“With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
with the purified you deal purely,
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.”
This passage stood out to me today as I was going through 2 Samuel for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I just did not remember seeing a Psalm woven into David’s story like this. It is inspiring to see how after all of battles, losses, victories and failures of his life, he is still a musician, and God still reveals himself to David in this way.
I was also struck by the parallelism within these verses, and just the striking way that God deals with people, on their own terms. Showing mercy to the merciful, and appearing pure, to those who are pure.
Similarly, to appear tortuous to the crooked makes perfect sense, especially if you dig into the meaning of the words. The word torture has its Latin root is twisted, or distorted. Crooked is easily understood in our own vernacular and similarly means to be bent, or not straight. It is no surprise that someone, who is twisted up themselves, looks at a perfect God and perceives a twisted painful image. To such a person, God’s perfection would be difficult to comprehend and would also serve as painful reminder their own condition. To glimpse, even for a moment, what God intended for them and while at the same time living a dark reflection of their own brokenness is true torture.
God, thank you for your work in my life, for showing me mercy, for living a blameless life on our behalf. I pray that we would be blameless in your Son, Jesus Christ. Help me to show mercy to others in ways that honor your goodness and holiness.