The Bible Study Hour

Dr. James Boice: We may become a little uneasy when we read David's Psalms calling down God's judgment on his enemies. Today on The Bible Study Hour, we're studying Psalm 58. David's appeal here is a little different than it has been in previous Psalms we've studied. This time he cries out against the wickedness of Israel's leaders for the sake of the righteous, not just for himself.

Dr. James Boice: Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boyce. Preparing you to think and act biblically. Only God has the right to avenge. He promises that in his own time and in his own way, the wicked will be punished. What should our attitude be and how should we pray concerning those who pervert justice? Turn with us to Psalm 58 as we explore David's prayer.

Dr. James Boice: There was a time in America's political history when a person would read this Psalm and somehow think it was almost unreal, at least so far as describing conditions among the leaders of the United States. We've fallen a long way, but in those earlier days of our political history, there were men and women of character in positions of responsibility, and while I wouldn't deny for a moment that there still are, certainly the political climate has changed.

Dr. James Boice: And it's not just Christians who say that. The secular world also looks on and says we're obviously in a period of widespread decline among the leadership of this nation. The Washington Post, a year or so ago, was talking about common decency and it said common decency can no longer be described as common.

Dr. James Boice: The New Republic magazine was writing along the same lines about the same time and said there's a destructive sense that nothing is true and everything is permitted. Now, on the 4th of April 1991, Chuck Colson gave an address at the Business School at Harvard University. A short time before this, the business school had established a chair on ethics, which was a very interesting thing for the business school to do, that there was a sense among the leadership and the deans that this problem I'm describing, moral decline among the leadership of this country, was a serious matter and therefore should be addressed at the university level.

Dr. James Boice: And so this chair of ethics was established. Chuck Colson had said at the time, and I quote, Harvard's philosophical relativism precludes the teaching of ethics. He was saying it was impossible to do. Well, Harvard is a genuinely liberal institution, and so they got in touch with Colson and they asked him to come and give an address on the subject of ethics.

Dr. James Boice: He was willing to accept, but he did so with great trepidation because not very long before, the Nobel Prize winning neurobiologist Sir John Eccles had been booed when he suggested just mildly that although we can account for brain cells through evolution, the consciousness of the mind is something that has to have come from God. Even to say something like that in that context was worthy of hoots and hollers. So, Colson accepted the invitation, but he says he expected the worst. Actually, he got a very respectful hearing.

Dr. James Boice: Because he began, as anybody would naturally begin with a topic like this, by examples of the kind of moral depravity and decline we're seeing all about us every day. Here's what he spoke of, The Keating Five. The five United States Senators were tried in effect by their own tribunal for complicity in the savings and loan scandal. Senator Dave Durenberger was known by Colson. He was censured by the Senate. Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C., the District of Columbia. He was arrested for drug use. Congressmen who have been turned out of office by the scores.

Dr. James Boice: And perhaps most reprehensible of all at the time, the HUD scandal where people were actually ripping off large sums of money from funds that had been set aside by law for the poor. Now, that of course was April of 91. We have had a year and a half since then, and we could add to the list. We could give many examples today that Colson didn't know of at the time because they hadn't happened yet, but look, he mentioned this.

Dr. James Boice: A recent press release in which the Department of Justice boasted that in 1990, they had prosecuted and convicted 1500 public officials, the highest number in the history of the country, and they were boasting about it. They had gotten all these scoundrels, 1500 of them. Well, it's a sad commentary on the corruption that has become epidemic in American life.

Dr. James Boice: Now, the audience that heard Colson's address at Harvard were more or less apathetic. They were there, they didn't boo, but they hardly knew how to get engaged either. And I suppose that's the way most Americans are. We are apathetic because we tend to say in our day, at least it seems to me, we tend to say, well, it's just human nature, that's the way things are. And of course, there's some truth to that because that is what human nature is like.

Dr. James Boice: That's what we're talking about when we talk about original sin. Human nature is corrupt. It was G.K. Chesterton who said that the doctrine of original sin is the only philosophy that has been empirically verified by 3500 years of world history. So, we acknowledge right off that people are bad, there's evil, and this is an expression of it.

