Here's our longest Psalm yet ... Psalm 7
So there's a lot in this chapter that echoes the thoughts of what we've read already in Psalms. The word or theme that I want to look at is trust ... so let's get down to business. When I was a baby, I fell down the stairs in my home (I know ... explains a lot). Fortunately, my mom was there to hold me in her arms and take a beating from the ten steps she fell down. As a baby, I didn't really have a choice to trust my mom, but the illustration still stands - if I didn't find myself cradled in my mom's arms, it's quite possible that I would have been permanently damaged. The same goes for our relationship with God - the only difference is that we have a choice of whether or not we make him our protector. Spiritually, there will be times in your life where you are going to "fall down the stairs" and possibly take the beating of a lifetime. The only person in this world that will ever be able to protect you, like my mom did with me, is God. Bethany pointed out last week that David was quite an awesome guy - one of the reasons is shown quite clearly this week - simply, that David had a pure trust in our Heavenly Father.
Verses 1-5 What's the first thing that David says? "In You I put my trust." It reminds me of the time when Joshua challenged the Israelites, saying, "Choose this day whom you will serve" ... followed by the bold statement "as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." I guess the only difference is here is that David is not standing on his own two feet. He's not giving us a picture of a man that can hold is own, but an illustration of a man that puts his trust in God. Someone can have faith that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, but not have the trust to allow God to work in and through them. David is one of the examples in the Bible of a man that puts himself in the arms of God - to be protected and to be watched over. He says "God, I trust you to defend me from enemies," but even more so, "God, I trust you to save me from myself." Never throughout my childhood did I tell my parents when i broke the rules - I waited until they caught me to admit to what I did. David is just the opposite - he realizes that God is the only person that can set him straight. If he has sin, God is the only person that can take it away. If he has anger, only God can strip it from him. I guess he's just smarter than us. Why do we trust in God? Why would David admit to his faults? Because God's the only one who can take the mess of our lives and make something wonderful out of it. He's the only person who can take our nasty spill down the stairs and make it bearable ... that's why we trust.
Verses 6-16 David's life was one that I want to imitate. Every time i read a Psalm, I see how close he was to God and how deep his understanding was of the relationship we have with Him. This section talks about our God as being just. Basically, he is like a judge that never makes a wrong decision - this is why we needed Jesus. If Jesus had not died on the cross, God couldn't have just swept out sins under a rug. They had to be paid for. That's just a side note, but we see something totally different here. Even though David knew that God was a God of forgiveness, he wanted to be punished. Michelle and I were talking today about how we are more likely to remember a mistake that was made in front of people - because we get embarrassed. One thing that I see in David is that he was a man embarrassed of sin. When he made a mistake, he wanted to make sure that he would not make that mistake ever again. Are you embarrassed of sin? Yes, we can have trust in God to do whatever it is that he wants to do, but can God trust you in return? Quite an interesting question ...
Verse 17 I always forget to mention this, but I love how David ends so many of his thoughts just giving praise to God. So many of you guys are such a blessing to me - to see Junior Higher's in love with Jesus is simply unbelievable at times. It took me a long time to realize that my trust needed to be put in the Lord. That my confidence in life wasn't supposed to be found in myself, but in our Father. I'd encourage you to take this to heart. If you can learn to have that "child like faith" at the age you are at right now, I promise that God will use you more than you would have ever have imagined. The video we have this week is quite funny ... those people are losers. If you fall into God's hands, he will never let you hit the ground.
That's a lot to chew on ...
Good Luck
- Chris
1 comment:
hhhheyyyyy christopher!!! This is what I think I needed to hear!! Exspecially going throught this time with Brahno, and how we are all worried about the adoption process. Its soo easy to get our minds of God and focus on whats happeing at the moment. When all you have to do is trust that God has a bigger and better plan than we think!! Haveing trust in God I think is a hard thing to do. But once we do it Gods going to explode our socks off!!! (thats the exiceting part!!)
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