Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Audio Transcript
All right, well, beautiful singing. I do love that song. So I’ve not met you. My name is Aaron and I’m the preacher pastor here. And I’m glad you’re with us, especially those who are here for the wedding.
And so if you get a chance, I’d love to greet you, if not here, at the wedding. So I’d love to just get to know Josh’s family and friends just a little bit more. So if you have a Bible with you, which I hope you do, if you open up the Book of Psalms, if you don’t have a Bible with you, fear not. There are Bibles scattered throughout the pews today. Our texture study is going to be Psalm 144, 4, which in the blue pew, Bibles are on page 302.
So Psalm 144. And so there are 15 verses and I’m going to read all of them and then I’ll pray. Ask for the Lord’s help and blessing on this time. So Psalm 144.
Please hear the words of our God. 10, verse 1. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. He is my steadfast love, my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues people under me, O Lord, what is man that regard him, or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath, his days are like a passing shadow.
Bow your heavens, O Lord, and calm down. Touch the mountains so that they smoke, flash, force lightning and scatter them. Send out your arrows and route them. Stretch out your hand from on high. Rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of my foreigners whose mouth speak lies, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
I’ll sing a new song to you, O God, upon a ten string harp I will play to you who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from a cruel sword. Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners whose mouth speak lies, whose right hand is the right hand of falsehood. May our sons and their youth like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace. May our greeneries be full, providing all kinds of produce. May our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields.
May our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing. May there be no cry of distress in our streets. Blessed are people to whom such blessings fall. Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. Okay, so that’s God’s word for us this morning.
Would you please pray with me?
Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for this time. Here to hear from your word from this psalm. Lord, I pray that you would help me to communicate your word well. Please keep me from error, please keep me from stumbling.
Please help me to just rightly divide the word of truth. And Lord, I pray that this sermon would fall on soft hearts, that you’d use it just to enlarge our hearts for Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. So every story starts out so there I was.
So this week, there I was at my kids school where my wife Tia works, and I was about to give a short little presentation to some new staff on some different ways this a group of pastors were involved in school, how they’re there to try to help students and staff. And so I was waiting in the hallway and their two current staff members are also outside waiting with me. So naturally, what we started to do, what my kids call yapping, we started to yap with each other. We’re at the start of the conversation. Comments were made from the others about my shoes, which if you know me, I love my shoes.
In particular, the shoes I wore on that day were a little more retro in style. So we’re able to identify with those shoes from back when we were kids somehow. Then we started talking about riding on a train where one of the staff members regularly would take train trips back to visit family in western North Dakota, which is actually something I could identify with as I shared about a train trip that my family and I took a few years back out to Arizona. From there, the conversation churned to the movie White Christmas and the famous scene in that movie which took place on a train, remember where the stars in the movie start to sing the famous song Snow and just talk about that movie. We were able to further identify with each other about just our mutual love for that movie and how there was a shared tradition of watching that movie White Christmas on every Christmas.
And even though this conversation that I had in the hallway wasn’t that long, it actually was a fun conversation. And it was fun because there’s just multiple things that came up that we could identify with each other on. And I think we all know this. Our best conversations often involve being able to identify with those on the other end of the conversation, including even times when the things we identify with are like hard or difficult or painful things. There’s just something about identifying with others that is like, like good for our soul.
I say this to this morning with the hope that this passage be one that we can identify with, that we identify with the author of this passage as he penned this psalm, where I do think there’s multiple things even in this short little passage that we will identify with, that I do trust will be good for our souls. Now, before we work through this text, I do want to mention so as Christian people, we believe that God’s word, the Bible, it’s like perfect. It’s his inerrant word, it’s his authoritative word. It’s how God speaks to us. So if you want to hear from God, like read your Bible, that is God speaking to us through his living, active word, which is the word that does not return to him void.
It accomplishes all that he sets out to accomplish. However, within that, we don’t believe that this perfect, inerrant, authoritative word of God, which is like drop down from heaven to us on some type of heavenly scroll or tablet, or that this inerrant, perfect word of God was given to us only through some type of like, dictation where God would speak. And there’s almost like a secretary or maybe like a courtroom stenographer who then just write down all that God has said. Although there are some points in Scripture where that is the case. But for us, even though we believe Scripture is God’s word breathed out by God himself, God speaking how God in his wisdom chose to give us this word was through human authors who wrote Scripture in ways that are like, true to their personality from their vantage point in life, from their experiences, from their ability to communicate through language and through their emotion on given situations.
