Romans 8:38-39 NIV
[38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Category Archives: Devotion
THINGS THAT DAVID SAID – 19
SUPERVISED!
Psalms 139:16 NLT
[16] “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Wow! That’s an amazing statement! God was watching and supervising him while he was still being formed? Yes! He was watching every cell and every organ in David’s body being formed, ensuring that the process of his growth from one cell to a fully formed person was perfect and uninterrupted? Yes! Just David? Yes!
Why just him? You see, he couldn’t answer for God when it came to every other person on earth but for David, that’s who He was …his CREATOR and Supervisor.
The same for my history. God is God…the one who knows and plans everything from beginning to end. My whole life was laid out before Him before I even came into existence. He saw every day, written in my book of life, and He ensures that every day happens as He planned, and yet…I choose to live every day as I want. How does that work? I have no idea but, that’s what David said.
As David came to the end of each day, good day or bad day, he knew that God was always with him, guiding and guarding him through every situation and circumstance. Some days were uneventful, and he gladly acknowledged God’s goodness to him. Some days were full of trouble and danger. How happy he was that he could call on the Lord and, again, He was there to help him. So, for David, every day meant that the Lord and he were in it together. He was so full of faith that he knew that his days happened just as God had planned.
What a way to live! When bad things happen, there is no need to panic or to blame the Lord for letting them happen. God has already written the story of tomorrow, so I can trust Him that tomorrow will happen and will keep on happening until the last page in my book.
The thought behind David’s sentiments is simple. Why was God so involved in his mother’s pregnancy? Not only because He had chosen this baby to be the future king of Israel, but also because He wanted to have intimate fellowship with him as a human son.
A few years ago, as I vividly remember, I said something in the presence of my pastor which exaggerated the truth. I was extremely uncomfortable until I confessed my sin to my pastor. His response, I will never forget. He said to me, “Isn’t the Holy Spirit precious, that He wants to protect our fellowship with the Father?”
No blame, no condemnation, nor judgment! Just mercy! What a way to look at sin…anything we think or do without the Father…and without Jesus that spoils our fellowship with God. Our fellowship with Him is so precious that He watched and shaped the way we were formed…and He watches and shapes the way we live so that nothing interferes with our fellowship with Him.
Just as He supervised our life in the womb, so He cares about every move we make, every word we speak, interrupting where necessary to rebuke, correct, and restore us to the way we are to go to reach His goal…perfect likeness to Jesus, His blueprint for His human sons.
God is not a killjoy who stands in the way of our enjoying life. God is a Father who knows that every moment without Him is wasted. He treasures every moment with us, and does everything to protect our fellowship and keep us from going our own foolish way.
If God is so committed to guarding and guiding us from birth to death, is it any wonder, then, that David would recognise His involvement with him from the moment of conception. If that was David’s awareness, we can be sure that each of us, dear readers, is equally precious to God and under His supervision and scrutiny every moment of every day.
What a comfort to know that we are under God’s care, always in His sights, and being carefully monitored, not to punish but to bless! We can be confident of this perfect love and live in it without fear because the Lord has control of every detail of what concerns us.
1 John 4:18 NIV
[18] “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
THINGS THAT DAVID SAID – 18
THE TENDERNESS OF A FATHER
Psalms 84:3 NLT
[3] “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!”
What father, holding his newborn baby in his arms, is not overwhelmed with tenderness towards that tiny, fragile life? His own life flickers feebly in this brand new person, a new creation, to be loved, protected, nurtured, and cherished until this one stands strong and tall to continue a new generation.
I know I’m treading on thin ice here because Psalm 84 is not one of David’s psalms. However, the words reflect David’s thoughts because he spoke often of God’s fatherly tenderness towards His people.
Take Psalm 103, for example which is headed, “A psalm of David”. Why was this psalm, as well as Psalm 139 and others, not included in the first 72 psalms which were attributed to David? We don’t know.
Let’s put this psalm, 84, attributed to the sons of Korah, side by side with David’s sentiments in Psalm 103.
Psalms 103:13-14 NLT
[13] “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. [14] For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.”
No earthly father’s heart comes close to the heart of God when it comes to tender love for His offspring. God’s tenderness, like the softness of His love towards a tiny bird that ignores all the protocol of temple worship and dares to build its nest near the altar, so the Lord has compassion on feeble and frail humans. Made of dust, He can blow them away in a moment of anger…but He doesn’t!
