“My soul, wait thou only upon God.” Psalm 62:5

I’ve been a people pleaser. A smile permanently painted on my face in every public situation for the pleasure of others—even when offended or treated cruelly. People pleasing didn’t make me kind or self-sacrificial—it left me bitter, angry, even thought myself better than others. It wasn’t humility—it was hypocrisy.

What a time we face today. The message our world is falling for goes something like this: be okay with anything and everything and we’ll all get along. Every individual, the god of their own decisions. What an unrealistic, catastrophic lie. The exact same belief system from the Old Testament. “…everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6) And how did that work out for Israel? Abuse, violence, the nation divided, and war broke out.

Cuz here’s the thing: What my husband thinks right and good, is not always what I think works. What my kids think is fun and exciting, I might deem dangerous and fatal. What my neighbor believes is fair, I understand as illegal. What a stranger thinks entertaining, I protest as abusive. You see where I’m going. We can’t all be judge of right and wrong. We have a God, a King, the Spirit of Truth who saves us from ourselves. One who Judges and is the Justifier. Who knows us better than we know ourselves. Who weighs our hearts and finds them exceedingly deceitful above all else.

Salvation is found in no one else. 

The apostle Paul says, “With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.” And Job, “I am blameless, yet I do not know myself.” [Emphasis mine.]

The Psalms speak humility to me. In the midst of indecision, pain, and injustice, there be but One with all the answers. 

“My soul, wait thou only upon God.”