Psalm 62

Ex-trem’ ist, n. One who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm.

We usually don’t think of extremism as a good thing. If you’ve done much paying attention to politics—especially American politics—you’ve probably heard the phrases far-left loons and right-wing nutjobs before. Those terms describe people who are thought of as extremists, as being out on the fringe of political thought.

But let’s be clear: Before we go any further with the point of today’s blog, I must say that, according to this definition, God Himself is an extremist! What could get more extreme than taking on created flesh and being born as a baby? That pretty much describes someone who “resorts to measures beyond the norm.” God has never shied away from taking extreme measures when it comes to our salvation.

Having said that, we see the effects of that in this psalm. We see that God—the original Extremist—makes little extremists out of us. Consider the two spiritual conditions David describes here:

Surely they intend to topple me from my lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse. (vs 4)
Truly [God] is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken. (vs 6)

The first spiritual condition is one of extreme wickedness. These are people who don’t simply lie—they delight in it. It’s not like they’re really struggling with dishonesty in their lives and want God to change their hearts. Nooo. They are liars, and they are proud of it. They love thinking up new ways to con people! Evil makes them happy. That is a view of an extreme sinner.

By contrast, David describes a second spiritual condition—one of extreme righteousness. This does not mean extreme perfection, but extreme trust. (After all, in Romans 4, Paul said that Abraham’s trust is what was credited to him as righteousness.) These are people who are so settled into trusting God that they will never be shaken. It doesn’t matter what gets thrown at them. They will be like Job, who trusted God through everything.

Here’s the interesting thing to me, and it’s an idea that I would love to hear your feedback on: Both groups are produced through encounters with God. When it comes to the spiritual life, ultimately there is no middle ground. We all encounter God and, as a result of how we respond to those encounters, we all enter one of two spiritual camps—extreme wickedness or extreme righteousness.

In order to understand more about how God-encounters could possibly result in extreme wickedness, consider this quote:

“God comes to man in one role only, which is as a Savior. But the effect of that effort is not always a saving one. With the majority, the effect is to harden them in rebellion and to cause them to withdraw themselves from the voice of loving entreaty. Thus God destroys by trying to save. The more He exerts His saving power, the more [wicked] men are driven by their rejection of it to destruction. The gospel truth ruins if it does not save! It is in this sense that He destroys.” —from A God of Destruction or Salvation? (emphasis mine)

This is exactly what it means when it says in Exodus 9 that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It wasn’t as if God was playing some sort of cosmic game where He smacked Pharaoh around with some plagues, only to end up making it impossible for him to surrender. God actually wanted Pharaoh to submit to Him, but the very act of confronting Pharaoh with the spiritual truth about his false gods gave Pharaoh a choice. He could accept the truth (which would have softened his heart) or he could reject the truth (which would harden his heart). But he could not remain neutral. Thus, in bringing the confrontation to Pharaoh, God presented the opportunity for Pharaoh to harden his heart—and that is, unfortunately, what he chose to do.

As we can see from this psalm, God’s confrontations can also work in the opposite direction. The more we respond positively to God, the more we soften our hearts, and the more firmly settled we become in trust. If we continue in this way, we arrive at the place where we can never be shaken. If we take the opposite path, we end up—quite literally—at a dead end.

When we encounter God, we cannot remain neutral. He confronts us with truth, and at those times, we are given the opportunity to choose. And over our lifetimes, God comes to us again and again and again and again. And little by little, choice by choice, encounter by encounter, we carve our way into one of the two spiritual conditions—extreme wickedness or extreme righteousness. Thus, God can’t help but produce little extremists.

Which kind are you?