When I read Psalm 17 there is a part of me that thinks, "Man, David can be pretty arrogant." In the midst of calling to the Lord, David says that his lips are free of deceit (v. 1). He also asks the Lord to search him (David) and that once He does He will find no fault within him! These are extremely bold claims in my mind. I don't know about the rest of yall, but I often do not feel confident enough before the Lord to say that I am without fault - even in situations where I don't think I am! But David goes to the Lord in just this manner. So is this arrogant? While my sinful mind leads me to think it is, in reality it is not. David is not approaching God on the basis of his own goodness. David is not perfect or sinless. We know David is a sinner from reading other parts of scripture; case and point - Bathsheba. But in this specific event of injustice David can say before a Holy God that he has not sinned and rouse Him to deliver him from his present circumstances. All of David's boldness comes from following after God. He says in verse 5, "My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped." God promises to protect and deliver those who belong to Him and remain steadfast and David wholeheartedly takes God at His word. If God has promised something, guess what? He will do it! The only valid questions are "when?" and "how? "If" is not even in the picture. David is not looking for personal vindication in these instances. When God makes promises His name is at stake. Though He has never been obligated to make any promises to sinful human beings, He does so. And when God does make a promise His name is at stake. If He didn't come through on a promise He wouldn't be God. But David knows that when God says He will do something that's exactly what happens.
Do you know that God is faithful? Do you live like God is faithful? Does your prayer life reflect that God is faithful? David's did. The only way he can approach God as he does is because he knows God is true to His word.
Hebrews 10:23 - "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful."
Sorry this is a little spiratic - more than half of it was deleted b/c my internet went out. Hope everyone is having a great week and see you Sunday, Ray.
3 comments:
I geuss Psalm 17 is just so good that it had to read twice, huh? I didn't think 16 was that good anyway...:-)
Good thoughts, Ray. I recommend that in the future, you compose your thoughts in your word processor and then cut and paste into the blog. That way you won't lose everything if the internet messes up, and you'll have it saved on your computer for future reference.
Glenn
Robert,
Nice.
Glenn
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