Dr. James Boice: But you see, but that is quite a different thing from being apathetic and simply setting back and allowing it to take its course. You know, whenever we take that stance, we in one way or another endorse it. We say, well, it's all right because after all, it's human nature, it's the way everyone is doing, and also we run into danger ourselves because what happens in a climate like that is that we get drawn into it ourselves.

Dr. James Boice: We find ourselves saying, well, it's just the way it is out there. You have to act that way if you're going to succeed in business or succeed in politics or make it in the academic world or some such thing. Now, this Psalm stands against that. If we're going to take the wording of this Psalm at face value, that is exactly what the kingdom was like in the days of David.

Dr. James Boice: Under Saul, who was the king at this time, there was that kind of corruption, and it was very, very bad. But David didn't say, although he could have, Biblical theology, well, just the way things are, you know, that's original sin, you just have to learn to live with it. No, he doesn't do anything of the sort. Instead, he cries out against it in what is actually a great cry of malediction against the evil of his day.

Dr. James Boice: I sometimes mention J.J. Stewart Perowne as one of the great old commentators. Here's what he says about the Psalm. This Psalm is a bold protest against unrighteous judges. It opens with an indignant expostulation on their deliberate perversion of justice, while they pretend to uphold it. It lays bare their character, and that of those whom they favor as men thoroughly, habitually, by their very nature, corrupt. And finally, because they are thus beyond all hope of correction or amendment, it calls upon God to rob them of their power and to bring all their counsels to naught.

Dr. James Boice: Now, I would suggest that it's entirely appropriate for Christians in our day to pray that way about government. Let me say that Psalm 58 is an imprecatory Psalm. That's the title that's given to Psalms in which the writer asks God to meet out justice on the ungodly, to bring them down. And sometimes these Psalms do it in very violent language.

Dr. James Boice: People today read them and we get a little uneasy when we read these things because, well, we we've been taught by Jesus to turn the other cheek. We've been taught to forgive our enemies. All of that is true. We don't want to minimize that in the slightest. But you see, there's a great deal of difference between me turning my cheek when somebody hits me and my being pass when I see somebody hit you.

Dr. James Boice: And there's also the factor of responsibility in certain elected offices. What would you think of a policeman who sees somebody take a gun and shoot somebody else and does nothing about it because he says, well, that's just the way things are, you know, it's an evil, evil world and besides, I've been taught to forgive. You see, it's a policeman's job to exercise justice, and if he doesn't do it, he's accountable for his failure to maintain order insofar as he is able. And the same thing is true of those in high positions of office.

Dr. James Boice: Now, that's what David is, you see. David later on in his life is a king, and what he's doing here is talking about injustice at these higher levels of the government, and he's asking God to do something about it. In other words, he's putting himself on the side of God with righteousness over against the side of the wickedness that he sees in his day. And then there's this about these imprecatory Psalms. It may be that when we read them, we find ourselves not quite able to express our thoughts in exactly that kind of language, but we should remember that at least we should be caused by them to examine ourselves to make sure that we're not like that.

Dr. James Boice: You see, here's David talking about those who are habitual offenders, people who are impervious to correction. Well, we should make sure that we are not habitual offenders and impervious to correction. And that we should pray that God will give us ears to hear what the Holy Spirit of correction says to us in order that our lives might move in the direction of righteousness.

Dr. James Boice: Now, how do we analyze the Psalm? How do we divide it up? Well, I think the stanzas of the New International Version are a very good way of handling this. There are three of them. Verses 1 through 5 form the first stanza, 6 through 8, the second, and verses 9 through 11, the third. The first stanza actually falls into two parts because in the first two verses, these unjust rulers are addressed directly. And then in verses 3 through 5, they're described, but altogether, that's a description of the wicked.

