Monday, August
7, 2017
O Lord, hear my plea for justice. Listen to my cry for help. Pay attention to my prayer, for it comes from
honest lips. Declare me innocent, for
you see those who do right. You have
tested my thoughts and examined my heart in the night. You have scrutinized me and found nothing
wrong. I am determined not to sin in
what I say. I have followed your
commands, which keep me from following cruel and evil people. My steps have stayed on your path; I have not
wavered from following you.
Because I am
righteous, I will see you. When I awake,
I will see you face to face and be satisfied.
Psalm 17:1-5, 15(NLT)
King David –
did he have too high an opinion of himself, or was he just being
forgetful? This prayer for God’s help almost
begs the question whether David was ordering God around. In the space of a few sentences David calls
himself honest, innocent, obedient, and righteous, as opposed to being
like the cruel and evil people who oppress others.
It is
difficult to separate this attitude from that of the New Testament image Jesus
paints of a Pharisee going to pray in the Temple. A despised tax collector stood nearby:
The Pharisee
stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other
people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m
certainly not like that tax collector! I
fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ Luke 18:11-12(NLT)
If this
Psalm was written while David was being hounded by King Saul, who has gone off
the deep end in paranoiac fear that David wants his throne, we can almost
forgive David’s wailing; he was trying to serve the king…and his thanks is a death sentence?
David is
somewhat naïve at best, and short-sighted about his own (or any human’s) character;
who – as Jesus asked – is without sin?
But lurking
in the background of the Psalmist’s prayer is an unseen New Testament hope of
resurrection. Notice once again the last
phrase:
Because I am
righteous, I will see you. When I awake,
I will see you face to face and be satisfied.
Psalm 17:1-5, 15(NLT)
In the post-crucifixion/resurrection
sense, righteousness is imputed,
or given by God to those who trust in Christ’s righteousness; it is not an
earned or deserved achievement. No human
being can pile up enough goodness to be righteous in God’s eyes.
Yet David
claims righteousness…and eagerly looks forward to seeing God face to face. In this sense, David was way ahead of his
time in theological understanding! What
he was claiming was not self-righteousness,
but the promise of God to cleanse him from the penalties of all his unrighteousness.
And that
makes all the difference!
For You Today
The
difference between those sinners who are forgiven, and those who have never
trusted Christ for forgiveness and salvation, is that forward-look, that
eagerness to see God face to face.
The
forgiven are fearless; the unforgiven, not so much!
NOTES
[i]
Title Image: By Jastrow (Own work (own picture))
[Public domain], via Wikimedia
Commons
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