Recently, a man visited a local fast food restaurant and asked for a half dozen chicken nuggets. “We don’t have half dozen nuggets,” said the teenager behind the counter; “We only have six, nine, or twelve.” “So I can’t order a half-dozen nuggets, but I can order six?” “That’s right!” So, he ordered six nuggets. Though we smile, isn’t there something sad about this experience? It serves as an example of the shallowness that pervades our generations, an unwillingness to think—to learn. More sadly still, this cultural phenomenon has affected our ability to comprehend truth in the spiritual realm that lies just beyond the surface of what we see with our eyes.
The Psalms reveal that individuals living in the days of old were not plagued with our mental lethargy. It is convicting to notice how David’s meditations did not begin like mine. The initial focus of the Psalm was not on the headlines of the day, nor on the events that kept his life “on the edge,” but on the condition of his own heart before God! He prayed, “Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my reins and my heart. (Psalms 26:1–2)”
The King was asking the Lord to examine his integrity and uprightness. He realized that the things that mattered most were his standing before God in uprightness, and standing for God while in the presence of his fellow man.
Not until the end of the Psalm does David mention the lurking dangers that threatened His kingdom and his very life. Interestingly, even then it was not to complain about his lot in life, or to play on the sympathy of the Almighty, but to acknowledge his dependency and express his confidence in his God.
Perhaps our posterity will be shallow thinkers when it comes to ordering chicken nuggets or making change for a customer, but I pray that God would raise up generations who know Him and delight in His law. Only then will we be certain of a bright future. Think about it—no, learn about it.