Dr. James Boice: That's really what the first section is about. The second stanza, which I call verses 6 through 8, is the malediction part. This is where David asks God to bring justice upon them, to thwart them, to bring their plans to naught. And then finally, the last stanza, really the climax, is a wonderful prophecy of what's going to happen.

Dr. James Boice: David is so sure that God rules in the earth that when he prays that justice will be done, he's sure that justice will be. And so he says the day is coming when we're going to see that justice is done. And you get to verse 11, it's a wonderful climax. Then men will say, surely the righteous still are rewarded and surely there is a God who judges in the earth.

Dr. James Boice: Now let's look at this first stanza. This first stanza is a rebuke of these corrupt rulers of his day, and in the first two verses, they're addressed directly. Now, I don't always like to point out when there are difficulties in translation because that's not always helpful. But there is a difficulty here. As a matter of fact, this is a difficult Psalm to translate, and many people think maybe there are errors in the transmission of the text in verse 1 and also perhaps in verse 9 and a few other places.

Dr. James Boice: That may be. The difficulty in verse 1 is this. The word that is translated rulers in that very first line, "Do you rulers indeed speak justly," is actually the Hebrew word elem, which means literally muteness or silence. Now, the translators of the King James Bible read it that way. That's the text they have, and I might add, that's the text we still have. That's what the word is.

Dr. James Boice: And so the King James translators tried to do justice to the idea of silence. It doesn't fit in real well, but they came up with this. They said, "Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones?" Now, that doesn't seem quite right to some of the modern translators. And so they've looked at that rather carefully and they said, well, that word elem in the Hebrew is very close to the word Elohim.

Dr. James Boice: Now, Elohim means gods. It's one of the word that is used for God. It's the plural form of the word El, but sometimes it's applied to human beings, especially to rulers. And then it's usually translated, "You rulers, you mighty ones." And obviously, that's what the New International Version translators did. They said, this must be a corrupt word. It must really be Elohim. It occurs that way elsewhere in the Psalms. And so you get the translation we have in the New International Version, "Do you rulers indeed speak justly?"

Dr. James Boice: Now, I'm not sure that it's possible to resolve that. It is quite possible that there could be a small error in the transmission of the text in this one word. But I am always inclined to go with the text we have, unless there are very good reasons, or perhaps a textual variance, so we have it in another form somewhere else, which is not the case here. And if you take the word as it really stands in the Hebrew text, my Hebrew Bible, I use and look at, has the word elem, and it's translated, or they do it between the lines as you silent ones.

Dr. James Boice: Now, if that's the case, then this is making a very serious point. It's saying that these people who are appointed to deal justly and to speak righteously, actually are silent when they need to speak up. I mentioned Perowne a few minutes ago, the older translator. He has an interesting comment comparing that verse with what's said later, you know, they are like a cobra that's stopped its ears and can't hear.

Dr. James Boice: Perowne said they're dumb when they ought to speak, and afterwards they're deaf when they ought to hear. Now, that's a lot what sin is like. We don't listen when we should, and when we ought to speak up and say something for righteousness, we don't. I suppose at that point, we have to ask ourselves that question. We should say, because this is the way we have to apply it, are we ever in a position of remaining silent when we ought to stand up and speak for the truth?

Dr. James Boice: I'm sure we are. That's one of the problems with our society. We've got a kind of laissez-faire society. Let everybody do their thing. If he wants to do something bad, let him do something bad. But of course, when that happens corporately, then judgments are made in the name of a board or an organization that perhaps the individual himself would never make.

Dr. James Boice: And things can be changed radically if you just have a righteous person there that'll stand up at the right moment and say, "I don't think that's right." I know people who've done that in corporations who even identify their position as a Christian position. They just say something like this. They say, "I hear what's going on there. I've just got to say, I'm a Christian, and from my perspective, I don't think that's the right way to operate. I don't think that's a fair or upright thing to do." And often things are turned around because somebody will have the courage to do exactly that.

