The Gospel According to David 2
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Chapter Eighty-Seven Oh, Love of God! Psalm 86 A prayer of David. 1 Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you. 3 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. 4 Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 5 You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. 6 Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. 7 In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me. 8 Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. 9 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name. 10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. 12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave. 14 The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life— men without regard for you. 15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. 16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant. 17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me. There is a cry in the heart of the righteous, a cry to know God and to walk with God. It begins with the understanding that we are a needy people who are dependant upon the Lord our God. The Psalmist realized that he needed the Lord to be merciful to him. His trust was in the Lord, and therefore he lifted up his soul to the Lord. He knew that if God would be merciful to him he would then have the joy of the Lord. Where would any of us be without the care of God? It is comforting to know that God is a good God who is also a forgiving God. We all need the forgiveness of God because we are full of weaknesses as humans. The only hope we have is that God will be gracious to us and strengthen us each day. Life is full of troublous days, but each trouble that comes our way has within it the power to cause us to grow stronger. When we use trouble as a catalyst causing us to reach for God, we are strengthened by his power and the result is that our faith is then made stronger, and our joy is increased. We get stronger as we turn to the Lord because trusting in him becomes the reflex of our life. Human strength is a wonderful thing, but it is like the strength of a glove that must have the hand of the workman in it to do any form of work. Our strength is dependent upon his strength. Where he goes, we must go. What he does is the work we are a part of. We cannot do what he must do, but we are there, a part of what he is doing. We often are the visible part of what God is doing, but without the hand of God moving us, nothing of eternal character is ever going to happen. The best we can ever do is to allow God to be the one who moves us. Like a glove that should not be so small that the hand of the workman is held to tightly, or to loose so the hand of the workman is hindered; we should strive to be a comfortable fit for God to do his work through. The day is coming when it will be clearly manifest who God is. On that day the nations will trust in him. All other gods they have held as gods will be seen to be what they are, nothing. There is only one God, and he is the only one that can save us from the doom that comes to all who trust in anyone or anything in the place of the Lord God Almighty. The Psalmist cried out for God to teach him his ways. To know God is to trust in him. It’s hard for us to trust what we don’t understand; therefore, we need to know God. The best way to come to know a person is to understand their ways. The true personality of an individual is only seen when they are perfectly at ease with us. Likewise, coming to know God requires absolute faith and trust in him so that he can be at ease with us. We are so fearful of what we cannot see or fully comprehend. Well-meaning and intelligent people often fail to learn the simplest truths about God, because, learning about God begins with a willingness to trust in what we can never fully understand. Our hearts are often divided because at one time we trust in what we can see, feel and perceive with our natural senses, and at other more fanciful moments we try turning to the unseen God to see if we can trust in him. The Psalmist realized he needed an undivided heart if he is to please God. With an undivided heart we will fear the Lord, and we will give him all the glory. Praise comes from the lips of those who have learned to trust in the Lord. People go to church and sing songs with lyrics of praise and worship, but if they leave and fail to walk with God, what does their praise mean? The truest form of worship is expressed in the life of a person who truly trusts in God and sees every event as being a part of their life in God. When, in the heat of a moment of temptation, I turn to God, I am worshipping the Lord! When trials and adversities come against me causing me to turn to God, I am worshipping the Lord! Wicked men are all about us, but we can trust the Lord to strengthen us and save us from all their wicked plots. When God blesses us it shames the wicked, but God will only do that when our hearts are truly undivided. When we are mature in the Lord and are totally comfortable with his care, outward evidences of his love is no longer needed, but our enemies need to see the outward evidences of God’s love for us, therefore, God delights in blessing those he can trust. “But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” Did you know that about God? Some people think that God is against them, that all he is interested in doing is getting in their way when they want to have fun. How wrong that concept is! God loves people, and he loves those who turn to him. He is not against us being happy and living an exciting challenging fun filled life while on this earth, but he is against those things in life that rob us of peace, love and joy! Painting God as some kind of stern disciplinarian that is only interested in seeing humans prostrating themselves before him is Satan’s plot against us designed to keep us away from God. This is the concept that all to many people of the world see when they think about God. Those who, on the other hand, have a true love for God in their hearts see God as being a wonderful loving heavenly Father who really loves us and wants the very best for us. Chapter Eighty-eight Born in Zion Psalm 87 Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. A song. 1 He has set his foundation on the holy mountain; 2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are said of you, O city of God: Selah 4 “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me— Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush— and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’” 5 Indeed, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her, and the Most High himself will establish her.” 6 The LORD will write in the register of the peoples: “This one was born in Zion.” Selah 7 As they make music they will sing, “All my fountains are in you.” There is something special about the name Zion. It’s a sort of nickname for Jerusalem. Actually, it is more than that; it is an endearing name that God uses when he is talking to his special people. The first use of the name Zion was in 2 Samuel 5:7 where Jerusalem is referred to as the fortress of Zion, the City of David. The many references to Zion are used indicating a special feeling in the heart of God for his people.