“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:10 – 12)
Would you like to love life and see good days? Sounds like a trick question, doesn’t it? Sounds like someone is trying to sell you something by offering a deal that’s too good to be true. I understand the skepticism, but it’s way simpler than that.
Peter is quoting David here to make the case that right living is always better living. Right living is usually simpler, too. Saying hurtful things; telling lies; doing evil stuff – it all makes life so complicated. It feels simple at first, because it comes so naturally. But the result is confusion and stressful work to keep all of our evil hidden (sometimes from ourselves).
Instead, David and Peter say: Just do good. Just say right out loud: “My goal is to find peace and do good for God. Oops, I messed up. My bad. My new goal is to find peace and do good.” God is for us when we make that our simple goal.
Think: Why do you think that simply trying to do good and find peace would lead to loving life and seeing good days? Why would doing wrong and telling lies lead to hating life and seeing bad days? Can it really be that simple?
Pray: Ask God to give you the simple desire to do right things for him, to tell the truth, and to chase peace – and ask him to help you to love life and see good days because of that.
Do: Read all of Psalm 34 to hear the full context of David’s psalm.