Dr. James Boice: You may recall that Jeremiah's life was saved on one occasion by a man who did that. He had some enemies. They came to the king. As a result of that, he was thrown into a cistern. He was about to die there in the cistern. And one righteous man, his name was Ebed-Melech, and he wasn't even a Jew. He was a Cushite. He came to the king and said, "Look, Jeremiah's going to die, and that's not right. He's a prophet. We shouldn't let that happen."

Dr. James Boice: And so the king gave an order, and they hauled him out. And so the life of the prophet Jeremiah was saved. Now, if that word is to be retained in its, in its obvious meaning, that idea of silence, then there is the first important message of the Psalm. Now, in this descriptive section of this first stanza, David levels two damaging accusations against these rulers. First of all, verse 3, they are evil from their birth.

Dr. James Boice: He's thinking of a special class of evildoers here. It's very evident as you read that that's what he's saying. Not talking about occasional wrongdoers. He's certainly not talking about the righteous. He's talking about people who have made a habit of this as it were from the very moment they were born. Now, lest we excuse ourselves at that point and say, well, that doesn't have anything to say to us because, you know, he's not referring to everybody.

Dr. James Boice: And I acknowledge he's not. Let's remember, however, that when we're thinking in Christian terms, we are sinners from our birth. David himself said it in the 51st Psalm, just a few Psalms before that. He said, "Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." He meant that there was never a moment in his life, even going back to the moment of conception, when he was not a sinner. He was always a sinner.

Dr. James Boice: And if that is true, and it is, well, then that is true of us. And we have to say, God, by your grace, keep me from continuing in that way and help me be what you would have me be. The second thing he says about these people in this descriptive section, verses 4 and 5, is that they don't listen to appeals to act differently.

Dr. James Boice: Now, one characteristic of this Psalm is its vivid imagery. And we have one of these vivid images here as David describes these unjust rulers as snakes. Now, that's not an uncommon image with us. We sometimes use it of a particularly devious person. We'll say, "Oh, that snake." Well, that's not exactly the way David uses it, but it is the image. He has two ideas he gets from it.

Dr. James Boice: One is that snakes, when they bite you, inject venom, poison. And we know he's thought this way because in the earlier Psalm, he's been thinking of how words kill. He's saying people like this kill by words. And so that's the first thing he gets from the image. And then he says this, it's an interesting point. He said, they're like cobras that can't hear. They won't even hear the tune of the charmer that would control them by his pipe.

Dr. James Boice: Now, I am told that snakes don't actually hear very much if at all. I don't know that for a fact. I assure you, I have never tried to charm a cobra. Although I've seen it done when I've been in India. But I'm told that it's not the tune that charms the cobra, but it's the motion of the pipe. They actually follow that as the charmer does it. But that doesn't make any difference really to the image.

Dr. James Boice: What David is saying here is that these people really can't be charmed. They are deaf both to the words of man and the words of God. In other words, they don't listen to reason and they don't respond to revelation. So what do you do with a person like that? If you reason with them, if you say, look, that is not the best way to operate. Just think in pragmatic terms.

Dr. James Boice: Evil brings down destruction on its own head. If a government works that way, pretty soon you have a dictator. We don't want that sort of thing. They won't listen to that. And then you try revelation and you say, well, God says in his word that he is the judge of all the earth, and he will, he will bring down justice upon the ungodly. And there is a judgment seat of Jesus Christ to be faced one day. If they won't listen to that, what do you do?

Dr. James Boice: What you do is what David does in the next section when he begins to speak of judgment. You know, God himself recognizes that sometimes people won't hear. He told Ezekiel, son of man, you're living among a rebellious people. Don't you think God would say that to us today? They have eyes to see, but they do not see, and ears to hear, but they do not hear because they are a rebellious people.

Dr. James Boice: Here's what Isaiah said. You have seen many things, but have paid no attention. Your ears are open, but you hear nothing. Now, that's true of all of us in our natural state. And so we pray for the Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear what God has to say to those in the churches. So, that's stanza one. Now, stanza two moves from this description of the wicked in these positions of responsibility, the rulers and the judges of the day, to a prayer that they and their evil might be overthrown by God.