So as Christians believe that Scripture is written by God and men, where men wrote Scripture over a long period of time as the Spirit of God carried along the pen of the various authors. Let me just read a few passages to you. Kind of captures this. So Acts 1. This scripture had been fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke by the mouth of David.
Luke 1 God spoke by the mouths of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began. John 5 if you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But you don’t believe these things. How would you believe my words? 2nd Peter 2 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man.
But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This dual nature of Scripture inspired by God, written by man, it gives us confidence, confidence in Scripture because we know that it comes from God as His authoritative word. It’s true it’s trustworthy because God never lies. But also because there’s this human element in scripture where we can pick up on things like mentioned personality and emotion, experiences, ups and downs. Because of that, Scripture is also so comforting to us where it helps us to identify with scripture and the various authors of scriptures as mentioned all the ups and downs that they were going through as they wrote God’s Word for us.
So friends, identify with the authors of scriptures. This is something we have to do. It’s actually good for our soul. I mentioned this morning is this reality of the divine in human elements. This is actually something I kept thinking about the last couple weeks.
So in our text last Sunday, in our text today, this is something that was just really on my mind that this is God’s word. God speaking comes with all of his authority, all of his wisdom. But within that these are also David’s words. As David expressing like real emotions that he was working through as he sat down with pen or like a quill as he wrote down these words. And I was considering this human nature of Scripture, I actually did find a lot of comfort and grace here.
It was like it was good for my soul and I hope for your soul as well to to identify with these words that David look wrote down through with us last week. The human element in Psalm 143 was David confessing his sin to the Lord, which is a sin that he recognized like put him into a dark place where he had like no way out on his own. At least for me, I was able to identify with David there. Psalm 143 could just not help but consider the various times in my own life I’ve done something sinful or made just a really poor decision where I put myself into a real jam, seemingly no way out for me last week I found it so helpful to not only identify with David’s self induced predicament he put himself in, there’s also help for me, for me to identify with David and glean from what David did from there and his example as he turned to the Lord for help. So that human element last week was just so helpful.
Now this week also this God Breathes Psalm written by David. As I studied this psalm also felt a lot of identity with this passage and just the human emotion of David in this passage. As so much of this passage, David’s emotions kind of match my own life, my own emotions. Which leads us back to our text today. Let’s work through this psalm.
Let’s do so by both seeing the divine element say it Again, this is God speaking to us. It’s true, it’s authoritative, so we must hear his voice. But also, I do want to pick up throughout this sermon just the human element of this passage that we might further identify with David as he wrote this psalm. If you look through the passage and take. Your eyes just kind of glaze through there.
If you have your Bible open, please do keep it open. If you close it, open it back up, please. As you look through the passage, I think it comes through, like, three major sections I’ll give to you up front here. So just the first section of verses 1 through 4, and so how I label that section of my notes is just like David was, like, gearing himself up for a significant challenge. Then the second section, verses 5 through 11, I just labeled this section of David is like he’s longing for justice to come.
And finally, the third section, verses 12 through 15, I just labeled it. This is like David now sharing his prayer request. As mentioned, as we go through all of these sections, this whole passage, I do hope we can identify how this relates to our own life. Okay, so first section, this is just David. He’s gearing himself up for a significant challenge.
Look at verse one where he wrote this. He said, blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hand for war and my fingers for battle. He, meaning the Lord, the Lord, he is my steadfast love. He is my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer. He’s my shield in whom I take refuge.
He’s the one who subdues people under me. Now, just a couple things already. First, this verse here is actually similar to Psalm 18, which says this. It says, he, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
I just want to point this out because throughout the book of Psalms, there’s just phrases and verses that are. They’re pretty repeatable that sound very similar, which, by the way, verse three in our passage is as well. And these repetitions, I’m sure, are there for many reasons, one of which I think is just to help solidify important truths for us to identify with, which is certainly true here as repeatedly throughout David’s life, he rehearsed important truths about God, his relationship with God. And for us, this is important for us to do as well. Especially when there’s something like big or difficult or challenging in front of us.
