Behold the Man? No, Beware!

I came across a Twitter video that demonstrated Steven Furtick’s abuse of God’s Word. When I watched the clip, I wondered how someone so devoid of sound exegesis could build such a following for himself. It occurred to me that people are more attracted to success than truth, and we must be vigilant to not follow in their footsteps. This was driven home in my Bible reading this week as I was looking at Psalm 144 taken from the Septuagint:

Deliver me and save me from the hand of the sons of foreigners,
Whose mouth speaks empty things,
And their right hand is a right hand of wrongdoing,
Whose sons are like new plants
Matured in their youth,
Their daughters beautified,
Adorned like a temple;
Their storehouses are full,
Bursting forth with abundance on all sides;
Their sheep give many births,
Multiplying in their streets;
Their oxen are fat;
There is no gap in their fence or passage,
Nor outcry in their streets.
They call the people blessed, whose lot this is;
But rather, blessed is the people
Whose God is the Lord. (Ps 143:11–15 LXX)

David described the unrighteous as spewing empty words and doing evil though everything about them is prosperous. There is a temptation to honor these people and called them blessed because of their success. David contrasts that temptation by acknowledging that only those whose God is the Lord are blessed, inferring that the empty talkers are not His people: they serve a different god altogether.