Psalms 103:8-12 NIV
[8] “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. [9] He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; [10] he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. [11] For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; [12] as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
How often do we reflect on God’s tenderness? Is this not one of the great differences between the God of revelation and the gods of human imagination? Man-made gods are usually rigid and heartless. They demand and take from their devotees. Only the God of the Bible has expressed Himself as infinitely tender.
Even in God’s greatest moments of anger and frustration with His disobedient people, His tenderness softened His rage wth mercy and compassion.
Hosea 11:3-4, 7-8 NLT
[3] I myself taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand. But he doesn’t know or even care that it was I who took care of him. [4] I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him…
[7] For my people are determined to desert me. They call me the Most High, but they don’t truly honor me. [8] “Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zeboiim? My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows.”
Has any other so-called “god” demonstrated such compassion towards those who persistently defy him? Has mercy and judgment clashed and mercy has won the day in their book? Does God love to punish those who rebel against Him? Does He want to destroy the wicked?
Ezekiel 18:23 NLT
[23] “Do you think that I like to see wicked people die?” says the Sovereign Lord.” Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live.”
Unlike the gods people have created, the true God is both love and holiness in perfect balance. His holiness demands retribution for breaking His holy standards but His love cries out for mercy for the offenders.
What did God do to satisfy His tender love and His abhorrence for sin? He send His own Son to take the rap for sinners so that He can love and forgive us freely because His justice has been satisfied.
Psalms 103:8-12 NLT
[8] “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. [9] He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. [10] He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. [11] For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. [12] He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.”
Who but those who have tasted God’s forgiveness, can testify of a tenderness that not only feels but acts with both perfect justice and tender mercy towards those who fear Him?
Romans 3:25-26 NLT
[25] “For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, [26] for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”
Could God have made this transaction any simpler than to trade our sin for faith in Jesus? God is both just for punishing sin in His own Son, and the one who justifies sinners, reckons them not guilty, because the debt of sin has been fully paid.
God is free to lavish His tender love on every person who has accepted as true and believed in His promise to forgive and restore the sinner to full sonship on an equal footing with Jesus. Wow! Could there ever be a greater, more powerful expression of God’s love than this!
However, we must never forget that God’s justice requires that He punish offenders since, to ignore sin would be a denial of the very essence of God’s character. To be true to Himself, He must carry out the judgment on sin that He declared from the beginning.
Genesis 2:16-17 NLT
[16] “But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— [17] except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
God gave the first human everything he needed to live a perfectly happy and contented life, with one prohibition, one test. “Don’t trespass into the territory of “me first”. If you pass this test, you will live forever. If not, you will die. I don’t permit rivals. Love me first and freely and abundant, satisfying life will be yours.” Was that too much to ask? Yet, the first pair failed the test, fell for the lie, and deliberately stepped out of the “tender” zone into the “anger” zone because they didn’t believe God.
Even then, God didn’t leave us there…
1 John 4:10 NLT
[10] “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
Why, then, do people still believe that what God said and did is not true?
So strong is the perversity of the human heart that people will cling to their sin rather than believe in God’s tender love for guilty sinners.
What Jesus said reveals His heart when He cried out from the cross these words of compassion and forgiveness…
Luke 23:34 NLT
[34]… “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”…
… while the soldiers gambled for His clothing!
THINGS THAT DAVID SAID – 17
A PROMISE TO THE ELDERLY!
Psalms 92:12-15 NLT
[12] “But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. [13] For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. [14] Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. [15] They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!”
No one told us who wrote this psalm, but it sounds like something David would have written. If it was David, he had a word for old people too. Perhaps he wrote this when he was old, speaking, as usual from his own vast experience of God from early childhood.
God loves old people. The Bible has much to say about old people. For example, some of the elderly have wisdom and experience gathered over many years of godly living.
Proverbs 16:31 NLT
[31] “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by living a godly life.”
It may also be true for some, that grey hair is a sign of decadence, like Israel when they refused to live inside God’s covenant. Instead, they worshipped idols, causing decay in their lives which they hadn’t even noticed.
Hosea 7:9 NLT
[9] “Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don’t even know it. Their hair is gray, but they don’t realize they’re old and weak.”
However, the Word of God also has special promises for grey-haired old people. Isaiah reassured the elderly in Israel that God had cared for them from before their birth and would continue to do so into their old age.
Isaiah 46:3-4 NLT
[3] “Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel. I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born. [4] I will be your God throughout your lifetime— until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.”