We’re to remember Who God is, which the second thing I just want to mention. So verses one and two, this is what, why it feels to me David is like gearing himself up for like some type of challenge, which in the text is some type of real physical war or battle that he was about to engage in as he was trusting that the Lord is the one who trained his hands for war. The Lord is the one who got his fingers ready for this battle. So for me this week, as I think about these first two verses, as I was trying to identify with David, I mean, I could just like see David in his chamber or maybe like an outskirts of a battlefield, like proclaiming these truths to himself. He’s like, he’s like putting on his armor as he’s about ready to head for war.
Like, Lord, you’re my rock. Lord, you’re the one who trained me for this so that my hands and my fingers be ready for this battle that I’m about to engage in. Lord, as I head to war, I’m trusting in your steadfast love that’s there on me, trusting that you’ll be a fortress to protect me. Lord, I’m trusting in the end that you’re my stronghold, you’re my deliverer. You know, just see David, like having all of his armor on.
The last thing he’s about to do before he heads off to the battle is pick up a shield. And as he picked up the shield, he does so by saying in the text, lord, then you’re my shield. You’re the one who protect me. You’re the one who’ll keep me safe that I can find refuge in. And then as he stepped out of the room where he dressed himself in my mind, I again, as I try to identify with him, I just kind of see him like looking out on the military camp and across the battlefield where he get off the distance, he could see the enemy’s camp.
You can just see him repeating this. Lord, you’re the one who win this war. You’re going to be the one who subdues those people on the under me, right? Do you feel that? Just a real human element of this psalm.
You feel it Like David, he’s like gearing himself up by seeking to put his eyes on the Lord as he’s engaged in this real significant challenge before him. Now, for us, most of us will never engage in like a real physical battle where we find ourselves going off to like a real physical war. But I do think we can identify with David here and whatever big challenge is in front of us that’s like, causing us to concern. Maybe there’s like some type of, like, big job interview, or maybe there’s just this really difficult conversation that, you know you need to have. Or maybe you’re off to, like, you know, like a medical appointment that you’re kind of dreading.
Among so many other challenges that we face in life where we like to dress in from the mirror, where we know there’s like anger, anxiety or fear or frustration that’s like, welling up inside us, where we almost like dread leaving our room to face whatever it is we’re about to face. Friends in those moments, Identify with David here in verses 1 and 2. Don’t let your minds run to, like so many unplaces, unhealthy places that he can run to. Brother, let’s profess that even in that challenging situation that’s before you, as real and significant as that challenge may be. But the Lord, he’s still your rock.
And whatever challenging situation that you’re about to engage in, you can trust in him. You can lean on him. You can trust that he has trained you for whatever it is that you need to engage in. And as real and as challenging as the situation may be for those who are in Christ, the text God’s steadfast love is on you. He will protect you.
He is your fortress, he is your stronghold. In the end, he will be your shield, the lifter of your head. He is the one who time and time and time again proves to be your deliverer, your refuge, where in the end all things bow in submission to him. So once again, difficulties, as trials, tribulations, come your way, and they will. Don’t let your mind run to unhealthy places.
Let’s say it again, identify here with David and profess the truth of God’s word. It’s good for your soul. Keep going. As David shares these thoughts, these emotions that he’s going through as he prepared for battle in verse three, if you take your eyes there, which is something that’s repeated I mentioned earlier in the Psalms, Psalm 8 says, this is what is man, that you’re mindful of him, the Son of Man, that you care for him. New Testament also picks up on this.
We’ll talk about more in just a bit. But for now, here in the text, as David’s expressing these real emotions in verses one and two, as he’s gearing himself up for this battle, as he’s trying to set his sights back on the Lord, it’s almost like he does so in Verse three. With like, amazement and assurance that the Lord was interested in what was on David’s heart and mind. That the Lord was mindful of David, mindful of the challenge he was about to engage in. That God was not aloof to this difficult situation that David was in.
He’s not aloof to your difficult situation as well. In this passage, we can identify with this. Oh, Lord, what is man? Who am I that you regard me the son of man, that you think of him, that you think of me, that you regard for what’s going on in my life with this challenge, this difficult situation that I’m facing even in this moment. It’s here in verse three of God being mindful and present with his people.
Friends, this is something we see all throughout God’s true, authoritative word. God is not apathetic. He’s not aloof. He’s not unaware on the things that are before us, the things that are on our hearts. Rather, he’s mindful.
