WHAT THE LORD IS - PART 2

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.

All your works praise You, Lord; Your faithful people extol You. They tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might, so that all people may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations.

The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises and faithful in all He does. The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

Psalm 145:8-16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Yesterday, I wrote the first of three devotions on the qualities of the Lord. We saw through the words of the 145th Psalm and supporting scriptures how the Lord is King over all, how He is great, and how He is good. Today, we look at three more awesome qualities of our Lord, the One who made us, sustains us, and saves us. My prayer is that you are blessed by all that the Lord is and will take the time today and every day to give thanks unto His holy and precious name.

1. The Lord is compassionate.

David proclaims the Lord as being “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” In talking about how the Lord cares for us, I’m not sure it could be said any better than this.

First consider our sinful nature against how the Lord hates sin. He despises it and has no tolerance for it. And yet, He doesn’t wipe us off the face of His creation, despite our transgressions, transgressions that we often recommit after repenting and promising not to do so.

We deserve God’s wrath and anger and yet He gives us His love and mercy through His deep compassion for us, for all He has made. We are His children and despite our failings, He loves us still, just like any parent loves their children, even when they go against their rules and principles.

Indeed, our Lord is rich in love and graciousness, overflowing in mercy. No one forgives like He does. No one loves like He does.

For that we should be eternally grateful.

2. The Lord is glorious.

As I walked outside this morning, there was a light foggy mist in the air. The birds were chirping and singing brightly. The dogwood trees in my front yard were in full bloom with their beautiful white flowers pointed toward the heavens. The grass is thick and green, groomed nicely after a mowing.

I was in the midst of the Lord’s glory, His glorious creation.

I came in the house and checked my Facebook account (Mark Cummings if you’re interested in sending a friend request). There was a picture of my beautiful granddaughter Hadley along with other pictures of babies that have been recently born to friends of mine. As I looked in their faces, I saw fully the glory of the Lord, His glorious creative handiwork on full display.

Maybe there are other examples you could share about how you experience the glory of the Lord. They are everywhere. David testified that all the works of the Lord tell of His glory so that we all might know of His might and splendor.

And to think that all of this is just a foretaste of the ultimate glory we’ll experience one day when those who believe and trust In Jesus Christ will live with Him and the Father forever.

I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for that glorious experience.    

3. The Lord is trustworthy.

Who can we turn to every second of every minute of every hour of every day, knowing that they’ll always be there for us?

No one that I know of, except for the Lord. Only He is trustworthy like this, our go-to Creator and Maker who is ever ready to guide us, empower us, save us, comfort us, and love us whenever the need arises.

David reminds is that the Lord never breaks His promises. He remains true to His word. This means that He will bless as He promised to bless and discipline as He promised to discipline. No one stays perfectly true to assurances like the Lord does. We need to remember this as we deal with life circumstances, especially the ones when we have to wait while the Lord is working things for our good (Romans 8:28).

We’re also reminded of how faithful the Lord is to all He has made. He knows our needs before we even ask Him and sees our circumstances fully. As David states, He “upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down”. No one who places their faith and trust in the Lord Almighty will be forsaken. He will provide for His children to meet their needs “at the proper time.” He opens His hands and satisfies “the desires of every living thing” in accordance with His perfect will.

Friends, we need to see this as good news. For our Lord is trustworthy and faithful to His people. He was in the times of David and He remains so today.

What do we find in the Lord?

Yesterday, it was unmatched and unrivaled authority, power of the greatest magnitude, and a tireless goodness.

Today, we see that He is compassionate, glorious, and trustworthy.

This is our Lord and to Him we owe our deepest praise, thanksgiving, and devotion.

Tomorrow, the final devotion from this series.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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WHAT THE LORD IS - PART 1

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk.com.

In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I will exalt You, my God the King; I will praise Your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise You and extol Your name for ever and ever.

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of Your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty — and I will meditate on Your wonderful works. They tell of the power of Your awesome works — and I will proclaim Your great deeds.

They celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

Psalm 145:1-7

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

What would you say to someone who asks you to tell them about the Lord? How would you describe His qualities?

As we always see with the word of God, our answers are held within the scriptures. We could come up with our own words to use but we might omit something very important. The Bible helps us not make that mistake.

With this, today I will start a series of devotions from the 145th Psalm that center on what the Lord is. I pray they will be a blessing to you and help you speak about Him with others.

