5 I cried out to You, O Lord:
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
6 Attend to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I.
7 Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise Your name;
The righteous shall surround me,
For You shall deal bountifully with me.”
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
6 Attend to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I.
7 Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise Your name;
The righteous shall surround me,
For You shall deal bountifully with me.”
In verse 5
the pity party ends. Now there is
praise, worship, and testifying to the glory of God. God hears when we cry out; God is our
security and safety; God is the all that is needed to live.
(v6) "Attend to my cry." Of all the people on the earth, Julie is the
closest person to me and I would not ask her to "attend to my cry". Is it pride that keeps me from wanting
someone to be with me in my lowliness and brokenness of heart? Most likely.
I think we hate to admit that we aren't strong enough to not be
there. David calls upon the most
compassionate, most caring, most loving of all that is to "attend to his cry". Can there be a wiser or more humble
request? As a loving Father, God most
certainly moves right in.
David also
readily admits his limitation, "they are stronger than I". How often do I pray this when I am praying
for protection from my enemies or from evil itself? Am I humble enough to say this? I should be willing to admit my weakness.
(v7) Deliver me so I may praise Your name. This seems to tie back again to Psalm 59. Deliver me, or crush them, so everyone will know
You are my God. I will give all the praise
of deliverance to the one and only living God. Those who are faithful will surround me and we'll
all praise Your name.
The last line
of this Psalms is amazing to me. David proclaims
in faith "You
shall deal bountifully with me." I have a hard time reaching my faith out to this
area. David, who is lower than low, who is
asking for deliverance from stronger enemies so he can praise the name of God, proclaims
that God will deal well with him. He says
it confidently. In our culture today, we'd
say "he owns it". And it's true.
God will deal bountifully with all those
who call upon His name. When do I ever proclaim
such a truth in faith after I've asked God for something? Why not? I have a faith problem I think and am just beginning
to see the depth faith can have.
2 comments:
I feel your pain RE: tiredness and lack of motivation. I've always admired your discipline, however and am not surprised to see a devotion posted 23min afterwards. I know intellectually that I need that kind of discipline, but I'm just unwilling to give up my laziness. unfortunately, laziness is a trait Reja and I share and we aren't good about encouraging each other. That opens the door to other issues such as the one we face right now which is an out-of-balance life focused too heavily on work and the stresses that go with it. Surely our laziness is feeding that stress beast.
Julie and I pray for you guys every day in the morning. Regarding work, I had to resolve that basically everything else in life was more important. Faith and family is what I must focus on as they complete me and provide the most meaning to my life. I had to learn to enjoy those moments so very much more than any success at work. ... There will always be work, but there may not always be family.
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