(upbeat music)
- Welcome to Drive Time Devotions
and our look today at Psalm 82.
Psalm 82 is a Psalm about those who judge,
those who have responsibility over others,
in family or in work or in ministry.
The New Testament very clearly tells us
that we are not to be judgmental.
Do not judge lest you be judged.
Don't be judgmental.
Don't look down on others
as if we did not face the same struggles.
But it also tells us in the New Testament
that we must sometimes judge.
We must sometimes make decisions
about honoring those who've done right,
about disciplining those who've done wrong.
Every parent understands this.
You can't just let a family run free.
You have to make a judgment sometimes.
So how do you judge without being judgmental?
Now, this is a lifetime pursuit for me.
I don't know that we're gonna figure it out in a day,
but I think we can see some truths
that can help us today and for the rest of our lives.
This Psalm gives us some clues
as God talks about those who are failing
in their judgments.
How do you judge without being judgmental?
Number one, you recognize,
you start by recognizing
that any responsibility of judgment has been given by God.
It was given by God.
Verse one, God presides in the great assembly.
He gives judgment among the gods.
I don't earn or deserve a place of judgment.
It is given by God.
I don't love always the terms
that we use in our court systems.
They're human terms and not godly terms.
So we talk about superior courts and supreme courts,
but the truth is only God is superior.
Only God is supreme.
And only God gives the right to judgment.
Whether it's believer or unbeliever,
the scripture is purely clear about this.
It is God who puts someone in place in a government.
It's God who gives an opportunity for someone to judge.
It is a weighty thing to be put in a place of judgment,
a place to give judgment and make decisions.
It's weighty for a parent.
It's weighty for you as a boss, maybe.
It's weighty in your community.
And there are two ways to go with that weight of judgment.
One is to try to make yourself feel equal
over the responsibility.
I am greater than this responsibility.
I can handle it.
And the second way to go is to humble yourself
under God's mighty hand.
I'm not up to this responsibility.
It's given by God.
And God, the only one who's equal to this responsibility,
I need your help and strength.
You're either gonna see judgment as a right
that you've earned or as a gift you've been given.
That's what I'm saying, this Psalm says to us.
And those who see it as a right that they've earned,
they are judgmental.
Those who see judgments that they must make
as a gift they've been given,
they are better able to judge wisely.
Now, there's one other truth here
behind what we're talking about.
The truth is we all love to pass judgment
and be judgmental over areas that are outside
of the responsibility that God has given to us.
And so we judge other parents
rather than looking at our own parenting.
We judge those outside of the church
rather than looking at ourselves inside of the church.
One of the ways that we escape this judgment
is by having judgmental attitudes towards others.
And that's what Jesus was condemning like nothing else.
So work within the area of responsibility
God has given you and see it as a gift.
There's a second truth about how to judge,
how to make decisions without being judgmental.
Number two, you recognize that we are mere men and women.
We're mere humans.
Verse six says, "I said you were gods,
your sons are the most high, but you'll die like mere men.
You'll fall like every other ruler."
If you ever feel like, who am I to judge?
Exactly, we're just mere people.
And this humility of knowing who I really am
is at the core of all good judgment.
And pride is at the center of all judgmentalism.
The humility of knowing who I really am before God
and who am I to do this.
When you can have that kind of an attitude,
you can judge without being judgmental.
There's a third truth.
Third truth is you show compassion and not partiality.
In verses two to four, how long will you defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?
Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless.
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy,
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
So these verses clearly recognize the truth we all know.
You can use places of judgment
where you have to make decisions.
You can use it to your own advantage,
or you can use it to the advantage
of those over whom you must make decisions.
You can use it to your own advantage.
You might not take bribes,
use it to your advantage that way,
but you might be building your own popularity.
You might be building yourself up even emotionally,
using that place where you make decisions
to your own advantage.
Judgmentalism is not just looking down on others
because of their sins.
That's one form of judgmentalism.