1. The Lord is King.

This is where we have to start because the Lord is THE King, capital K. He is the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords (1 Timothy 6:15). No one rules over Him, no one has more authority than Him, and everything is subject to Him (Psalm 47:2). He sets the decrees that the people are to follow in obedience and there are consequences that will be meted out for anyone who chooses to disobey and disrespect the King.

The King reigns supreme over His kingdom and His people. He protects them from harm as He will not stand for anything to harm His beloved. He stands ready to always bring His almighty power to bear against any enemy who may arise.

There is no King like the Lord. He has been, is, and will be King forever (Psalm 10:16, 29:10). Period.

2. The Lord is great.

The scriptures proclaim this truth:

- No one is like You, Lord; You are great, and Your name is mighty in power. Jeremiah 10:6

- Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit. Psalm 147:5

- May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great. Psalm 138:5

- For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Psalm 117:2

- For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth. Psalm 47:2

- Great is the Lord’s anger that is poured out on us because those who have gone before us have not kept the word of the Lord; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book. 2 Chronicles 34:21

- Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands. 1 Chronicles 21:13

- Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? Deuteronomy 3:24

- Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all. 1 Chronicles 29:11

- Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of Your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty — and I will meditate on Your wonderful works. They tell of the power of Your awesome works — and I will proclaim Your great deeds. Psalm 145:3-6

The Lord is great. He is great in power and understanding and wisdom and glory. He is great in love and faithfulness and majesty and splendor. He is great in anger and wrath, especially on those who choose to deny and disrespect His authority, but He is also great in mercy and grace.

No one in our lives is greater. No one can do the mighty deeds and acts that the Lord can do. No one even comes close. This is why we need to exalt and worship and praise Him and Him alone, now and forever.

3. The Lord is good.

Think about every good thing you have as well as every good thing you have had in your life. Now consider that against these two truths from the scriptures:

- Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. James 1:17

- We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

We are so very abundantly blessed by a Lord who wants the best for us, the Lord who is always working things out for our good, even when we don’t recognize it sometimes. This Lord who is working things out for our good grants us every good and perfect gift from above so His purpose and will can be played out in our lives. He is our great Provider and our great Guider, facilitating all we need to live and love and learn through each day He gives us.

What do we find in the Lord?

Unmatched and unrivaled authority, power of the greatest magnitude, and a tireless goodness.

This is our Lord and to Him we owe our deepest praise, thanksgiving, and devotion.

Tomorrow, part 2.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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A BLESSED PEOPLE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Part your heavens, Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy; shoot Your arrows and rout them. Reach down Your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.

 I will sing a new song to You, my God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to You, to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David. From the deadly sword deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.

Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets.

Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.

Psalm 144:5-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

What makes a people blessed?

It’s a question that if answered by worldly standards might yield a variety of responses.

Perhaps the most frequently given answer would center around some form of prosperity or power. Go back to biblical times and the most renowned empires were the ones with the most people and real estate. Whether the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, or the Romans, their main attributes were great wealth and lots of land. Maybe the same can be said today about the world’s proclaimed superpowers.

Maybe people of other nations might define being blessed by living in a beautiful location, one full of lots of sun and lush, colorful foliage. There are many island paradises in the world and having visited many of them in my life, I can tell you that the people who live there feel like they are blessed to have such a gorgeous place to call home.

Still other people might cherish the peace that exists within their country. While war, violence and crime seem to plague a good number of nations, there are some countries who enjoy an incredible solace and tranquility where respect for human life seems to take a front seat to misdemeanors and felonies.

Yes, there are any number of reasons why a people may seem blessed but none of them are true unless they have the one quality that matters the most. For as we look at the remaining verses of the 144th Psalm, we are told clearly by the word of God what constitutes a people who are blessed. Look at these words:

Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.  

There’s no confusion here. No room for misinterpretation.

Unless a people profess, believe, and place their trust in God as their Lord, they will not be blessed. It’s as easy as that.

Go back to all the great empires of biblical times and ask yourself this: How did things work out for them?

Everyone of them worshipped multiple gods and as a result, they were not blessed because all of them failed and fell. This should be a solemn warning for any nation today as well who wants to hold themselves up as being blessed. Like empires past, any power today will fail and fall too unless they are a nation of people who hold God, the God who has no rival, as their God, their King of kings and Lord of lords, their President and Commander in Chief.

