He who is born of the devil continues to plot trouble while on his bed (v.4; Psalm 2:1; Nahum 1) – therefore such man is attracted to chaos and dischord rather than the harmony of the intimate Triune relationship between the Three Persons. Indeed, there is no fear of God in such man’s eyes (v.1) who has aligned himself with the enemy, content to hear words of affirmation to himself (though receiving none from the Body of Christ) as he is not kept accountable by others, such that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated (v.2). Although such man may have once been wise and had once done good, the words of his mouth are now trouble and deceit (v.3), not unlike the Satan who has fallen from glory and seeks the riches associated to God’s throne (Ezekiel 28).
Yet, compare this with the LORD’s steadfast and unfailing love (Gen 24:12-49; Exodus 34:6-7; Numbers 14:18-19; Deuteronomy 7:9-12; 1 Samuel 20; 2 Samuel 15:20; 2 Samuel 22:51) which reaches to the heavens and clouds (v.5), his righteousness extending to the great deep as he saves both man and beast (v.6; for those who struggle with the salvation of beasts! c.f. Jonah 3:8). Indeed, consider the words of 2 Samuel:
Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever. (2 Samuel 22:51)
Such is the love and glory of the Father which is given first to His Anointed, the Offspring of Adam (Gen 3:15) and of David, that we may experience it through the Anointed and Blessed One, through Christ (Psalm 1; John 17).
Compare the children of mankind who take refuge in the shadow of His wings, against the disconnected man who plots, who gossips, who schemes, who slanders (Romans 1:28-32; 2 Corinthians 12:20), who is not feasting on the overflow of His house (v.8) but is rather coveting to hoard all and not share. Such hoarding and coveting is in stark contrast to the river of His delights (v.8), for such man’s work is the work which leads to death (James 1:15), but hiding in Christ we receive the fountain of life – that in Christ, we see the Father (v.9 – “in your light [Christ] do we see light“). Let us, today, check our hearts that we are not seduced by our assumption that we are the ones accomplishing God’s mighty works, that we can sustain ourselves without the fellowship and accountability of the God, that we can seek the riches of His kingdom but neither through Him nor with Him. Such is the sadness of the non-triune life of the fallen Christian, who seethes whenever he hears of people sharing of God’s love which transforms our wicked hearts and exalts all, but delights to point out the faults of the church and of others.
יובל-The Sent One- 