Day 108: Psalms 17, 35, 54, 63
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Transcript
Welcome to five -minute Bible your daily guide for your daily reading today's April the 18th, and we'll be looking at psalms 1735 54 and 63
Now today we step back into David's inner world But this time you can feel the strain a little more clearly
He's still being hunted still dealing with betrayal still moving through places that offer no real safety for him
And these psalms come out of that life not after it This is what it sounds like when a man keeps going back to God while everything around him keeps pressing in And that way psalm 17 is
David asking God to look closely at him not from a distance But up close test me
God examine me see what's actually in there and defend me He knows he's being pursued unjustly and he puts himself fully into the hands of God Asking to be guarded like something precious
Psalm 35 is even louder. This is not a quiet reflection This is David begging
God to step in and fight for him. These enemies are not passive. They're hunting him. They're lying about him
They're setting traps and David calls upon God to answer him not out of bitterness
But because he believes that God is just Psalm 54 is tied to betrayal the
Zephyrites hand him over again and David does not act surprised He calls on God to be his helper his sustainer not because the situation is easy
But because he knows that he can't hold himself together without God then psalm 63 slows
Everything down. He's in the wilderness He's physically worn out and instead of just asking for relief.
He says something deeper My soul thirsts for you in a place where everything is dry
He's not just aware of the danger, but he's aware of his need for God So as you read the passages today,
I want you to ask the following question when life presses in on you What do you actually want most?
Do you want relief? Do you want vindication? Do you want to escape from the problems? Do you want comfort or do you want
God? Because pressure has a way of exposing what you really want What you see here is a man dealing with real enemies, but also a man who's being shaped underneath it
David isn't pretending things are fine. He talks about being hunted and lied about and betrayed. He's asking for justice.
He's pleading for protection He wants God to act but the pressure is causing something deeper to happen in him at the same time in psalm 17
He wants God to see him clearly and keep him close in psalm 35 He wants
God to deal with what is wrong in psalm 54. He leans on God and His justice to keep him going in psalm 63 you see what all of this is producing he wants
God himself He doesn't want comfort. He doesn't want relief. He doesn't want even peace
He wants God and that is the shift that happens in David. The wilderness is not just threatening him
It's stripping away everything else so that only God matters to him and that is where it hits us
Because it's one thing to want God when he fixes things It's another thing to want him when he doesn't to want him just for him and nothing else and all of that points us to Jesus Because Jesus is the truly righteous one that psalm 17 is reaching for without mixture with no hidden fault perfect before the father
He's the one who's surrounded by his enemies like psalm 35 describes Falsely accused opposed without cause and yet he doesn't step outside of the will of God to defend himself
He's betrayed like in psalm 54 not just by strangers But by someone even close to him a friend and still he entrusts himself to the father and in the wilderness and in hunger and Suffering even on the cross you see psalm 63 in its fullest form a man who desires the father above Everything even when everything is being taken from him.
That's Jesus But here is where it goes even further because David longs for God But Christ is the one who secures access to him
David thirst but Christ is the one who's going to become the living water So now these psalms are not just showing us how
David feels They're showing us what they're pointing to and what they're opening up for us in Christ all along So as you read these psalms today
Watch for what David is asking for and what he actually wants underneath it because tomorrow
We're gonna go back to the story and we're gonna see how all of this plays out as Saul's end draws ever nearer and with that read your
Bible carefully devotionally and joyfully and may the Lord use his word to Sanctify you completely and we will continue our journey tomorrow.