The Bible is clear on this: God and God alone is to be the One who reigns over any nation and its people.

A nation’s people that allow this to happen will be a blessed people.

Is your nation blessed?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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KEEPING THINGS IN THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

Lord, what are human beings that You care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.

Psalm 144:1-4

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The words of the following contemporary Christian song by the group Casting Crowns always speaks to my heart in a special way regarding my relationship with the Lord:

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

What I love so much about this song is how it sets things straight as to our relationship with God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and all of us. We are nothing before God. None of us can stand before Him without judgment because of our sinfulness. He can do anything without us because He is God.

We would all be well suited to remember this and keep things in the proper perspective when we consider our comparison to God because I think sometimes we carry ourselves around in life like we can do all things, like we can operate completely independent of the God who made us, like we are gods within ourselves.  

God doesn’t need us because He can do all things without us. This is truth. And yet, He values us and uses us, imperfect as we are, to achieve His purposes. God is in the business of taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things. This fact will ever be one of the most amazing qualities of God for me. For as the scripture asks in the 8th Psalm:

“Who are we that God is mindful of us?”

And then we read the words of David in the 144th Psalm as he asks:

Lord, what are human beings that You care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.

Fleeting shadows. Breaths. Flowers quickly fading. Waves tossed in the ocean. Vapors in the wind.

Not exactly the most flattering terms we would want to be described by. But then again, the focus isn’t to be on us but rather on the eternal One who created us, the eternal One who sustains and watches over us, the eternal One who loves and forgives us despite our shortcomings, the eternal One who calls us to serve Him.

When we understand who and what we are against who and what God is, then and only then can we see things in the right perspective, bring our fullest sense of worship and support to the One who never ceases to give us His all, the One who always hears us when we call, the One who has told us who we are and whose we are.

As the chorus of the Casting Crowns song boldly proclaims, let us proclaim also to the Lord, “I am yours.”

Amen.

Listen to the Casting Crowns song here: Who Am I (I am Yours)

In Christ,

Mark

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LIVING WATER FOR PARCHED SPIRITS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.

I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all Your works and consider what Your hands have done. I spread out my hands to You; I thirst for You like a parched land.

Psalm 143:3-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Difficulties in life have an insidious way of affecting our spirits. They can begin by nibbling away at our sense of peace and patience but soon the nibbling turns into deeper biting into our faith and joy. These then become the precursors for the main course when your life troubles consume you and swallow up your hope, leaving you uncertain about what your future might hold, sort of like Jonah sitting in the belly of the huge fish (Jonah 1:17). His life was surely hanging in the balance, destined to become digested by the fish unless God saved him.

As we read our passage from the 143rd Psalm, we find David in the jaws of hardship and see his spirit being impacted as a result. Look again at his words:

The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.

David’s adversity came in the form of an enemy and he had more than a few during his time as king. It seemed that there were more than a few who wanted to see him dead.

Imagine how this would make you feel. You have to live your life constantly looking over your shoulder and watching your back because you know that there are people who want nothing more than to bring harm to you in some way. And when I say harm, it doesn’t have to be physical harm; it can also be emotional and spiritual. Maybe this is happening to you right now in life.

What impact did this have on David’s spirit?

He shares the following feelings in this passage:

1. “The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground.”

David confesses that he was crushed to the ground by the oppressiveness of his enemy’s threats. They had paralyzed him and taken away his very freedom to live in peace.

2. “He makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead.”

  

Sometimes troubles can grow so large that they tend to engulf us in darkness. While in the midst of them, it can be hard to see the light of hope shining anywhere. This is the place where David was. Maybe you’re there today or can relate being there at some time. I know I can.

3. “So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.”

These words show us that David’s very strength was waning, his spirit tired and heart dismayed from the pressure of facing the trials he was under. Hard times can devour our spirit troubled and leave us in the grips of despair and depression, threatening to swallow up our hope.

Yes, David was in the midst of great suffering. There’s no question about that. But as we see, he wasn’t willing to allow his misfortunes to overcome him. In his time of dilemma, He turned to God:

I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all Your works and consider what Your hands have done. I spread out my hands to You; I thirst for You like a parched land.

While his present circumstances were extremely difficult and arduous, David didn’t lose sight of the fact that his life had not always been that way. He recalled that there had been many good times when God had blessed him, times that included delivering him from times of peril. And rather than wallow in the present, David chose to meditate on the past, recharging his faith and hope by remembering the goodness of the Lord he loved so very much.

