Skip to main content

Psalm 34:19 - But the Lord delivers him... Day 113

Hello to all ye Merry Gentlemen (and women)

Did I mention that I enjoy classical music?  If you have never listened to Handel's Messiah, you really need to do so.  I was listening to Christmas portion on WMNR earlier today as I was writing the devotion.  I have a CD if you want to borrow it.

Blessings,

Jeff

Many are the afflictions of the righteous BUT the LORD delivers him out of them all.  He is with us in our afflictions.

On the other hand, Afflictions will slay the wicked.

Afflictions come to the righteous and the wicked.  The difference is in the outcome.  The LORD delivers the righteous.  The wicked who hate the righteous are condemned.

Surely David was thinking of himself as the righteous and Saul as the wicked in this passage.  God had delivered David out of many trials and he was confident that ultimately he would replace Saul as king.  

Yet the greater Son of David is the one who is truly righteous.  His affliction on the cross appears to have slain Him.  What do we say to this?  Did David face an affliction that dealt with broken bones?  As you may remember, the victims of crucifixton struggled to breathe and would push against the nails in their feet to allow a breath.  This is why the soldiers were sent to break the legs of Jesus and the thieves.  But Jesus was already dead, so his legs were not broken.  Also the bones of the Passover lamb could not be broken.

So the implicit question is How do I get from the "wicked hater of the righteous" side of the fence to the "righteous" side?  David paints a picture of one or the other, no middle ground.  Earlier he speaks of teaching people the fear of the Lord.  So he recognized that one is not born "fearing the Lord".  The gospel gives the answer.  God created, Adam sinned and all men with him, so we need a savior, The Son of God came into the world to die on the cross in payment for our sin and satisfy the wrath of God, The Spirit regenerates the elect and they respond in faith and are saved.  Have you experienced this great exchange?  I appeal to you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Please leave a comment if you have responded to God's call on your life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil
Post a Comment
Read more

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" becomes "no mere man since the fall
Post a Comment
Read more