During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
In their own eyes they flatter themselves
Psalm 36:2
too much to detect or hate their sin.
Devotional
We often hear the term “confirmation bias” as we try to understand how one news story can be seen so differently by people in one party or the other. One party can see blatant wrongdoing in a politician, and the other party just sees refreshing candor or an honest expression of their persona. Each side sees what they want to see, and what they want to see reflects their previous positions and ideas. It becomes almost like a closed loop that each side occupies, with no common ground, no way to communicate, and worst of all, no way to find truth. It’s the world we live in, and it’s hard to bear.
That was the world the Psalmist lived in, too. As Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” People are sinful, and people resist trying to understand each other’s point of view, because it will upset or stretch them in ways they don’t want to be stretched. But most of all, people don’t want God to disturb or break in to their thinking because then they will have to change—then they will have to acknowledge their own sinfulness and selfishness. They will have to know they are wrong, and God is right, and it will be uncomfortable and convicting. If they take their faith seriously, it will mean they must change!
The Psalmist describes a person in this situation as “flattering themselves too much to detect or hate their sin.” I’m sure you and I can think of others we think that describes down to the ground. Jesus described such a person as pointing out the speck in another’s eye while having a plank in their own! We can always feel satisfied that we have spied another person’s sin and selfishness—but can we let God point out OUR sin and selfishness? Do we let the Lord break into our self-flattery enough to help us with our sin?
For Reflection
- We know other people’s blind spots and issues, but do we know our own issues? Or do we flatter ourselves too much to detect that in ourselves?
- Can you find a trusted friend with whom to unpack your own issues and “stuff”?
- Will you let God pull your focus from your own fascination with self, to Him?
Prayer
Dear Lord, can you help me see myself clearly—not the puffed-up persona I lead with daily, but my true self? Can you help pull my focus from my own selfish wants and vanities to You? Will you refresh me with your living water so that I can live as your beloved disciple. Help me see myself, and You, with clear eyes and a clean. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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