"Tangled Up in Self"

"The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." (Psalms 10:4) As I drove home yesterday from down in Southern California, I had taken some time to meditate upon the verse, and after several hours, I had to stop from thinking about it, because it was really becoming very complex. Anytime that God is doing a new work, He calls certain people to step up and get involved; some will be grateful for that calling, and willing to submit to whatever it is that God has in plan for their life, as well as for the movement. As it is with any new movement, those that get involved should expect to be moved; which means that they should expect for God to change them in one way or another; if nothing else, to get them out of their comfort zone and spark new life into them. The problem is that some people do not like to be taken from a place where they are comfortable, and they don't like to be changed. No doubt, David had experienced this within the actions of his own court, and even through the actions of those who were closest to him. Putting this in the context of what I believe is being said within this verse, some will no doubt not understand what it is that I am talking about; while some, having lived this experience, will be all to familiar with it's meaning. Okay; let's look at this verse from a little different perspective than one might get from just reading it, but rather, from the perspective of someone who has lived it. "The wicked"; although generally applied to those that are living a wicked life, can also apply to those which have an unrighteous cause; which can apply to someone who might otherwise be righteous, but for one reason or another, their current cause is unrighteous. You might be wondering, How can a righteous man have an unrighteous cause? Well; if you want to see an example, we could look at Moses and the moment that he struck the rock twice; for it was out of anger towards God's people that he disobeyed what God told him to do, which was to strike the rock once, and then to speak to the rock after. David clearly says, "through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God"; which speaks about three different actions that are being played out; all three of which we can find ourselves doing, if things are not quite going the way that we think that they should be. The first is that of "pride"; which involves the satisfaction of self, and is that which causes us to not consider others in our actions; in other words, through his pride is man wicked! Secondly, we look at this word "countenance", which is man's emotion, or his anger; which, when combined with his pride makes him a ticking time-bomb, just waiting to explode! The definition of this action is one of hard breathing, much like that of a horse, breathing hard through it's nostrils just prior to being ridden into battle. And then thirdly, we have "will not seek after God"; something which a little hard to define, as well as to apply to, or point out in any given situation; but it speaks about enquiry into what God's will might be within any situation; which basically means, that his pride and anger prevents him from actually taking the time to seek God's will. Therefore, he just presses forward into that which he has already set in motion, with really no regard for what God's will might be in a particular matter. Further more; David adds this little key to the end of that statement, saying, "God is not in all his thoughts"; which basically means that he does not consider what God might want in all of his actions, but only in those which agree with his own state of mind. In other words; he ignores the things that might correct his pride and anger, so as to continue in the plot that he has established; yet knowing full well that he is wrong, his pride refuses to accept correction. One might wonder how this could possibly happen, and how it is that someone who is righteous might hold onto an unrighteous cause; but such is the case with pride, because pride blinds the heart from seeing the truth; causing us to ignore the truth so as to facilitate that which satisfies ourselves; even to the point of doing that which we know to be wrong, we do so because if feels good to do it. Such was the case with Moses; who knew very well what God had instructed him to do; and yet, because of his pride and anger, did what he wanted to do anyways; which cost him from entering into the new work that God was going to do...