I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked. – Psalm 26:5

Today's Scripture Reading (August 13, 2025): Psalm 26 & 27

Jesus, as he ministered to those around him in the first century, did several things which served as fruitful accusations for his opponents. One of those things was those with whom he chose to associate. Early in his ministry, we already saw these lines being drawn. Luke tells us this story of Jesus.

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:27-32).

It wasn’t a one-off situation. Jesus seemed to associate with those whom society considered wicked on a regular basis. And the message of the Gospels seems to be that we are to go and do likewise.

If any of this is true, then one of the struggles we might have is what to do with passages like this one in the Psalms. I admit, it is something with which I struggle. I remember an evening church service a few decades ago where the Pastor suggested that the church was designed to be the world’s garbage collectors. The church has been instructed to take the people that this world has chosen to throw away or given up on and offer them forgiveness and a new start. The comment received some pushback from an older, saintly lady listening to the message. She was brave enough to rise and make a statement in response to the Pastor’s comment. “But those are the people that I don’t want around my children and grandchildren.” The words were appropriate and, in many ways, highlight the problem.

David clearly states that he refuses to sit in the assembly of the wicked. But maybe part of our problem is “who exactly are the wicked?” C. S. Lewis makes this comment.

I am inclined to think a Christian would be wise to avoid, where he decently can, any meeting with people who are bullies, or lascivious, cruel, dishonest, spiteful and so forth. Not because we are ‘too good’ for them. In a sense we are not good enough. We are not good enough to cope with all the temptations, nor clever enough to cope with all the problems, which an evening spent in such society produces.” (C.S. Lewis).

Our problem is that sometimes the bully, the cruel, the dishonest, and the spiteful take up residence in the church. It was what Jesus found with the Pharisees of his time, the very ones who criticized with whom it was that Jesus chose to spend his time. The evil one wasn’t the tax collector; it was the religious elite. And we have to be very careful that that is not who we become.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 28 & 29