Category: Daily Devotionals

Psalm 18

I sat next to a man I didn’t know at a church lunch. It quickly became apparent that we had a mutual good friend and they had met some ten years earlier.  He told me how it was this friend who introduced him to Jesus at a time in his life when he had an alcohol problem.  Shortly after our friend asked him if he would tell his story about finding faith in Jesus in a church service and he initially agreed.  However, in the week before the service he visited our friend at his home in tears, saying he could not stand up in church as he was still drinking very heavily.  Our friend did what he usually does, he prayed with him for victory over drink.  He then turned to me and said, from that moment he had not touched a drop of drink and he was able to be honest and stand up in front of the church and tell his story.

Psalm 18 is fascinating, it is a narrative psalm, a celebration song, a messianic psalm, a royal psalm and a historical psalm.  It is recorded in 2 Samuel Chp 22 almost word for word as well as in Psalms.  It records David’s eventual deliverance from the hand of Saul in the most dramatic terms.  The Lord’s protection is described in a stream of metaphors, ‘The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer … my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’ ^v2  This in response to David’s prayer, ‘In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.’ ^v6 

‘He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.’ ^v17  Doesn’t that sound like victory over addiction?  David then experiences the capacity to walk righteously, ‘I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.’ ^v23  The psalm then culminates in praise for God.  ‘The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!  Exalted be God my Saviour!’ ^v46

God’s deliverance of David was the military victory and spiritual victory of his anointed successor to Saul.  In Christ God has delivered victory over sin and the consequences of sin.  In Samuel the victory was recorded for instruction, in Psalms it was recorded for sung praise.  Contemporary stories of God’s victory over sin both encourage us and induce praise in our times of worship.  ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.’ ^Eph2.10

Jesus is mighty to save. 

Psalm 17

When one of my children was small a favourite book was, ‘Guess how much I love you’.  It tells a story where an adult hare comforts its child by whispering to it how much it is loved with the words, ‘I love you to the moon and back.’  We would then play a game telling each other how much we loved them, each time the distance getting bigger.  To be told how much we are loved is a bedrock for our security, not only for a child but for all of us.

Psalm 17 is an individual lament where David feels unjustly accused of wrong.  He is keen to defend himself before God, ‘Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!’ ^v1  He appeals to God on the basis that he has been tested and found to be faithful. ^v4,5  David then beseeches God for protection on the basis of a special love bond between him and his Lord.  ‘Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who do me violence my deadly enemies who surround me.’ ^vv8,9  Here David is harking back to Moses’ song at the end of Deuteronomy ^Deut32.10 where God has found his people in a desert.  Moses describes God’s chosen people in the beautiful phrase as, ‘the Lord’s portion.’  

Jesus is the apple of God the Father’s eye and in him we have become God’s chosen people.  ‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ^{Ephesians 1.4,5}  Our security therefore lies in the intimacy or our relationship with God the Father.  Our portion is the Lord, ‘As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.’ ^{Ps 17.15}

Love divine all loves excelling

Psalm 16 and Acts 2.25-28

In C. S. Lewis’ children’s book and Christian allegory, Aslan explained to Susan and Lucy that the white witch knew the ancient law at one level but did not understand deep magic.  Therefore, when she killed Aslan on the stone table she had no idea the table would crack and he would come to life again.  So it is with much of the bible, where text carries meaning and application directly to people at the time of writing but also applies again later in a different context sometimes on more than one occasion.  Psalm 16 is a case in point.

David is celebrating the delights of living a life close to God.  He acknowledges that without God he, ‘has no good thing.’ ^v2  He rejoices in the company of fellow servants of the Lord in the same way as meeting as a church for Christians is uplifting for our faith. ^v3   He keeps himself apart from idol worshippers ^v4 just as Jesus prayed for the disciples and the modern church to be kept from the evil one because they are in but not of the world. ^{John 17.14-15}  David is fully satisfied with what God has given him ^vv5,6 as he continually learns from God remaining fixed upon him. ^vv7,8 

David’s confidence extends to his eventual death as he asserts that death is not the end and he will continue into eternal life in the presence of the Lord. ^v9-11  David though, would have had no idea that those very verses would be applied by Peter to the resurrection of Jesus.  ‘You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’ ^{Acts 2.27,28}

This bodily resurrection from the dead to experience the joy of the presence of the Lord is then promised to all who trust in Jesus.  ‘So in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits, then, when he comes, those who belong to him.’ ^{1Corinthians15.22,23}

How else can we respond but to say, ‘This is amazing grace.’

Psalm 15 & Matthew 5:17-48

As a child in the 1950’s to help me go to sleep at night I would close my eyes and imagine being Bobby Charlton in the winter and Freddie Trueman in the summer.  How I would have loved to score from long distance like Charlton or bowl the perfect away swinger like Trueman.  Who our heroes are says a lot about who we aspire to be.

The troubled David longs to be close to God, ‘O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?’ ^Ps15.1   David knew the law, he understood God’s righteousness and the personal implications for his life. He frequently interpreted a righteous life in terms of things he should not do: not slander, ^v3 not do evil to a neighbour, ^v3 not take offence from a fellow believer, ^v3,4 not take interest from personal loans, ^v5 not take bribes.  David did also grasp righteousness is positive and involves speaking truth,^v2 respecting those who fear God,^v4 and keeping promises even when it costs.^v4

But Jesus ramped up the expectation in the sermon on the mount, six times repeated the phrase, ‘But I say to you’ ^* when repeating an Old Testament law.  This placed expectation beyond what most would consider humanly possible e.g. ‘Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’ ^Mat5.28

How then can anybody live a righteous life pleasing to God that displays the resurrection life of Christ in our lives?  Two New Testament prayers point the way.  Firstly, through the active word of God in our lives.  Jesus prayed at Gethsemane, ‘Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.’ ^John17.17

Secondly through dependence upon God for the resurrection life of Christ within our lives, as the Hebrews author prayed, ‘Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.’  ^{Heb 13.21,22}

On reflection then, who would we pick as our hero?  Jesus Christ my living hope.

Psalm 14 and Romans 3

Every day at the Covid 19 briefing the government is questioned about tests.  When will we have enough tests?  Who should have tests?  What sort of tests should be available?  Who is responsible?  Who can do tests?  Why is this? It is because we all need to know the reality of our situation and when we do know then we can face the consequences.  The first step in solving a problem is always to understand the problem.

In Psalm 14 God sets out the test for humanity.  ‘The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.’ ^v2  The diagnosis is devastating, ‘They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; here is none who does good, not even one. ^v3   Paul quotes Psalm 14 as he explains God’s law simply shows, ^‘everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard*’ ^{Romans 3.21} At the point when we are told we have a terminal disease we ask the question what can be done?  When we stand before God and realize that we deserve his judgement we ask the same question.  God’s answer is, accept a gift.  The gift is, Jesus has taken the wrath of God that we deserve.  Paul explains it like this, ‘the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.’ ^Rom3.25  Propitiation means, wrath bearing sacrifice.  Jesus on Good Friday took God’s deserved wrath against humanity, to be received by faith alone.

David cried, ‘Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!  When the Lord restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!’ ^v7  God replies, it has, through Jesus’ death on Good Friday.  Now is the time to give thanks.

^{*New Living Translation}