Psalm 31
English Standard Version, Max McLean Audio Bible
1 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me!
2 Incline your ear to me;
rescue me speedily!
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me!
3 For you are my rock and my fortress;
and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;
4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
6 I hate [You hate] those who pay regard to worthless idols,
but I trust in the Lord.
7 I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,
because you have seen my affliction;
you have known the distress of my soul,
8 and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;
you have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye is wasted from grief;
my soul and my body also.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.
11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach,
especially to my neighbors,
and an object of dread to my acquaintances;
those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I have been forgotten like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.
13 For I hear the whispering of many—
terror on every side!—
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hand;
rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!
16 Make your face shine on your servant;
save me in your steadfast love!
17 O Lord, let me not be put to shame,
for I call upon you;
let the wicked be put to shame;
let them go silently to Sheol.
18 Let the lying lips be mute,
which speak insolently against the righteous
in pride and contempt.
19 Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!
20 In the cover of your presence you hide them
from the plots of men;
you store them in your shelter
from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord,
for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was in a besieged city.
22 I had said in my alarm [in my haste]
“I am cut off from your sight.”
But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy
when I cried to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all you his saints!
The Lord preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!
Elizabeth Taylor died Wednesday. She had a quote I rather liked. "I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me."
Very few people will get out of this life without experiencing some kind of trouble. In my life I've had an alcoholic grandparent and parent. A Dad who was a great parent - who sang, played and read stories. A Dad who was an alcoholic and turned our safe, perfect life into heart-break and poverty in an alcoholic decline & probably to avoid feeling a mid-life crisis. My Dad made choices I wouldn't have made for him for about 15 years, he ended his own life.
Life can be difficult - it can be easy and rewarding - it's better and worse to see both ends of it. I've been blessed in my marriage to have soul deep love. Blessed in my marriage to know a late in life pregnancy, ending in the birth of our 2 pound beautiful daughter Isabelle - stillborn -, wouldn't end our love, marriage or friendship. Our eldest son was a preemie and we spent a year with Cal on an apnea monitor wondering if one day he would just pass on; Talk about stress.
You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols. Let's talk about a particular idol - taking our own pain, hurt and becoming our own best idol. If I have a regret, it is not having the wisdom to know trouble mostly goes away. (And sometimes it doesn't. Some people will always have financial troubles, some people will always have a child who died, some people will deal with an illness or a child with a handicap.) I would have spent less time being so worried about my own problems that I was my own challenge. I sometimes see myself in young people, average people who have had sad circumstances overcoming adversity with a lot of self love, who want to think and talk about themselves until it is boring. There is some shame there.
When we look at this Psalm, the word 'I" is written 15 times in 24 verses. Not to mention "me" and "my" is in there at least a multitude of times. Why didn't God lift His celestial robe up to His strong knees and run for His Heavenly Temple? Angels would have helped Him run faster..... We have all known people who have permanently changed from trouble and from success to becoming this amazingly self-centered.
There are some excellent reasons this Psalm was pleasing to Father God. So pleasing, He let it be recorded for 3,000 years of generations to read this. 1. It is a cry from the heart, and Father God is our Father. Parents listen with love to unhappiness. 2. David trusts His Father. He doesn't believe God has brought Him this far to drop him on his head. 3. David may be crying from his heart to God, but God knows David is going to live in caves for His sake. Live as an outlaw for His sake. David is going to live life and its hardships while loving God and believing in His goodness. 4. David has an honest relationship with God. David is going to tell the Lord when he is wrong and face up to sin. And remorse. David believes the biggest disaster in his life would be to be cut off from his Father God. 5. David is not looking for alcohol, drugs, friends, job and or comfort to take the place of his current situation in life. David does not make other things more important that knowing God - where he puts his hope. 6. David walks the walk of the Lord.
Ecclesiastes 3:11-13
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 7:14
When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Jeremiah 17:7-8
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Father God in You and in Your Grace, we are not asked to suffer shame. In Your steadfast love, we don't have disgrace or humiliation. You put our sins away from us. Forgiveness covers a multitude of wrong-doings. You forget the shame of our youth, the reproach of poverty, grief, sadness and need.
You are the Sovereign Lord who swallows up death forever. You want to wipe tears from all faces, remove the disgrace from Your people from all the earth. You have spoken.
Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. In righteousness we will be established: Tyranny will be far from us; we will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near us.
Be not afraid, O land; be glad and rejoice. Surely the LORD has done great things!!! Amen, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
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