But judgmentalism is also playing favorites
with the rich and the strong
to get yourself closer to places of riches and strength.
And these verses are very clear as the whole Bible is
that judging wisely means defending the cause of the weak
and the fatherless.
Maintaining the rights of the poor and the oppressed.
Rescuing the weak and the needy.
And this is sort of a test for us
about whether I'm judging wisely or being judgmental.
If I'm not able to defend the cause of those
who can't defend themselves,
if it's all about me positioning myself
rather than me using this right of judgment and decision
to minister to and even protect those who are hurting,
then I can see, ah, I'm struggling with judgmentalism.
I'm using this as a place to build myself up
rather than minister to others.
Any place of judgment that God has put you in,
any place of decision that God has put you in,
think of it this way, it is a place of ministry.
It is a place not to magnify yourself,
but to minister to others.
So you show compassion and not partiality.
As we walk through these truths,
there's a fourth truth about those who are able to judge
without being judgmental.
And maybe this is the most important of all.
It certainly has been in my life so many times.
Fourth truth is you keep your mind
on the ultimate judgment of God.
You keep your mind on what's gonna happen at the end.
In verse eight, rise up, O God, judge the earth,
for all the nations are your inheritance.
You recognize that any judgment
that we must give on this earth, it's incomplete.
It's temporary.
Only God's judgment is perfect and eternal.
And that day of judgment, it has not yet come.
And so any judgment that I give, any decision that I make,
it must be with this eye towards God's eternal judgment,
his eternal judgment of each of us
and his eternal judgment of the circumstance
that I'm now judging.
I, by God's grace, have been put in enough places
of needing to make decisions in my family or in my church
to look back on the decisions that I've made
and to realize, I would have done that one differently.
If I'd known what I knew now,
I could have made a better decision there.
I can see how imperfect so many of my judgments
have been over the years.
But the question isn't, was I perfect in that moment?
The question is, was I looking to the perfect God
to make the best decision that I could in that moment?
And if later I recognized I made a bad judgment
and in making that bad judgment,
there was some forgiveness I needed to ask for
or some going back to someone and sharing some understanding,
was I willing to do that?
Did I have the humility to do that?
You're not gonna be perfect in your judgments on this earth,
but you are serving a God who is perfect.
And we are looking together towards eternity.
So you keep a humble and trusting eye on eternity
as you judge.
So what does this mean?
This means parents,
it's not about what your kids think of you today.
It's about who you will be and who they will be
when you stand in the presence of Almighty God.
And when I start to think that way,
it changes what I might do in the moment.
Bosses and teachers,
it's not about how popular you are with the crowd.
It is about who you will be and who they will be
when you stand in the presence of Almighty God.
And when I can have that eye
on the eternal judgment of God, it strengthens me
to be someone who can judge, who can make decisions
with the best wisdom I have in the moment
without being judgmental towards those
over whom God has given me some area of responsibility.
So once again, four truths.
How to judge without being judgmental.
Recognize that any responsibility of judgment
God's given you, of judging, is given by God.
Recognize that we are all mere people, we're mere humans.
Number three, show compassion and not partiality.
And number four, keep your mind
in the ultimate judgment of God.
Let's pray together.
And our Father, as we pray, we thank you
that you are the judge, because you can be trusted.
Your judgment will be pure and holy in the end.
Your judgment will be right, and we lean on that.
While we live in this world,
many of us have been put in places
where we have to make decisions,
and those decisions affect other people.
God, let us make those decisions with humility.
Let us make those decisions with a heart towards you.
Let us make those decisions not as a way
to bolster ourselves, but as a way to minister to others.
That's the kind of people we want to be.
And we need your spirit working within us
to make us those kinds of men, those kinds of women.
And we ask for that, in Jesus' name, we ask for that.
Amen.
Tomorrow, we're gonna look at Psalm 83,
how God takes you through your battles.
(upbeat music)