Let them not turn back to folly. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. (Psalm 85:8-9)
According to Jewish tradition when God spoke to Israel at Sinai, the sound of His Voice purged the evil inclination from the people. More than once, Scripture describes His voice as being like the sound of many waters; something that would certainly inspire awe, reverence and an urgency to rid ourselves of anything that would offend Him. So, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to think that when God spoke, no one assembled there possessed a will to sin against Him. The problem, however, was that they petitioned Moses to speak on His behalf so that they would not have to hear the Lord speak directly. According to the Midrash, this is when the evil inclination returned to them.
It is our nature that, when in crisis or as we are being chastened by the Lord, we are quick to purge our hearts of sinful thoughts and deeds. In those times, we possess sincere feelings of remorse and a desire to comply with the will of God; we even pledge to always do as He would have us. Unfortunately as life continues, like the children of Israel, we have the inclination to turn back to our folly, or as other translations render it, foolishness. To make it worse, the psalmist hints that we do this just when victory over this world is at hand. He worded it thus: “His salvation is near.”
This notion provoke a question: how many times have we given up on righteousness just before we saw the victory? In other words, how many times in our life, after hearing the word of the Lord, have we ceased to listen to Him and returned to listening to our own heart? And how many times have we done this, just before the season God had ordained for our breakthrough? The point is, though we are destined to suffer long and be compelled to persevere day after day, we must hold on to this truth — “His salvation is near.” If we cling to this truth, one day the victory will be reality and we shall see His glory in our life and in our land.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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