The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Psalm 143:1,
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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"O Lord, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief."
In this psalm David cries out to the Lord. His crushing enemy pursues him and thrusts him into a deadly "darkness", verse 3. This results in his spirit growing weak in dismay, verse 4. A disheartened and desperate David looks to his Lord with a thirsting heart as a dry parched land looks for refreshing rain, verse 6.
Although many of us show up on Sunday mornings in church all cleaned up, in our best clothes with smiles and our best face forward, the reality is that every one of us lives in a cursed and fallen world with its challenges. And as we struggle with those challenges, we are each dogged with a sin nature that has its own agenda. In short, life can be somewhat perplexing and even discouraging at times – to all of us. Although I am prone to view the enemies that David had from a military or political perspective, I suspect that at times in his psalms the enemy that we read of is his own struggle with the discouragement and despair that the world and his own sin nature brought to his life.
David responds to his discouraging struggle by calling out to the Lord, making his plea for relief. We also read of his meditation, as he remembers the "days of long ago, I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done." Verse 5. It is from this perspective that David acknowledges the "faithfulness and righteousness" of the Lord. It is on the very basis of these that David makes his appeal to the Lord to come to his relief.
Here is what is so wonderful about our Lord. He has always, in faithfulness, proven himself to have our very best in his heart - in his own righteous way! All he has ever done proves just that!
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief."
In this psalm David cries out to the Lord. His crushing enemy pursues him and thrusts him into a deadly "darkness", verse 3. This results in his spirit growing weak in dismay, verse 4. A disheartened and desperate David looks to his Lord with a thirsting heart as a dry parched land looks for refreshing rain, verse 6.
Although many of us show up on Sunday mornings in church all cleaned up, in our best clothes with smiles and our best face forward, the reality is that every one of us lives in a cursed and fallen world with its challenges. And as we struggle with those challenges, we are each dogged with a sin nature that has its own agenda. In short, life can be somewhat perplexing and even discouraging at times – to all of us. Although I am prone to view the enemies that David had from a military or political perspective, I suspect that at times in his psalms the enemy that we read of is his own struggle with the discouragement and despair that the world and his own sin nature brought to his life.
David responds to his discouraging struggle by calling out to the Lord, making his plea for relief. We also read of his meditation, as he remembers the "days of long ago, I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done." Verse 5. It is from this perspective that David acknowledges the "faithfulness and righteousness" of the Lord. It is on the very basis of these that David makes his appeal to the Lord to come to his relief.
Here is what is so wonderful about our Lord. He has always, in faithfulness, proven himself to have our very best in his heart - in his own righteous way! All he has ever done proves just that!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
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