The Cost of Being Devious In God's Sight

God gives everyone what they want. Realizing the purity of God's ways is the source of "the fear of the Lord," or recognizing the way you deal with God has solid consequences for good AND bad. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

David wrote Psalm 18 as he was coming out of one of his darkest moments of his own doing.  God rescued David from a web of his own lies and schemes in Ziklag. It was a season of compromise, but David clearly came out of it.  He had been devious and paid the price for it, and pure and was experiencing the reward.  He had been haughty and humble and owned them both.

Psalm 18:24-28 NKJV — Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness,

According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;

With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; With the pure You will show Yourself pure;

And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. For You will save the humble people,

But will bring down haughty looks. For You will light my lamp;

The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

David was saying, "yes, I'm in darkness, and it was my own doing, but I can come out with God!"

God sees the interior of the heart.  You might think you have a plan to get people to see what you want them to... To slide out of trouble, or looking bad, like David tried to do, but the Lord will see to it that your foolishness, rash behavior, or rebellion is fully exposed.  As long as you try to cover, God will let your covering fail.

God rewarded David WHEN he chose to be blameless.  David learned to be blameless by owning what he should have been blamed for.  He ran in to God when he was wrong instead of spinning a new narrative to avoid shame.

David, like all people, was tempted to try to avoid trouble by going to Ziklag. He had good reasons... Saul was literally trying to kill him... But so was God.  God was trying to kill David's self leadership.  That is why he allowed Saul to live while persecuting God's anointed. David found more trouble trying to be devious than he would have just letting God defend him from Saul.

David was wise enough to see that God rewards righteousness and He is shrewd with the devious. God's people are often devious.

de·vi·ous, /ˈdēvēəs, adjective

1. showing a skillful use of underhanded tactics to achieve goals.

"he's as devious as a politician needs to be"

Similar:

Dishonest

duplicitous

two-faced

crafty

cunning

calculating

artful

conniving

scheming

designing

sly

wily

guileful

secret

secretive

clandestine

surreptitious

covert

veiled

shrouded

hidden

back-alley

backstairs

under the table

conspiratorial

shady, murky

Opposite:above board

2. (of a route or journey) longer and less direct than the most straightforward way." they arrived at the town by a devious route"

Fear and shame lead God's people to try avoid being seen by others as "bad."  This is the long way through the wilderness.  David, when he finally came to his senses, cared more that God saw him as above board.  God is the one who saves or condemns to hell... Not people.  Satan tempts God's people into a fear of man that gets them in more trouble with God, not less.

The righteous, or those above board and clean in God's eyes, are often mistakenly seen as bad.  God cares nothing for what people think of what is good or evil.  Jesus was seen by most as bad. Those with the heart of David soberly respond to what God thinks, KNOWING they will be misunderstood by people.

The devious think they are avoiding trouble with people, only to find themselves in hot water with God.  The wise get right with God, no matter what that looks like with people.

This is the heart of David.

You know you are right with God when you are free from the shame of what you have done. When you are fine with it all coming out, because God gets the glory for loving you right out of the place of your rebellion.

The clean love the testimony of God's salvation. The devious like the covering of their own shame... Ignoring the fact that God knows what happened.  He is NEVER lenient with the devious. He is patient, though.  His patience leads the hard hearted into delusion...thinking God is fine with the lies covering the sin. He isn't. It is delusional to think as long as you can keep people from seeing what happened you can work it out with God later.  "Working it out with God" is only found in clean hands and a pure heart now, while there is time.

You know you are right with God when your testimony is like David after a season of compromise... Not ignoring what you've done, but coming out of it!

Psalm 18:18-22 NKJV — They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

But the LORD was my support. He also brought me out into a broad place;

He delivered me because He delighted in me. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;

According to the cleanness of my hands

He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD,

And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me,

And I did not put away His statutes from me.

Do you see? It was God's judgment being before David that led him to the Gate and the Way of deliverance: clean hands and a pure heart. It was in the"day of his calamity." It was calamity David brought on himself trying to avoid the trouble God brought him through Saul's persecution.

The wise know when they are under judgment.  The foolish blame everyone but themselves for the ways things have turned out. The wise see God's sovereignty in their circumstances, not the Devil's.