Friday, April 13, 2018
Answer me when I call to you, O God who declares me innocent. Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. How long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you make groundless
accusations? How long will you continue
your lies? -- Interlude
You can be sure of this: The Lord set
apart the godly for himself. The Lord will
answer when I call to him. Don’t sin by
letting anger control you. Think about
it overnight and remain silent. --
Interlude
Offer
sacrifices in the right spirit, and trust the Lord. Many people say, “Who will show us better
times?” Let your face smile on us, Lord. You have given me greater joy than those who
have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will
keep me safe. Psalm 4:1-8(NLT)
David, the
shepherd boy who became king of Israel, did what we all do when troubled over
an agonizing situation – he sat down to have a little talk with himself. More accurately, David talked with God, but you
can count on it that this son of Jesse placed himself vulnerably close to God’s
throne for scrutiny; he wanted answers as to why he had to live with false
accusations hovering over him from people who just wanted to drag his
reputation through the mud.
In the middle part
of this Psalm David is confessing his anger to God, but he’s also talking out
loud to himself: careful, now; letting the anger you
have over this situation control you will destroy you as certainly as the worst
sin. Be still and pray all night if you
must, but let silence before God and man work out what you’ll mess up if you
run your mouth like a raging fire!
You can just feel
the temperature let up in the final sentences of David’s prayer. In the opening of this Psalm David was asking
God: free me from my troubles. Literally he was asking for relief, space
from the pressure of a bad situation. By
the end of the prayer he has it. Certainly
the trouble hasn’t left; it is David’s spirit and mind that have changed. His prayer has freed him by clearing his mind
and allowing him to stand unconvicted before his Maker.
In Shadowlands,
based on the life of C.S. Lewis, author, theologian, professor and defender of
the faith, Lewis’ wife is dying of cancer.
It is a grueling, overwhelming, and life-changing experience. In one scene he shares with the chancellor at
Oxford (who is also his pastor) that his wife’s illness caused him to pray all
the time. As he walks away he
remarks: I don’t pray because prayer
changes the facts; I pray because prayer changes me.
It is this fact
that shows us the end of David’s prayer as he declares he will be able to lie
down in peaceful sleep. This can be seen
two ways:
1.
David can actually get a peaceful
night’s sleep, because being right with God frees your soul and clears your
conscience. And…
2.
David can die the death of the
righteous, cleared of wrongdoing in Heaven’s eyes.
Either
interpretation is possible – and both are true.
For You Today
Do you lie awake
fuming over something you cannot control?
Is your reputation ruined because you earned it, or someone else is
maliciously dragging you through the mud?
Has the pressure meter on your life reached the red zone?
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
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