FBC Daily Devotional – February 9, 2022

Well, good Wednesday morning to you. Here we are in the middle of the week and our scripture reading today especially

Psalm 17 is a passage that holds out a great challenge for us but also great encouragement and wonderful promise.

So let's look at those three things. First of all, it challenges us because as the Psalm opens, the psalmist appeals to the

Lord to hear his cry and he says, hear a just cause. Now that gives us some indication of the context in which this psalm is written and the prayer is being offered.

Hear a just cause, that indicates that there's some kind of crisis that David is going through where he has people that are opposing him and are against him and you're gonna see that later on in the psalm and that helps us interpret and understand what's coming next in this challenging section.

That's the section that challenges us. So he goes on to say, you know, ask the

Lord to hear his prayer and let my vindication come from your presence. But then he says this in verse 3 and following.

He says, you've tested my heart, you've visited me in the night, you've tried me and you found nothing evil.

Now, here's the challenging part. At the end of the day when we're, just before we retire for the night and we're reflecting over the course of the day, how many times could we offer this confidently as a prayer to the

Lord? You have tested my heart, you have visited me, you've tried me and you have found nothing.

And then he goes on to offer a few examples of this. He says, I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

So you've tried my heart and you have found nothing that I've said today that has gone across the boundaries, that has transgressed.

He says, concerning the works of men by the word of your lips, I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer.

I've walked in the paths of righteousness for your name's sake. I have stayed away from the paths of the destroyer.

Now, how many of us could say in the course of the day, as we reflect over the past day, that if the

Lord were to try me, he would find nothing offensive to him. That he would find nothing in my speech, nothing

I've said in the course of the day that has transgressed. That I have, in the course of this day, avoided completely the way of violence.

Not only in my actual deeds, but in my thoughts, my motives, my desires.

Have my feet held fast to God's ways. Now, honestly,

I think most of us would have to say, I mean if we're gonna be honest, we'd have to say in the course of a day, I don't think

I could say that the Lord has tried me today and found absolutely nothing.

I have lived sinlessly through this, through the course of this day. I don't think we could say that.

So, how is this, I mean, what's going on with this psalmist that he can say you've, you've, it was

David perfect? Well, you know David's history, so you know that's not the case. So, how can he say this?

You've tried me and you found nothing. I think the way to understand this is to remember that this is written in the context of the conflict that he has with other people.

So, for example, he goes on to say in verse 9, keep me from the wicked who oppress me, from my deadly enemies who surround me.

They've closed up their fat hearts with their mouths. They speak proudly. They've surrounded us in our steps.

They've set their eyes crouching down to the earth. And, and when we understand that setting, you go back to the the passage of confession, where he says you've tried me and you found nothing.

I believe what he's saying is you, you haven't found anything in me that justifies what the enemy is doing to me.

What they're saying, the accusations that they are making, and how they're trying to destroy me.

That you've tried me Lord, and you know that I'm innocent from anything deserving of what these conspiracy nuts are doing to me.

I'm innocent of all that. Well, could we even say that?

See, that's the key. That's the challenging part. Now, the encouraging part of this, of this psalm, comes next, where he says in verse 6,

I have called upon you for you will hear me, O God.

Incline your ear to me and hear my speech. You and I can pray confident, if you're, if you're

Christ, if you are in Christ Jesus, you and I can pray confidently knowing that the

Lord will hear and he will answer in his time and in his way.

So here's the psalmist. He's praying. He says, I know you're going to hear me. I know you're going to hear my prayer.

But in the meantime, he's still dealing with these enemies that are crouching and wanting to pounce upon him and destroy him.

So he's praying, but he's, and he's asking the Lord to protect him and to keep him.

But that's not eliminating the enemies right away. He's counting on and confident in the fact that the

Lord will hear and answer him in his time and in his way. And in all of this, remember yesterday's devotional, if you listened to it, there was much said in that devotional about praising the

Lord for his hesed, his steadfast love. It shows up again here in verse 7.

He says, show your marvelous hesed to me by your right hand.

Show your marvelous loving kindness. The New King James translates it. Your steadfast love, the

ESV would translate it. Show your marvelous steadfast love. In your praying to your

God, you and I can count on the Lord's steadfast love toward those who seek refuge in him.

You can count on it. Why? Because that's part of the covenant that he has made with his people.

Seek me and you shall find me and you will find refuge for your soul. And then he also prays, keep me as the apple of your eye, as the precious object of your attention.

Hide me, he says, under the shadow of your wings from those who would attack you. You can confidently pray to the

Lord knowing that he will hear you. And then the psalm ends with a wonderful promise held out for God's people.

He says, as for me, I will see your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied when

I awake in your likeness. This is what we have to look forward to. We will look, we will see the

Lord's face in righteousness and we will awake in his likeness.

Isn't this the promise of 1st Peter chapter 1 that we've been looking at in our Sunday morning services and the promise of John makes in 1st

John 3? That what we're gonna be like, we don't know what we're gonna be like right now.

But we do know this, that when he appears we will be like him for we will see him as he is.

David had that same confident expectation that you and I have.

So the psalm ends on that that joyous note of promise held out before us.

So let's give thanks to our God today for the confidence we can have in prayer, for the promise that is held out before us and the challenge to live in such a way that we can rest our head on our pillow at night knowing that the

Lord as the Lord tries us he finds nothing that would justify enemies of the cross attacking and vilifying and seeking to destroy us.

Thank you Father for these promises of this Psalm 17 and we do thank you for the challenge that we also receive from it to live in a way before others that is blameless, a way that you can bless.

Keep us walking in your paths, we pray. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, well have a good rest of your