Observation: it's interesting to me that the psalm writer says, on the one hand, that she/he has done what is just and right, but on the other hand, prays for understanding to know God's decrees. It's hard to admit when we don't know what we're doing.
Application: I didn't preach on the Old Testament text yesterday, but I think it's a good one. King Solomon, newly crowned, gets an offer of anything he wants from God. Solomon asks first for wisdom. God, impressed by Solomon's answer, gives Solomon what he wants, and with it, wealth and power. It doesn't always go that way.
There's kind of a trade off when you ask for wisdom. On the one hand, throughout the Bible, God promises to grant us wisdom if we ask for it. On the other hand, the wiser you get, the more you realize you have made mistakes in the past. This is not an attractive prospect. Wisdom is a responsibility. Maya Angelou writes, "I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."
We live in a culture that does not always want to know when it is wrong. Wisdom can be a liability. It can make you unpopular. It'll sometimes cause you to "lose" an argument, because you'll have to admit what you don't know, when others would rather bluff. But it's a moral imperative: when you know better, you can do better.
Prayer: God, help me know better. Help me not pretend not to know what I know, nor pretend to know what I don't. Teach me. Amen.
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