Psalm 18:25-30 “With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect. With the pure, you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. For you will save the afflicted people, but the arrogant eyes you will bring down. For you will light my lamp, LORD. My God will light up my darkness. For by you, I advance through a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect. The LORD’s word is tried. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.”

Here David seems to indicate that the way we relate to God determines the way he relates to us. Jesus echoes this when He says, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Most of the statements here are positive, except “with the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.” At the beginning of the Psalm David says that he is writing in response to God saving him from his enemies and specifically mentions Saul. Could David have Saul in mind with that statement? Saul was corrupt, and he ended up having a “torturous” (literal translation of shrewd) relationship with God. If we are pure, mature, and merciful, there is nothing we can’t handle, because God promises He will be our light and our fortress!

For additional worship: God Moves In A Mysterious Way – Hymns for the Church