The Joy of Glory

Discovering endless joy in the boundless glory of God…

Tag: psalms

March 3, 2015

Lent Devotional: Psalm 25

Psalm 25 (click here)
Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!

For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (Psalm 25:6-7, 11)

Reflection
Why do we pray for forgiveness?

If you’re a believer in Jesus, has he not dealt with all of our sin, past/present/and future, once and for all upon the cross? Are we not a forgiven people? Yet, even Jesus instructed us to repent and pray for forgiveness.

The apostle John counseled Christians to confess their sins so that Christ would cleanse them from all unrighteousness. James tells us to confess our sins to each other so that we may be healed.

Why all this confessing and repenting if Christ’s words upon the cross were true and “it is finished”?

It is true, on the cross Christ purchased our pardon and yet we experience the application of that pardon in real time. It’s like when I tell my wife I love her…she knows that I love her, I don’t say it because it somehow became untrue in the past few hours…no…I say it as a constant application of the truth. My words are one of the ways I express what is true and the truth of my love is felt.

The fact of our forgiveness through the cross cannot be changed! Jesus did finish the work needed to wipe away our sins, but we experience the effects of his achievement in real time through repentance, confession and assurance of forgiveness from our father.

In other words, our repentance is not accomplishing what was lacking in Christ’s work… no… it is the conduit through which we experience what was accomplished in Christ’s work! And when we experience it, we praise him! Herein, lies the ultimate purpose of our need to ask for forgiveness and experience the grace of God over and over… because it leads to the glorification of his name over and over again…day after day!

The psalmist yearned for this… “For YOUR NAME’S SAKE, O LORD, pardon my guilt…”

Our repentance shows our continual reliance on the grace of God… it reveals God’s greatness… it glorifies his name before the world.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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March 2, 2015

Lent Devotional: Psalm 20

Psalm 20 (click here)
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (Psalm 20:7)

Reflection
In what do we place our trust?

When our very lives are on the line, to what or who will we turn? We will turn to the resources of the world and the things in which all other people trust…things like horses and chariots…or will we turn to the Lord?

What are our modern day horses and chariots? Government? Social programs? Military might? Money? Possessions? Family?

Our ultimate trust is to be placed in none of these things, but in the only thing that can actually be trusted…the name of the Lord! “The name of the Lord” is his character…his reputation…it is everything about who he is. It’s not just a title or label. It is the very core of who he is.

I think the reason we do not trust in the name of the Lord, is because we do not know his name… we don’t know his reputation, or who he is, or what he is like. We don’t trust in the Lord, because we don’t know how strong he is, how faithful he is, how loving he is… we don’t know his history of amazing faithfulness to his unfaithful people.

We do not trust in the name of the Lord because the reputation concerning the strength of horses and chariots is larger in our minds and hearts than the reputation of the Lord’s strength.

We desperately need to know the name of the Lord! We need to see him in all his power, majesty, strength, faithfulness, love, and glory! In the light of his true name, all the horses and chariots the world has to offer look about as trustworthy as a hungry hound in a chicken house.

Do we want to trust in the name of the Lord? Then we must know his name! We must know him for who he is!

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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February 27, 2015

Lent Devotional: Psalm 10

Psalm 10 (click here)
Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted. Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?

O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. (Psalm 10:12-13 and 17-18)

Reflection
God will set all wrongs to rights. That is a promise.

And, this is actually the very promise we hold onto amidst our being wronged. It is the very promise that enables us to not act out of anger and seek revenge. We don’t have to bring a person to justice…God has promised to do so (this doesn’t mean people should not experience the natural/legal consequences of their sin, but simply that it is not up to us to guarantee this happens via personal vendettas).

So often it can feel like God has forgotten us as we suffer. So often it seems like the wicked get away with everything and simply prosper. I think about ISIS, and the violence they are currently unleashing toward Christians and other minorities in the Middle East. The Psalmist felt deep the injustice of things like this deep in his soul. He wanted to know why the wicked get away with their wickedness.

Yet, as he grapples with this difficulty, he brings to mind God’s character and his promises. God will do justice, he will end all terror, he will end ISIS, he will set all wrongs to rights.

We can let go of our anger, our rage, and our desire for revenge… knowing that God has the best in store… true justice. This enables us to do what Jesus called us to do, namely, pray for our enemies, and do good to those who persecute us.

Justice is good…and we will all receive it. ISIS will receive it…and so will I. God’s justice will either be poured out upon us in our sin, or it has been poured out upon our substitute…Jesus. Either way…God will not be unjust! He will bring about a day in which the men who are of the earth may strike terror no more.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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