“God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.” (Psalm 55:19)

How can those who refuse God avoid this promised affliction? Change, of course! Psalm 55:12-14 gives the reason for this dire warning. The psalmist wrote, “We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company” (v. 14). Sounds like a good friend who went to church, “but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords” (v. 21). This evil person masqueraded as one who follows God in order to hurt God’s people.

This warning to change—that is, to stop warring against God and instead trust Him—comes through clearly in the New Testament also. Because these deceitful people witness some of what He does when they mingle with God’s people, they thus “have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:5-6). What must befall those who put the Lord to shame through disbelief? “But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction” (Psalm 55:23), for they refused to change.

Therefore, “see that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven” (Hebrews 12:25).

Why does God speak in the first place? He wants relationship. The psalmist changed! He said, “As for me, I will call upon God, and the LORD shall save me” (Psalm 55:16). Relationship with the Lord happens when we change toward Him. BDT