The above words are found in the 84th Psalm verse 10. In the verse the righteous man makes a contrast for all future readers of God’s Word to think about. What is the contrast? The righteous man chooses to be a doorkeeper (lowly position) than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. On one hand you have a closeness to God (doorkeeper) and on the other hand a staying away from God (wickedness). In each period of human history this contrast is offered to our minds to help us think more clearly about how we are living our daily lives.
Those in Noah’s day had their minds on evil continually (Gen. 6:5). The Spirit of God through the hand of Moses gives us great information. What does it mean that their minds were on evil continually? The verse explains that their imagination of their thoughts was on evil continually. If one changes their thinking, they will change their attitude. The righteous man is defined as one that does righteousness (I John 2:29). Where are his thoughts? They are on righteousness and therefore he does righteousness. In the same way, those of Noah’s day had their minds on evil and therefore they did evil.
By way of example let us look at Ahaziah the son of Ahab, of the Northern kingdom. The Bible says, “…he did evil in the sight of the Lord” (I Kings 22:52). Let us not overlook an important matter here. He did evil, “in the sight of the Lord”. It is God who determines if something is evil or good, not man. God through Isaiah pronounced woe on those who call evil good. Our recent election cycle has produced an “alphabet soup” describes certain individuals. I might add the letters keep being added. It was to begin with “lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and who knows what they will come up with next. Do we understand what is happening? Man is telling us what is good and evil. Sorry, it is not man’s right but it is Divine authority from God that defines evil and good.
What about those of Lot’s day in Sodom and Gomorrah? God said the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly (Gen. 13:13). Watch the wording once more. They were sinners before the Lord. It is the Lord who judges man to be either a sinner or righteous. What is it that we will be judged by in the last day? Man will be judged by the word that the Lord has spoken (John 12:48). Is it as some think that only the red-letter words in the New Testament constitute what Jesus said? The work of the Holy Spirit was to bring to the mind of the apostles what Jesus had taught (John 14:26). The New Testament then is those words given to us by men who were inspired by God to so write (II Tim. 3:16; II Peter 3:16).
The word effeminate is used in I Cor. 6:9. It means soft, fine clothing but figuratively it means a catamite. That is not a word we use very often. It refers to sodomy especially between a man and a boy. Who then defines such as being unrighteous? God defines it. I want to return to what we were saying in the beginning. It is man thinking on evil that leads to men acting in an evil way.
Here is still another contrast. The book of Psalms opens up with these three words to describe those who are unrighteous. They are ungodly, sinners and the scornful (Psalm.1:1). The righteous man because of his thought that leads to his actions, does not walk, stand or sit with those who are unrighteous. The doorkeeper would have been close to God. It is far better to be there than to live with or agree with the wicked. Brethren, regardless of what the world says, it is time for the message of God to be shouted; “…think of these things” (Phil. 4:8).