Sin Separates Us from God
Psalm 14:1–7; Psalm 53:1–6; Romans 3:9–20
1Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.+ 2But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.+ 3For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.+ 4No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.+ 5They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.+ 6Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.+ 7Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.+ 8The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace.+ 9Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.+ 10Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.+ 11We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.+ 12For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities:+ 13rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.+ 14So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.+ 15Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.+ 16He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him.+ 17He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.+