Dr. James Boice: Now, I said a moment ago that this Psalm is filled with vivid images, and you have five of them here in this stanza. Five images for the wicked and what David wants God to do. It's interesting as you look at them that they have a certain amount of movement just in these three verses. They move from images that are powerful to what becomes increasingly weak. Or we would say from what is awe-inspiring to what is merely tragic or sad.

Dr. James Boice: It's very interesting. He's sort of carrying us along with it. We get the feeling of the true nature of evil. When we, when we see it upfront, it appears a terrifying thing. But as you begin to think of it in terms of God and God's control of the universe, it becomes increasingly weak and even tragic. Now, that's the way these things move. Look at them. First of all, the teeth of a lion, verse 6.

Dr. James Boice: Break the teeth in their mouths, O God, tear out, O Lord, the fangs of the lion. Now, a lion is a very fierce animal. It's able to do great damage. David had used that image earlier. In fact, he did it in the preceding Psalm, you'll recall, Psalm 57, verse 4. He described himself as being in the midst of lions, in the midst of ravenous beasts. Now, here he's asking God to defang these animals.

Dr. James Boice: Break their teeth so they're not able to do damage with their teeth. God did this, of course. This is what God did to the armies of Saul. First of all, he protected David from Saul, and finally, he defeated Saul and his armies in that great battle against the Philistine, when Saul and Jonathan were both killed. And it was after that that David with his own army, re-gathered the troops of the nation and eventually came to the throne.

Dr. James Boice: So, he was praying for something that actually happened. The second image here is an image of water that flows away. Now, water also can be very destructive, especially if it comes as a flood. When a great flood comes, you're amazed at the destructive power of water. It can sweep away whole villages. It kills people in its force.

Dr. James Boice: But it is also a fact of water that water flows downhill and therefore it doesn't stick around very long. It can come in great force and do great destructive damage, but eventually it fades away and is gone and soaks into the ground. And David said, that's what I want you to do with evil. They come on like a tidal wave. But I want you to let them flow away. Remove them. So eventually, they're gone.

Dr. James Boice: The third image is that of blunted arrows. Now, arrows are less destructive than the masses of water. They're less destructive and less fearsome than a lion, but nevertheless, they do damage. Arrows can wound and kill. And so David says, these wicked people out there are shooting their arrows. Now, we know what he's thinking of when he says that because in the previous Psalm, he identified it with their words.

Dr. James Boice: Men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. It's that kind of arrow that's being shot. It's the damage of words. You find that all through the Psalms. David, and the other Psalmists are very sensitive to this, how damaging words are. But David said, as he prays to God, blunt the arrows. Take away their point. So when they hit, instead of piercing and wounding and killing, they simply bounce off and are seen to be harmless.

Dr. James Boice: You know, at the time of Absalom's rebellion against his father, David prayed that the wise counsel of Ahithophel might be disregarded and fall on deaf ears. In other words, that it might be blunted. And that's exactly what happened because Absalom listened to the counsel of Hushai instead, ignoring that of Ahithophel, and as a result of that, he eventually lost the war.

Dr. James Boice: Well, you see what David is praying for here in terms of these things actually happened in his life. The fourth of these images is of a melting slug. Now, if you've ever seen a slug sort of crawling along the cement, you don't see too many of them here in Philadelphia. Only ones you do see are actually people, but the kind of slug he has in mind is one of these little creatures that is sliding along the pathway, and it leaves a little slimy trail behind.

Dr. James Boice: It appears to be melting away. It doesn't actually melt away, of course. But David's using that as an image. And he said, you see, its images are getting lower and lower, you know. This is not a fearsome thing anymore. This isn't a lion or a tidal wave or even an arrow. This is a slug that he's talking about. And he said, let them go like that. Just slide along until eventually they're all gone, dried up, dead.

