Turn from evil and do good

Good Morning,

Psalm 34:12-14 (NIV)
Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking lies.
Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

At first blush these verses seem pretty simple and tell us something that's sort of obvious, something we ought to know. If we wish to have a good life, a long life, then we need to stay away from speaking evil things and keep from telling lies. Well, as I said, that's pretty obvious, isn't it? I would think that every even modestly good and decent person would know this. I mean, it doesn't take much brain power to realize that speaking evil and telling lies are bad things to do, right?

But, what about the rest of these words? I think that too often we take the simple and easy parts of Scripture and sort of leave it at that. We don't get into the more difficult parts that might be hard for us to understand and then to carry out. Verse 14 tells us that we, believers in the Lord...and all who love God...need to take another step beyond just keeping our mouths from evil things and telling lies. This next step is rather tougher for us to carry out than just watching our mouths and what we say.

"Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it."

The problem here is that way too often the "evil" that is right there in front of us is pretty appealing to us and looks so very good. We are titillated by it and excited by it, in many cases. It doesn't look all that evil and maybe it even looks like it would be fun in some way. The world has a way of presenting evil to us in such a way that we chase after it. Of this, we must be extremely careful. The enemy knows our weaknesses and will put just such evils as he knows we would enjoy right in front of us...at every turn.

I think, though, that the next words help us in our efforts to turn away from the evil we are tempted with, when we read, "...and do good; seek peace and pursue it." It seems pretty clear to me that if we are spending time and efforts doing good in the world, seeking peace at every turn, and pursuing real peace and good in our lives, then we will have not only less time for evil, but much less desire for it as well.

God is telling us here that if we love our lives and desire to see "many good days," (not just many days, but many GOOD days!) then we have a some things that will help us along that path. Keep from evil, speaking of evil, and telling lies. Then, do good and seek peace.

I think that we are more than capable in doing this, don't you?

Love, peace, and blessings,

David