Keep going. Genesis, first section of Psalms. As David geared himself up for battle, has rehearsed these truths to himself, he understood with further amazement that the Lord has regard for his people. Even though man, all of us, even though our life is like a breath, he’s mindful of us. Even though our days will quickly pass like a shadow in comparison to time.
Yeah, our lives are short, perhaps, maybe they feel insignificant where we die and we’re quickly forgotten. But friends identify with this. Here, take heart to the Lord, his people, they always matter. He’s mindful. God will never leave us.
He’ll never forsake us. He will never forget us. Please be encouraged by that. This morning, especially when you feel like your life right now is really small and insignificant, your life, it matters to the Lord. That’s the first section mentioned.
David gearing himself for a challenge, one that I trust we identify with. On the second section, as David geared up for this real challenge, we see him start to appeal to the Lord for justice to come. In many ways, this is David actually appearing for the Lord to be the one in his justice to enter into David’s challenge, this battle that David was about to engage in. So verse five, David crying out to the Lord, bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down, enter into this battle, Take on this challenge for me. And as you enter into this battle, as you take on my challenge, Lord, do so with all your power, all of your justice.
So in the text, you, O Lord, would powerfully touch the mountains, so they smoke, that you, O Lord, in your power, would flash forth lightning that you would scatter lightning over the land which would scatter the enemies. And the text, Lord, in your justice, send out your arrows and route them, route the enemies. You feel David here. Can you further identify with this here as he’s like praying, pleading for the Lord to fight this battle for him?
Verse 7. Take your eyes there, David. Continue to pray in this fashion. Calm down, O Lord, stretch out your hand from on high and rescue me, Deliver me from the many waters, from the hands of the foreigners, the very ones in verse 8 of the text whose mouth speak lies, whose right hand is the right hand of falsehood. Keep saying it.
Can you feel it? Can you identify with David here? He just wants justice to come. It’s like tearing him up inside to see his enemies lie and deceive in order to get their way. He’s longing, he’s begging God to do something here, to make this right, to not let them get away with that, what they seem to be getting away with.
Sure, for us, this is not unique to David as well. For sure our enemies once again are not like physically standing against us in some big physical war with deceit on their lips. That doesn’t mean that we too don’t face different kinds of injustice, where wrong has been done to us, where perhaps we’ve been victims to those who lie and deceive us. Place at work or at school or in your family or just even all kinds of societal injustice that we see take place, where in us, we just long for justice to come, that God would rectify this situation so those who have wronged us do not get away with what they’re doing. And this in the text, right?
This is a great model for us as well, to further identify with David and our desire for justice. We’re in this text, we see in this model, we see this great model of trust. As David cried out to the Lord, he trusted that the Lord would respond to his cries. And we get that sense that David had trusted in the Lord, that the Lord would be just, he would make right that which was wrong just because of how we see in the passage, David’s heart filling up with hope and joy in the Lord. Take your eyes at verse nine as David now declares that I’m going to sing to you a new song, O God.
And the song that I’m going to sing to you is a song that I will do by playing my 10 string harp. I do want to mention some throughout church history, particularly those early in church history, some church fathers that we actually do love and adore. Try to look for some like, added significance to like the, the 10 string harp or some try to connect like the 10 strings to like the 10 commandments, which, which I don’t, don’t think is what the text is communicating. Rather for me, I think the 10 string harp here is just communicating that. David was singing a new song to the Lord with the best instrument that he had at his disposal, his favorite 10 string harp.
The text. As David sang this new song to the Lord, we get a further sense. He’s like bubbling over with anticipation, excitement that the Lord is on his side, that Lord would bring about justice. As he sang in this new song, he trusted. Verse 10.
It is the Lord who in his justice gives victory to kings. It is the Lord who in his justice rescues David, his servant from the cruel sword. It is the Lord who in his justice in verse 11 rescues and delivers his people from the hand of foreigners whose mouths speak lies, from whose right hand is the right hand of falsehood. Now keep saying it. Once again, our enemies are not like David’s enemies.
But we do know there are people in our lives that are, that are cruel, that are not forthright, that are not honest. And because of that, they make our life difficult, challenging. Maybe, just maybe press this point a little bit. Just maybe just think through all different conversations this week you had in your own mind and how many of those conversations is like you felling or feeling that someone wronged you or has been cruel to you or has been deceitful towards you. For you just love for justice to come.