What did this do for David?

It reconnected him to his only source of hope. Through his meditation and turning back toward God, he knew that his parched spirit would be quenched by the living waters of the Lord’s comfort and reassurance, his strength restored and renewed by the One who could give him the strength to endure all things.

Friends, this is good news from the Lord for us as we deal with our own versions of adversity in life. Through David’s testimony, we learn how to deal with our own tough situations when they arise. Instead of being gobbled up by hardship, we are to turn to God and meditate on all He has done for us in the past, knowing that the same God who rescued us then is the God who is able and willing to rescue us now.

Today, if you find yourself parched and your very spirit of hope drying up, turn to the Lord, our source of living water, a water that will always repair, restore, and sustain us through anything this life will bring. Tap into his springs of hope and you will experience a hope that springs eternal.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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MAGNIFYING GOD’S GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in Your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before You.

Psalm 143:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

One of the things I’m afraid most believers take for granted is just how very blessed they are each and every day. Life has a way of sucking us into routines that dictate how we spend our time and more often than not those routines draw into a “groundhog day” kind of existence. Each day sort of runs into the next which runs into the next and – well – you get it.

Can you relate to this? I know I can.

The real problem with allowing this to happen is that we lose the zest for daily living and the special privilege it is. We lose sight of the fact that each day is a rich blessing granted to us by the God who made us, a blessing that lavishes us with grace and mercy and love from our heavenly Father.

Perhaps the reason this happens is that we forget just how much we’re on the brink of judgment on any one day. We too readily awake into each day without giving thanks for it, as if we fully warrant the privilege to live and expect that privilege will be given to us. We forget how sinful we are at our core and how that sin automatically places us at odds with a perfectly righteous God who made us and reigns over us, a God who does not take our sin lightly, a God who does and will discipline us in order to try and get us living righteously and in accordance with His will and expectations.

As we look into the first two verses of the 143rd Psalm, we see David fully understanding his fallen sinful state as he approached God in prayer. Look at his words again:  

Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in Your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before You.

Do we pray like this? And if we have, how often do we pray like this? I would submit to you that it should be a component of our daily prayer life with the following elements being standard:

1. We need to cry out for God’s mercy.

“Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy.”

Do we do this or do we just take God’s mercy for granted, like it is automatically given to us and so we need not ask for it?

I think it’s obvious that we should be acknowledging and giving thanks in prayer for the amazing grace, mercy, and love we receive from God. Our greatest sense of praise should be given toward these rich gifts that God freely and willingly gives us. Let’s commit today to never forget to do again.

2. We need to recognize how faithful God is to us, especially how He is there for us to help in times of need.

“In Your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.”

No one can bring us relief from life’s difficulties like God can. We all should know this. And yet, we so often go to other worldly sources for aid, completely discounting the One who can do all things, the One who told us that nothing is impossible for Him to do. Your family and friends might help you but they will never be as devoted, faithful, and committed as God is. Let us commit today to never forget that.

3. We are all subject to God’s judgment.

“Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before You.”

Let me clarify something here. Those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ will ultimately not perish but rather have eternal life. Don’t read my words here to mean that we will lose our salvation. Rather, I’m saying that we can still face God’s judgment and correction before death because as David states so well, “no one is righteous” before God. We all deserve His wrath for the sinners we are.

This is why David’s words should be our words. David feared the judgment of God and rightfully so. He took God seriously and prayed that he wouldn’t be brought into judgment.

How often do we do this?

Friends, I submit to you today that if we take God’s judgment seriously as David did, knowing that we are all deserving and prone to His punishment, we would have an even stronger, magnified appreciation for the grace, mercy, and love He has given us, is giving us, and is yet to give us. Every day we don’t face His discipline is a day to be grateful. And the knowledge that sinning can bring us judgment should drive us even more toward living lives so righteous that we are above reproach.

I don’t know about you but I’m so thankful that David wrote these words for us and I pray that we will follow his lead as we frame our prayers from this day forth unto the God who ever displays the purest sense of grace, mercy, and love.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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OUR EVER PRESENT COMFORT WHEN WE NEED IT

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before Him my complaint; before Him I tell my trouble.

When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.

I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”

Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise Your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of Your goodness to me.

