Psalm 62:9: “Surely men of low degree are a vapor, / Men of high degree are a lie; / If they are weighed in the balances, / They are altogether lighter than vapor.”

March 8th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

King David swept all of humanity, from low estate to high, into the same category. To be “weighed in the balances” literally means “the scales go up.” His point was that we are all sinners, from the most common poor person to the one most highly esteemed by humanity, from the best known sports hero, Hollywood star, or political king-pin to the least known uneducated, backwoods hermit: “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Notice that David was not comparing poor men and rich men against each other. He was comparing all men against God Almighty. You cannot compare a group of grade-school dropouts to a group of post grad intelligentsia, and say that one violates the law of God more than the other. The rich man and the poor man, the educated and the uneducated, all run neck and neck for worst sinner. Every person, regardless of social status, is an unreliable object of trust. The idea here is that we cannot depend on people; our hope and trust must be in God alone.

There is a humorous story of a pastor who was frustrated by a man who always seemed to fall asleep during his messages. The pastor devised a trick to embarrass the man in order to get him to break this habit. Near the end of a message concerning hell, the pastor, in a normal voice, said to the congregation, “Any one here today who wants to go to hell,” then he raised his voice to a much louder volume and said, “PLEASE STAND UP!” Of course this woke the sleeping man, who quickly jumped to his feet. After collecting himself, he looked at the pastor and said, “Pastor, I don’t know why I’m standing, but it seems that you and I are in the same boat.” His statement was completely correct because the truth is we’re all in the same boat; we “all have sinned.”

“LORD, we have found this to be true, You are our only reliable refuge and salvation. Use us this day to bring others to You we ask in Jesus’ name.”