Whitewashed Tombs

We have so many reasons to thank God! In psalm 118 the psalmist
Writes “give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever." This command, this cry of thankfulness does not come from someone whose life has been easy. Later in the Psalm they write: "in my anguish I cried out to the Lord…” Sometimes it’s hard for us to think that God is nothing but good. It is a unique concept, God has no undesirable attributes. Here in psalm 118 it is revealed that the writer knew hardship, knew “anguish,” pain. This cyclical cry of thankfulness is coming from someone who has great reason to be thankful. They were “set free.” The Lord “became [their] salvation.” This psalm is a declaration of what God has done. The psalmist writes “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.”

I hope that my life can look like that. I hope that I am truly living. That word “live” has deep perlocutionary meaning for me. Jesus said that He came “so that we might have life and live it to the full.” I want life, the abundant life shown in psalm 118. I want my life to be a declaration for what God has done for us. Jesus once called some of the religious leaders “whitewashed tombs.” He said in Matthew 23; “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” I have written about God being after our hearts before but I can’t say it enough. Why do we worry about what’s on the outside. Why do we worry about having all the answers and being right? Why do we judge so much but on the inside there is nothing but death? Dallas Willard once posed an appealing question, he asked “what’s more important; to be right or to be Christ like?”

My hope for my life is to be one who is full of life. I want to be a thankful outward person. I don’t want to be bitter, disparaging, angry, perturbed, anxious, disturbed, upset, frustrated, negative, Judgmental, and gnashing my teeth. I have known that “anguish” and I want to be free and I believe that Jesus Christ is the answer for my pain here, at the present, and ad infinitum. “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever.”