1 Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am godly;
save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.
3 Be gracious to me, O Lord,
for to you do I cry all the day. – Comment: What can David possibly mean when he writes ‘for I am godly’? This is the man of whom we have clear examples of him enjoying being ‘ungodly’! David was a murderer, unfaithful in marriage, adulterous, and, besides as a human, committed many other sins as we all do! In another Psalm David prays, ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!’ Does a word ever mean almost opposites depending on the context? As Christians we have to wrestle with what words mean in different contexts. For instance in Isaiah 1: 11 it says,quoting God, ‘11 I am sick of your sacrifices. Don’t bring me any more of them.‘ and yet a few verses later we read, ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.’ The same word is offered as a negation and as an order to be done! Surely when David prayed ‘for I am godly‘ he wasn’t claiming perfection? if not what did he mean? Think
4 Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. – Was David depressed, ‘down in the pits’ emotionally? Was he guilty, sad or did he just realize that knowing God and being right with God and walking God’s way is true Life! If he claimed to be ‘godly’ why should be guilty? Or is it that confession and repentance is part of being godly?
6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;
listen to my plea for grace. – ‘Goodness or godliness alone isn’t enough to be right with God – it takes the Grace which is seen openly demonstrated by the perfect sacrifice so openly displayed by God on a Cross and by an empty tomb at that first Easter time!
7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you,
for you answer me.
8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours. – Creation, Salvation, Sanctification! All of these plus trillions more are ‘ works’ of God!
9 All the nations you have made shall come
and worship before you, O Lord,
and shall glorify your name.
10 For you are great and do wondrous things;
you alone are God. – And which of the nations has God not made? So far, in my book, a beautiful Psalm which DV we will finish looking at tomorrow!
Philippians 2: 9-11 – 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Prayer: I know that You want me to be good, God. Thank You for forgiving my failures by the perfect sacrifice of Your Perfect Son! I gladly fall onto my knees in thankfulness and repentant worship.