God’s Love is Steadfast


Psalm 86
A Prayer of David.
1Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
2Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.
3 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.
4Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
6Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace.
7In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me.
8  There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.
9All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.
10For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.
11Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.
12I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.
13For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
14O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them.
15But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
16Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant.
17Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

Much is made (and rightfully so) of holding on tightly to God in times of distress or disaster. And if a careful search of the Scriptures is made, we will find that it is actually God who is doing the holding. When we are distressed it is His strength that holds on to us. With this Psalm, we find David taking a different approach.

We don’t really know the historical impetus for this prayer of King David. As we know, his life was fraught with trouble. So the writing of this prayer could have come at any one of a number of events. What we find in this psalm is a determination to go a step further than just being sheltered in the storms of life. David takes a moment, in the middle of the stress to praise God and acknowledge Him as Lord of All.

This is an interesting decision on David’s part and one that bear emulation. The choice to praise God during the struggle is a good but difficult one. Notice that these words of praise don’t even mention the fact that there are problems. The focus is solely on the Lord and His greatness. There is a request for instruction in the ways of God and finally a remembrance of the fact that God has indeed rescued him in the past. (Also a wonderful discipline to practice.)

Praising God in the struggles demands intentionality and maybe even some advanced planning, if you will. Maybe I decide today, when life is just chugging along fairly easily, that my praises will resound even when I’m troubled. You will notice that David doesn’t even mention the fact that he’s surrounded by fears. Instead, he just praises God and declares His goodness. He takes his sight off himself and his trouble and focuses instead on God; not on what he wants God to do for him – just on God Himself. This takes some incredible restraint. Our attention can be fickle and quickly flits back to our own situation. Perhaps if I’m focused on God every day and spend time in praise of His name every day I too will be prepared to focus on Him during the difficult times as well. Sounds good on paper. Let’s see how it plays out. This is our opportunity to show God’s love back to Him. This is where love becomes and action rather than just a feeling.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The...
Read more

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv...
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl...
Read more