SUMMARY: In our culture, we call them two-faced. They say one thing to you then another behind your back. The Bible puts it much more strongly, labelling them hypocrites. And though our culture pretty much excuses their behavior and accepts their ways, there is One who doesn’t! God’s righteous gaze penetrates the syrupy surface of their lives with utter moral clarity and labels the wickedness of their hypocritical hearts, calling them what they truly are: Workers of iniquity.
God Speaks—I Obey // Psalm 28:3
“Do not take me away with the wicked, and with workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors, but evil is in their hearts.”
There’s a category of people whose behavior, by and large, we excuse, but God doesn’t. He doesn’t find them acceptable. He finds the unseen attitude of their hearts deplorable. They are the kind of people who will say one thing to your face but say another thing behind your back. And even worse to God than what they say about you is what they think about you in their hearts. The psalmist says they speak peace when they’re in a face-to-face conversation with you, but even before you turn away from them, their minds are flooded with ill will toward you.
In our culture, we call them two-faced. The Bible calls them hypocrites. And though our culture pretty much excuses their behavior and accepts their ways, there is One who doesn’t! God’s righteous gaze penetrates the syrupy surface of their lives with utter moral clarity and labels the wickedness of their hypocritical hearts, calling them what they truly are: Workers of iniquity.Now I realize that at this point in your reading you might be thinking this is anything but an encouraging little devotional thought for the day. And truthfully, it’s not. Rather, this is an exhortation. And the exhortation I have for you is twofold:
One, it is most likely that you will rub shoulders today with the kind of people David describes in this psalm. Be careful of them. Discern their hypocritical hearts and don’t be tainted by their iniquitous ways. If you allow them into your inner circle, they will ensnare you. So be careful and steer clear of any entanglement with them.
And two, don’t be one of them. It is so easy to fall into this kind of two-faced living. Ask God to keep you from hypocrisy. Don’t fall into the trap of saying one thing about another human being but thinking another in your heart. Ask God for integrity of word and thought, of heart and mind.
The psalmist prayed, “Keep me from two-faced people, and keep me from being one of them.” You and I need to pray that prayer, too!
Dr. Ray Noah
That’s what David prayed: Keep me from them … and keep me from being one of them. I hope you will pray that too!
Choose You This Day: A good prayer to pray in light of this scripture is the one David prayed in Psalm 139: 23-24. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
“Next to hypocrisy in religion, there is nothing worse than hypocrisy in friendship.”
Joseph Hall
Always such a great reminder.