Old age is a time of rest and reflection. God’s faithfulness fills the memories of the elderly…so many time of crisis or need when God answered their cry for help. Again, David testified to God’s goodness throughout his life.
Psalms 37:25 NLT
[25] “Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread.”
No matter where he was or what his circumstances, God watched over, protected, fed, and cared for His son, David… and he knew it.
Solomon also had a word…for the young. With apt description, he urged them to honour the Lord in their youth., “Don’t wait until old age eats away at your body and mind. Honour and fear God now, while you can.”
Ecclesiastes 12:1-6 NLT
[1] “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant any more.” [2] Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky. [3] Remember him before your legs—the guards of your house—start to tremble; and before your shoulders—the strong men—stoop. Remember him before your teeth—your few remaining servants—stop grinding; and before your eyes—the women looking through the windows—see dimly. [4] Remember him before the door to life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades. Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint. [5] Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets; before your hair turns white like an almond tree in bloom, and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper, and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire. Remember him before you near the grave, your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral. [6] Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well.”
Solomon certainly felt the ravages of old age in his body!
God also has promises for old people…The elderly don’t have to go out like a spent candle. When God called Moses home, he was still as strong at 120 as he was when he was young. He died because his work was finished.
Psalms 92:14-15 NLT
[14] “Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. [15] They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!”
Can we, too, like Moses, not aspire to be good finishers, doing God’s work until He calls us home? What an honour to be fruitful until the end of life, flourishing in the presence of God and in the company of His people! What a testimony to God’s faithfulness! Never a single moment when the Lord did us wrong!
The next generation needs the witness and example of godly men and women who have run the race, stayed the course, and never given up through thick and thin. They have gone on in the assurance of a rich welcome into God’s eternal kingdom.
THINGS THAT DAVID SAID – 16
THE HOUND OF HEAVEN!
Psalms 23:6 NLT
[6] “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”
Back to Psalm 23! Some of David’s most wonderfully comforting words are clustered together in one psalm, like for example, Psalm 23, Psalm 103, and Psalm 139.
Don’t we love David’s concluding words in Psalm 23? They conjure up a mental picture of two supernatural “angels”, named “Goodness” and “Mercy”, like twe pet dogs, that follow us faithfully wherever we go. They refuse to leave us no matter what our situation or circumstances. They are always there to comfort, strengthen, and provide for all our needs. They are God’s messengers, not God Himself but…
Hebrews 1:14 NLT
[14] “Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.”
Apart from these ministering angels, who provide protection in every situation…
God’s own presence is always with us…
Psalms 139:7-10 NLT
[7] “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! [8] If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. [9] If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, [10] even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.”
…never to spy on us, as some people think, but to strengthen, support and bless us.
Have you ever considered that God has provided us with a bodyguard more powerfully efficient than the best-trained humans can ever be? His powerful ministering angels take care of our safety and provide everything we need, and His own presence guards and protects us from the perils of lies and deception that our enemy tries to impress on us?
2 Thessalonians 3:3 NIV
[3] “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.”
Not only do we have God Himself all around us, but we also have His Word as a powerful set of armour, defensive and offensive weapons to take care of all the fiery darts hurled at us. Like the Israelis’ “iron dome”, we are shielded on all sides from the enemy’s missiles.
Psalms 91:9-12 NLT
[9] “If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, [10] no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. [11] For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. [12] They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.”
God has also provided a full set of armour, like the armour of an ancient Roman soldier, that covers us from head to foot and that enables us to ward off every temptation and every accusation the enemybl hurls at us to throw us off course.
Ephesians 6:11-13 NIV
[11] “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. [12] For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. [13] Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
Our spiritual armour is defensive since Jesus has already conquered Satan for us. Our role is only to stand our ground on the truth and never give way to his assault on our minds and hearts.
As much as “goodness” and “mercy”, accompany us on our journey, watching our backs and keeping the enemy at bay, so also are they the very presence of God to lavish His grace and favour on us simply because we are His children.
Romans 8:32 NIV
[32] “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Through Jesus, our Saviour, High Priest, and Mediator, we have everything we need and more through the Father’s “great and precious promises” guaranteed by the Son Himself.
2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV
[20] “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
All we need to do to trigger their fulfilment is to say a hearty “Amen!”
God’s children are neither orphans nor paupers. In Christ Jesus, we are fully supplied, carefully guarded, deeply loved, and highly favoured.
So, let’s live as His beloved sons and daughters in the abundance of His goodness and mercy.