This model, David, it’s a real emotion. This is one that we can identify with, and I hope we do by also following this model of identifying with an attitude of trust and worship where God indeed will make things right. God will be just. He will fight for his people. Now the timing of that justice might not be the timeline that we’ve hoped for, friends.
God’s word, which is true and trustworthy, authoritative, inerrant, it promises that justice indeed will come. So rather than fretting over the lack of perceived justice that we want, or maybe like trying to be like your own little vigilante who’s gonna try to bring justice on her own by our own type of strength and power, identify with David and turn to the Lord in trust. This leads to the third section of this psalm today. Another one that I think we identify with is we see David’s like prayer request. Things that were on his heart and things that like he woke up thinking about, that he went to bed thinking about things that maybe he would share when it came to his turn in small group, you know, prayer requests were given these things he would share.
There’s three major prayer requests I think we see here. I think we identify with all these. So first in verse 11, or, sorry, verse 12, we see David prayed to the Lord that the Lord would pour out his blessings on those, like, closest to him, his family, specifically his kids. That the Lord would bless our sons in their youth, that they would be like plants that are full grown, sturdy, healthy, full of life. That the Lord would bless our daughters.
So they’d be like a corner pillars cut from the structures of a palace, which not only helped the palace stand secure, but the corner pillars are often cut to show beauty. So let’s hear this first prayer request. David simply praying for his kids. Second, after that, then David started to pray that his needs would be met, which also I think are probably familiar to us. Verse 13, you see how David prayed that the granaries would be full, that they provide all kinds of produce.
He prayed that they would have sheep that bring forth thousands, ten thousands and the field. He prayed in verse 14, further needs would be met, that the cattle would be heavy with young and that they would suffer like, no mishap or failure as they gave birth. Even for the great David, even he had like, concerns of like, physical needs would be met, right? It was a point of prayer for him, one that I think we can identify with. And finally, the third prayer burden that David shares here, which closes out the passage.
It was just a prayer for peace, for peace to come to the land that society that he was living in would thrive. Then in verse 14, that there be like no cry of distress in the streets. A prayer of request in verse 15, the blessings of God would fall on all the people because blessed are those whose God is the Lord, which for me actually felt like David’s maybe praying like almost like evangelistic type prayer here at the end, where the blessings of God would fall on more and more in society. So more and more in society by faith would come to him, come to the Lord. For us, I think this is just something that we can identify with, right?
Just these emotions of these prayers, these concerns of these prayers. What’s interesting to me is that these are the same things that we would probably ask in our own small group on our own time of sharing what to pray for. You know, same about this week. Since the time of David, you know, life has changed in many different ways, especially because, like, different technological advances that have taken place, circumstances which he wrote Were obviously different than ours. I just found it so interesting in the day.
David’s prayer request. These are like ones that we ask as well in the wisdom of God. How he’s chosen to give us his perfect, inerrant word is through, like, human authors who have the same ups, same downs, same prayer requests, same types of struggles, same types of struggles as the rest of us, including us 3,000 years after David, as we read God’s perfect, inerrant word, like, we identify with this, which makes God’s word just so true and timeless for all of us. Now, as I close, I just want to give you just a couple or three, four, I think four summary thoughts. Just kind of bring all this together.
So just the first thought. So as you gear up for whatever challenges in your life, including whatever challenge that you might face this coming week, gear up for that challenge by identifying with David and just rehearse truths about God. Because as we rehearse truths about God, what happens? It keeps God as our focus rather than the challenge. And if you’re wondering what are some, maybe some truths this week that you can rehearse, well, the words of David in verses one and two, that’d be a great place to start.
Last week, I just kind of mentioned sometimes it’s just helpful to grab a journal and in that journal just write down different things about God. God’s work in your life just kind of helps us like, to meditate and to ponder upon the things of God. So I want to encourage you to do that as well this week. So journaling, it’s actually a great way just to rehearse truths about God, Especially when there’s something significant in front of you friends doing that, it would be good for your soul. Second, this week, as you’re longing for justice, do so by trusting that God, indeed he will make things right.
He is the one who will fight for his people, and he fights for his people, for us, in such a way that gives us such hope that we can even sing to him a new song. And this week, I am sure there will be something for all of us, either on a personal level or a societal level that’s gonna leave us a little bit frustrated. It’s gonna, like, grind our bones. We’re gonna feel wronged. From our vantage point, looks like those who are doing wrong will get away with whatever they’re giving away with, and we’re gonna have this, like, sense of justice, this welling up inside of us.