Psalm 142

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been in a place where you felt troubled to the point of despair bordering on hopelessness? If so, you probably found yourself unsure of how you were going to get out of your circumstances and unsure about what the future held for you. You may have even found yourself crying out to God for help and relief from your difficulties.

I know this place well as I have been there on more than one occasion in my life. Maybe you can relate too. If so, then our scripture has a valuable lesson for us both.

As we read the 142nd Psalm, we find that David is definitely in that place. You’ll recall that David was the youngest of the eight sons fathered by Jesse. After rejecting Saul as king, God sent Samuel to find Saul’s replacement. This search took him to Jesse of Bethlehem who paraded seven sons before Samuel but none of them was the one God had selected. It was then that Samuel asked Jesse if he had any other sons and Jesse revealed that his youngest was in the fields shepherding the sheep. Samuel had Jesse bring David to him and upon seeing him, he knew David was the one God had chosen to be the next king of Israel. He had Samuel anoint David in the company of his family.

David would end up in Saul’s court first as an armor bearer and later as a commander over his armies following David’s bold display of courage as he defeated the Philistine giant, Goliath. As commander, David had exceptional success, so much so that Saul became concerned that David might become more popular in the kingdom than he was.

And so Saul attempted to assassinate David several times, but each time he was unsuccessful. Finally, warned by Saul’s son Jonathan about his father’s latest plot, David fled into the wilderness with a band of supporters and found himself hiding from Saul and his murderous ambitions in the cave of Adullam. It was in this place, on the run from a king who wished him dead, that David wrote these words from today’s psalm:

I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before Him my complaint; before Him I tell my trouble.

When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.

I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”

Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise Your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of Your goodness to me.

There’s little doubt that David is in distress here. Think about how you would feel if the powerful king of Israel was hunting you down like an animal. You would be crying out to the Lord too for His help, pouring out your laments and seeking His help. He had no one else he could turn to as no one cared for his life as the Lord did. And so David hid in a cave as he had no other refuge and turned to the only One he knew could save him.

Friends, we can find ourselves like David, forced to flee into our personal caves of life away from matters that endanger us physically or emotionally. In those places of difficulty and uncertainty, we can find ourselves without anyone else to turn to, without anyone who is willing to help us in times of trouble, without anyone who truly understands what we’re going through. And so like David, we cry out to God for help and rescue.

Whether looking in biblical times or current days, we need to give thanks that we serve a God who cares for us and is always just a prayer away, a God who has promised to always be with us, never leaving or forsaking us. David obviously knew this as he said these things about the God that he served and trusted:

1. “When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who watch over my way.”

David knew where his source of hope and strength was. No matter how difficult things got in life, he knew he could make it, not by his own power but rather by way of the power of God living and abiding within him. The apostle Paul, writing several of his letters from prison, felt the same way particularly evident when he said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” as he wrote to the Philippian church (Philippians 4:13). It was through this trust in the power of the Lord to take him through anything that led Paul to also testify that he knew the way to be content in whatever his circumstances. Good or bad, Christ was always ready to give him the strength he needed. He’ll do the same for us.

2. “I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”

We all need protection in a world that has evil elements operating within it. David took great comfort in knowing he had a refuge in God, an ever present help in times of trouble. The Lord was all he needed to get by day by day. It was true for David then and it’s true for us today. We only need to believe and trust in the safety, security, and shelter we find in the Lord.

3. “Rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.”

David had taken a band of followers with him but they were no match for King Saul and his soldiers. Yet, David wasn’t waving the white flag of surrender. Instead, he called on the Almighty, Omnipotent God, the One who could rescue him from anyone, no matter their power. No one is a match for God’s authority and clout. He is for us so who can stand against us? David knew that the answer was nobody, not even a king.

4. “Set me free from my prison, that I may praise Your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of Your goodness to me.”

David not only saw the Lord’s rescuing him as a chance to escape Saul’s murderous plans but also as a renewed chance to worship and praise the Lord God Almighty, the Maker and Keeper of us all. God has done so much for us already, more than enough to fuel our praise and worship for the rest of our lives but we should always be acknowledging and giving thanks for each and every new thing He does for us and for others. For God and God alone is worthy of all our honor and glory and praise, now and forever.

Brothers and sisters, is this psalm not good news for us? Can we not see as David did that hope springs eternal through the Lord, no matter what we’re going through? It’s clear that the Lord is our ever present comfort whenever we need it. Let us never forget this as we deal with the challenges that life might bring before us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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