they want to believe.
Now, the problem with seeking and getting affirmation from an authority or the majority is that both are flawed. Both have their limits. King David wasn’t always king. He once was being hunted by King Saul. In Psalms 7 he makes a plea to God. He says, “O LORD, my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me.” He is saying, “God, deliver me. There are those that are seeking my life!”
He may well have been talking about Saul and his army, but the truth is that he is talking about one man specifically. I don’t know who this man is, but this psalm was written “concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite.” I do know that in I Samuel 24 David gets the drop on Saul and could have killed him, but he does not. Later, he basically says to Saul, “Why do you persecute me and hunt me? Why do you listen to the words of people who are saying that I am hunting your life? My men told me that this was the day God told me about where I could kill you, and I did not do it.”
Who was telling Saul that David was persecuting Saul? Maybe it was this Cush. I don’t know. But, what you find in this psalm is that trusting God delivers us from the slavery of affirmation. This is not an alibi to do whatever you want and not care about anybody else. That is not what the psalm is saying. But the psalm does indicate that David trusted in God and that He delivered him from the slavery that often plagues us, the slavery of having to be accepted by some authority or some majority.
In the first place, trusting God delivers us by helping us to rest in a clean conscience rather than acceptance. In verses 3-5 David says, “O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded evil …let the enemy persecute my soul.” David is not claiming perfection. None of us are perfect, but we are talking about a clean conscience. We are talking about doing what we know to be right, whether it is accepted or not.
Sometimes society lines up with God’s truth and we are accepted by society for doing the right things, but there may come a time when we will not be accepted precisely because we do the right things according to what God has said. God’s truth is timeless, not old or ancient, but timeless. So, trusting God delivers us by helping us to rest in a clean conscience rather than mere acceptance.
It also helps us to recognize God as the Judge over other sources, the authority or majority of our day. In verses 6 and following David says, “O LORD, awake for me to the judgment…the LORD shall judge the people…judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness.” Again, David is not perfect, but he is relying on the justice of God. “For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.” So, God is the judge, not the culture of our day or the majority, but God.
Finally, trusting God delivers us from the slavery of affirmation by helping us to remember the long range over the short term. David says, “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” In what follows, he talks about how the Judge of the earth will take care of what is wrong and take care of those who are right. The result is “I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness.” There is no righteousness or judgment worthy of the name apart from God.
Today, we should care what others think. I’m not suggesting that we are careless of everyone else. I am simply saying that trusting God delivers us from the slavery of affirmation.