Dr. James Boice: And then I guess that leads him to his final image. It's the image of a child that's born dead. We call it a stillbirth. And his prayer is that the lives of these evil ones might be nipped at the beginning. I think that image corresponds to his earlier statement in verse 3 because what he said of the wicked in verse 3 is that they were evil from their birth, from the very moment of their conception.

Dr. James Boice: And now here he's talking about a stillbirth. And what he's really saying is, if they've been evil from birth, they should be cut off at birth. And so he asked God as it were to nip the evil in the bud. That's the malediction part. Now, the last stanza of this Psalm is a prophecy, or as we might better say, a confident statement that the wicked will be judged by God and the righteous be rewarded.

Dr. James Boice: It's the climax of the Psalm. And it has a moral. The climax is a moral, and the moral is this, even though judgment may tarry long, it will come. And when it does come, the way of the righteous will be seen to have been right. I said earlier that there is a problem in verse 9 with the translation, and this verse 9 is even harder than verse 1.

Dr. James Boice: You can find that out for yourself just through English translations. If you get out various versions of the Old Testament and compare it, you'll find various translations of this verse. And here's the reason. That word that is translated pots in the NIV can mean a pot used for cooking, or it can mean a thorn. God has two entirely different meanings. Some of our English words do too. So that's a puzzle, how do you take it?

Dr. James Boice: And then the word that is rendered green, whether they be green or dry, can mean green as referring to wood that hasn't been dried out yet, or it can mean raw, and in that case it means raw or uncooked meat. And if it means meat, it could have to do with the pot or if the pot should be translated a thorn, maybe it ought to be green. You see the kind of problems that come when you try to translate that.

Dr. James Boice: And then in addition, the words the heat of are not actually there in the text. And in the NIV, you see little brackets around it that indicates that they're not there. And then there are a few other problems as well. In other words, it's just very hard to know what verse 9 is actually saying. And maybe you sense that as you read it. When I read it, it just seems to me that it doesn't quite fit the rest of the wording of the Psalm.

Dr. James Boice: Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns, whether they be green or dry, the wicked will be swept away. Well, maybe that's exactly what it means, but it does seem a bit strange. It does seem like there's a problem. But you see, whether or not there's a problem there, the general idea is clear enough. It's a simple image saying that whatever the plans of the wicked may be, before they actually come to a boil, God is going to sweep down on them and destroy them altogether.

Dr. James Boice: That's what he's saying. Now, you see, I said a moment ago that that leads to the climax. And that is the climax. That's verse 11. Then, when that happens, men are going to say, surely the righteous still are rewarded. Surely there is a God who judges the earth. Now, let me say, if that's the climax, that's something that's worth remembering.

Dr. James Boice: And the reason I say it's worth remembering is that it's very easy for us to forget it, especially in the kind of world in which we live. We live in a kind of world when again and again, the righteous are not rewarded, and those who are wicked do triumph. We're taking the short view, of course. It's what we see now, and we don't see the hereafter. But because all we can see is the now, that's the way we begin to think, and we forget that this is true.

Dr. James Boice: And what we have to do, and we will do it if we remember the word of God, is take the long-range perspective and understand that although things may seem different for a time, in the end, God nevertheless does rule in his world and justice is done. And therefore, if we remember that, we're going to take our stand on the side of the righteous, regardless of the consequences that may come.

Dr. James Boice: Now, I'd like to nail this down in a certain way, and to do that, I want you to look back to the title of the Psalm. Those are the words that are printed before the Psalm itself in slightly smaller letters. And I want you to look at the very last word there. It's the word Mictam. Now, nobody knows exactly what Mictam means. There are a number of words like that in the titles of the Psalms, and that's why they're put there in a transliteration of the Hebrew, rather than in a translation.

Dr. James Boice: If they knew what the translation was to be, they'd do it. But they don't, and so they say Mictam. Now, let me get as close to it as I can. The word Mictam actually has its root in a verb that means to engrave. Now, that doesn't mean like engraving steel plates. It's like writing. You might engrave in stone or put down a message that way.

