He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
Psalm 7:15-16
Sinful choices have a way of returning to us their own baked-in, ironic consequences. We may think we’re getting away with an innocent, personal thing that hurts nobody, only to realize too late that it hurts ourselves. Addictive sins have a way of turning on us and all the while it is as if we can’t even see it coming. We are like the cartoon character gleefully on the end of the tree limb, sawing away, only to fall to our doom.
These words in Psalm seven portray that kind of tragic comedy. A man wildly digs a pit to trip his neighbor and stumbles in himself. His harebrained scheme of evil rolls backward and bowls him over. And these words were sung in a worship song! Imagine singing this on a Sunday morning: “Lord, evil people fall into the pits they dug for us!” Doesn’t sound very pious. Well… until you realize yourself that it could very well be said of you!
Lord,
I’m aware that my sin will lie to me, deceive me, entrap me, and turn on me. And so I pray: May I be moved by Your Spirit over my sin, repentant at that convicting work, and may I claim the forgiveness of Jesus so that His holiness can enshroud my life, inform my choices, and free me from the consequences of the traps I’ve built in sin.
Amen
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