So when those time comes our way, and they will sitting in rather than like, fretting over that situation or stewing in anger or trying to like, rectify things and by. Like sin, by. Through sinful anger. Just identify with this psalm and just trust that in the end God will make things right. His word tells us, vengeance is mine, I will repay.
So this week, trust in the Lord as you long for justice, knowing that the Lord always rescues his servants. That’s a good thing for your soul to do. Third, as there are things that are on your heart that are causing you concern, take those things to the Lord in prayer, knowing that not only is the Lord worthy of all of our prayers, but also know that he hears our prayers, including the prayers that we can pray so often, like prayers for our family, for children, prayers for like all different types of provisions, prayers for society, prayers that others in society would come to faith in Christ. So this week, rather than letting your hearts and minds be filled with worry and anxiety concerning these concerns, just identify with David and pray. It’s a famous song so famously sings, have we trials and tribulations?
Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer, friends. It’s good for your soul. And then finally, as I close things up and all these things in the end, identify with Jesus Christ.
So yes, identify with David and the words that he wrote. As God used David to write holy Scripture, including this psalm today, where so many of the words that David wrote in the Psalms, we can just identify with him and his real emotion as he wrote the things that he wrote. It’s good for our souls to identify with the authors of Scripture. But even more than identify with the authors of scripture. As you read scripture, let scripture lead you to identify with Jesus Christ, God’s true eternal Son, the one who scripture is ultimately about, who is the truest Son of man.
New Testament tells us taking the truth from verse three in our text, according to verse eight, Testament says, this says what is man that you’re mindful of him, the Son of Man. You care for him. You made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned the him with glory and honor, putting everything subjected under his feet. Now putting everything subjecting to him.
He’s left nothing outside his control. At present. We don’t see yet everything in subjecting him. But we see him, who for a little while was made a little lower than the angels. Who is that?
Namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because the suffering of death. So by the grace of God, he made taste death for everyone. Friends, Jesus Christ came. He was made a little lower than the Angels. And as he came, he came to identify with us in every way without sin, only to die for us, to take on the punishment of our sin.
But he rose again on the third day. So as we go through our life, we do so by faith, faith that comes by identifying with Christ, the Word who is made flesh to dwell among us. So ultimately, at the end this week, as you gear up for whatever you’re gearing up for, yes, identify with David, identify with the psalm, but more so, identify with the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is the rock of our salvation, the One who is, in his grace, entered into the war for us to fight the battle that we could ever, never fight and never win the battle of our sin, where in his steadfast love he came to die for us, to take on the punishment of our sin, only to rise again where he proves to be our true fortress, our true deliverer, the true shield by which we can take refuge in the One who, in the end, every knee will bow and confess him, the Lord Jesus. Confess him as Lord. This week, likewise, as you long for justice, yes, identify with David, but also more so, identify with Jesus Christ, the one who not only died and rose again, but the one who promises to come again in power to judge the living and the dead, to set up an eternal kingdom by which he will rule with justice.
We’re in this kingdom that is to come. Injustice will never be allowed in. We’re forever and ever in this new kingdom that Christ promises to bring. We will be able to joyfully sing a new song to Him. And this week, as your heart fills up with concerns for your family, for provisions for society, yes, identify with David.
But more so, identify with Jesus. And identify with him in ways that you’re taking your prayers to him, knowing that he hears our prayers where His Word, his perfect, inerrant word, tells us that if we ask anything in his name according to his will, we will have the things we’ve asked for. As he pours out his blessings on all those who call Him Lord, the people that he has such regard for. As friends, it’s always encouraging to have conversations where we can identify with others, where others can identify with us. They’re good for our soul.
They warm our heart in this moment today. May this be true of us as we hear from God in His word through David, that our hearts would be warmed for his glory, for the good of our soul. Let’s pray.
I thank you for this passage. Thank you that in your wisdom you’ve given us your perfect Word through human authors like David, authors that we can identify with. And Lord, I do pray that you’d use your word, the preaching of your word, just to help us to not only identify with David, but more so identify with Christ. And Lord, help us just to trust that your word is true, that it is good.
Help us just to rest in all that you’ve given to us in your word. Pray so in Jesus name, amen.