June 22, 2025 Devo

There was a wild story in the news a few years ago. Two friends in the United Kingdom, who had just been released from prison a few days before, bought a winning raffle ticket. It was worth $5,000,000! People who knew them just shook their heads. Though they were only in their early 30’s, these two had nearly 100 convictions between them.
Because they were fresh out of prison, they were broke. But because they were big winners, they were able to borrow a bunch of money from some friends and go on a four-day drunken party spree, guzzling champagne, tossing money around, and living large. That four-day party ended HARD when it was discovered that they purchased the winning ticket with a stolen debit card. That criminal act voided their ticket, and they were refused payment. They threatened to sue to get their “due.” My guess is they WILL get their due. It just won’t be the “due” they want!
That’s the essence of what our Psalmist is getting at here. Sometimes undeserving people get ahead. People cheat on tests, set the curve for the rest of the class, and get away with it. People use inferior products and sell us “junk” that falls apart even after they promise that it won’t. People lie to the boss at work, and the boss believes them. Some of them lie so well they get promoted. All the while we watch and say, “I don’t get it. How can such awful people, with such awful attitudes, who do such awful things, be blessed like that?” But they’re not really being “blessed.” They’re simply beating the world at its own game and getting a worldly reward for it. But their time will come. One day, each of us will stand before a Judge who doesn’t measure things the way the world measures things. He sees through every lie. He knows every dirty deed. And He ultimately gives everyone his “due.”
The Bible never says that the wicked won’t get to party for a while here on earth, because they will. Some will even laugh in the faces of good, honest folk and flaunt their good fortune in front of them. But don’t envy people like that, because what “goes around comes around.” And when it does, it comes around HARD. That’s what the Psalmist realized in the sanctuary of God. A party with God for eternity in Heaven is better than a four-day bender here on earth with the wicked. Because the road of the wicked is ultimately a Dead End, no matter how fancy the car they drive to get there. That’s God’s Word for you today.