Dr. James Boice: Apparently, the translators of the Septuagint, that's the Greek version of the Old Testament, done about a hundred or two hundred years before Christ, understood it that way because the word they use to translate it in the Septuagint is stalographia. Now, graphia means to write or writing. We get our word graphics from it, and stelo is a stelo. That's not stelo as in metal. That's like a stone upon which you do writing.

Dr. James Boice: So, this is stalographia, in other words, it's written in stone. Now, one of the old commentators, his name is John Jebb. I don't even have his book, but he's quoted by Charles Spurgeon, says, "You know, that word Mictam appears in the titles of four of these six Psalms written by David during these years when he was hiding from Saul in the cave of Adullam."

Dr. James Boice: And he says, "What is there to keep us from thinking that when the Psalms are introduced as a Mictam, they were actually Psalms that were written by David in the stone walls of the cave, actually engraved in stone around him?" I found that interesting because I was thinking of David earlier when I was doing the earlier Psalms, thinking of him there, hiding from Saul, perhaps alone, these 400 men beginning to trickle in one by one.

Dr. James Boice: And I was imagining him occupying the time writing Psalms, but it did occur to me, where in the world would he get the parchment? You'd think he'd be mostly concerned about food or weapons or something like that. What's he doing? How's he writing these things down? Maybe he's writing them on the walls of the cave. That would be understandable, wouldn't it? It would be why you'd call it a Mictam. Now, I don't know if that's true.

Dr. James Boice: That's an interesting suggestion by this ancient writer Jebb. But I do know this, whether that's what David did or not, these words, especially the conclusion, the summary ought to be engraved on our hearts. It ought to be in our minds and hearts to such a degree that we never find ourselves actually forgetting them. Assure yourself on the basis of God's revelation that the righteous still are rewarded and that there is a God who judges the earth.

Dr. James Boice: And let me say this too, make sure that you stand for him and you stand on the side of righteousness and do what's right. That's what Christians are called to do. That's the meaning of history. People who know their God do right regardless of the consequences. And that's your calling. That's what you are to do if you were to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. I began by talking about Chuck Colson, and I want to go back to that now because there are some things he said at the very end of the address that he gave at the Harvard Business School in 1991 that make this point.

Dr. James Boice: He ended on that note. He was giving his testimony in the latter half of his address. He was saying he had always thought that he was able to do what was right, but when he got into a position of great power, he found that he didn't have the will to do it. And he was suggesting that they wouldn't either, and so what they needed was to find Jesus Christ who alone could give them the character to stand up against the evil of the day.

Dr. James Boice: And here's Colson's testimony. Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there isn't the will to do what is right. On my own, and I can only speak for myself, I do not have that will. That which I want to do, I do not. That which I do, I do not want to do. It's only when I can turn to the one whom we celebrated Easter, the one who was raised from the dead, that I can find the will to do what is right.

Dr. James Boice: It's only when that value and that sense of righteousness pervades a society that there can ever be a moral consensus. I would hope I might leave you as future business leaders, the thought that a society of which we are a part, and for which you should have a great sense of responsibility and stewardship, desperately needs those kinds of values. And if I may say so, each one of us does as well. Which I say, amen.

Dr. James Boice: Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this Psalm that we've studied. And we thank you for this great testimony of Chuck Colson who has found both the evil on the one hand, as it's described by David, and also the need for righteousness on the other, to be emphatically true by his own life and service in government. And we would first of all, begin by looking at ourselves. Give us the character necessary to stand for truth, goodness and righteousness in a corrupt world.

Dr. James Boice: Which we don't always have, we don't have the will to do that. We have to receive it from you. We have to be willing to pay the price of that kind of obedience. And especially when we have positions of responsibility, grant that we may do it. And then over and beyond that, as we pray for our leaders, we ask that you would give us people who have that kind of character. And we pray at the same time that you would bring to naught the plans and machinations of those who do not for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Dr. James Boice: Thank you for listening to this message from The Bible Study Hour, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith, and who proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today's church. To learn more about the Alliance, visit alliance.org.

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