Friday, April 29, 2016

Friday, April 29th: 2 Samuel 18-20, Psalm 7 ~ Conrad

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is: 2 Samuel 18-20, Psalm 7

I am going to focus my comment on our reading from Psalm 7.    

David appears to be under some distress.  He pleads his case of innocence before God, believing that he has not done anything wrong to receive the ill-treatment of his adversaries.

David knows that God is righteous and will judge over all people for every action: "God is a righteous judge,  a God who displays his wrath every day"  (vs 11).

He also comforts himself with the common wisdom that under God's rule crime does not pay:
"Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
15 Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit they have made.  
The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads." (vs 14-16)                        16 
Lastly, David praises and gives thanks to the Lord:
"I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness;  I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High."  (vs 17) 

Even in his time of need David is thanking and praising God for who He is.  He has a strong anticipation of his prayers not just being heard, but being answered too.  

Prayers are generally sprung on by a need, but if God is to be truly honoured, then prayer and praise to God must follow deliverance as well.  God is Most High.  He is to the above all things and above all people.  When we praise God it is to be for the acts He has already performed and in anticipation of His acts in the future.      

Do I give God the praise that He is due?

2 comments:

Nathan said...

It amazes me that David shows such sadness at both the death of Saul and Absalem, two enemies who wanted David dead. Most of us would be rejoicing if those that wanted to kill us, had died. To me this shows that David sees the big picture, he's saddened that their couldn't be reconciliation. Do I love my enemies half that much?

Tammy said...

I'm sure one of the reasons David was so upset over the death of his son Absalom was because he was at least partly responsible. Nathan the prophet had said that because of David's sin against Bathsheba and Uriah, his own sons would rebel against him.

Obviously his love for his son is understandable, but in this case David displayed his love inappropriately. He was insulting his own soldiers who fought to save his life by openly grieving for his enemy, even though he was his son. And his love would have been better off used in disciplining his son when he was younger. By the time David realized how bad things were, it was too late to do very much about it. We need to be intentional about our parenting, and ask God to keep our eyes wide open, so we can deal with behaviour when the consequences are still less severe.