We’ve been reading along in Psalms as a church family this year. Dr. George Wood is taking us on a journey and today we dismantled Psalm 41. In the midst of the reading, I realized with a start how much effort David spends on what other people think of him. And I also realized how unproductive that was for him.

Consider it. Quickly glance through the Psalms and count up the ‘enemy’ phrases you see. David is entirely distracted by the opinions of others. I’m not picking on him, for heaven’s sake, I am him. It’s just a whole lot easier to identify the dis-health of it in someone else’s story.

It seems to me that David shares three kinds of thoughts throughout the Psalms; his thoughts about himself or others, his thoughts about God, and God’s thoughts toward him. Two of these are productive. The God thoughts are life preservers; buoyant rings of hope in the storms of life for David and for us. The concerns about the perceptions of others are constantly distracting and disrupting the God thoughts.

True to life, isn’t it? The opinions of others get in the way of the one opinion that’s truly important.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10 NIV)

Over the years I have struggled to memorize this verse because the language is strange. It’s a verbal tug of war; please man, please God, please man, please God. Eventually, Apostle Paul, fellow recovering people pleaser, comes to the correct and concise conclusion that we either please God or others. We cannot please both. Pleasing God is the identifying mark of a disciple. 

We can’t afford to miss this. Living for divine approval alone is essential. The approval of man is an ever-moving target that will continually trip us up and even maim. The fear of the Lord is straight forward, unchanging for 6,000 years. We are to seek Him and obey His Word.

“Praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.” (Psalm 112:1 NIV)

Lord, help us permanently divorce the opinions of others and put all our stock in the perfect opinion of our Heavenly Father. We want to be confident of Your approval and indifferent to the esteem of others. Only You can retrain our thinking. Lord, let us live for You alone. Amen.