Devotion: Trust and Fear (Psalm 56)

Trust and fear never go together. When we have so much trust in a person we don’t fear that person. When we have so much trust that a person will help us in a troublesome situation we will not fear that situation. That’s what David is also saying through this Psalm. Fear nothing when God is on your side.

This is the phrase that David is repeating twice in the Psalm.  – v3,4 and v9,10,11.

We can see the fearful situation that David is going through. As said in the heading – A Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath.

V1 – Men would swallow me up, v2 – Enemies would hound me all day, there are many who fight against me, v6 – They gather together and mark my steps, they lie in wait for my life. That’s the situation he is in when David is writing this psalm. He is surrounded by people who wait to take his life. In the midst of these situations, David is saying that – “In God, I have put my trust, I will not fear. What can flesh do to me” (v4).

Whom to trust

It is very important that on whom we trust. It could be possible that we trust the wrong person. Our trust may be sincere but if we trust in the wrong person it’s all meaningless. David’s trust and confidence is in God and in no one else.

V3 – Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. , v4 – In God, I have put my trust.

I think David had more things to trust rather than God. – His army, the chariots, the number of horses, his 300 mighty men. Often he had trusted in wrong things also but from his experience he has said in other psalms – It is better to trust in God rather than man, princes or chariots and horses.

God is trustworthy

But is God trustworthy? A God who is living far-away, we have not seen through our physical eyes. Is he really trustworthy? But David had the confidence that He can be trusted. He never felt God is so far away. Our God is a God who takes note of everything that happens in our life. That we can see in the following verses.

V8,9,10 – So beautiful! Our God is one who sees our situation, cares for us. He is aware of our wanderings. – Psalm 121:8 – The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in.

V8:b - He sees our tears. Out tears are not in vain. It has a value before God and it is recorded. That’s the confidence of David. Malachi 3:16 – The book of remembrance where are our cries, our pains are recorded. And a day will come where the righteous and unrighteous are clearly discerned.

V9 - The greatest confidence of David was that God is for Him. No matter how cruel or how strong his enemies were, he was sure that God is for Him.

That’s the reason why David is writing about the deliverance in the past tense as something which has already happened. V13.

Conclusion

Let us trust in God. Our God is really trustworthy. Let us not be fearful of the situations because trust and fear do not go together. David as a conclusion of the Psalm understood the reason why he has God delivers him from all the troubles – v13 – That I may walk before God in the light of the living. So let us not be fearful in this world. Let us trust in Him who keeps a record of our wanderings and our tears. And let us walk before God in the light of the living. 

Devotion: Riches in Christ ( 2 Cor 8 : 9)

This passage is not primarily speaking about the sufferings of Jesus Christ. It’s a passage where Apostle Paul is encouraging the Corinthian believers to excel in giving like the Macedonian believers. They were collecting money for the persecuted believers at Jerusalem. We can see the conclusion of Paul in v13,14. Paul says the purpose of giving is to bring equality in the church. While exhorting to give selflessly he refers to the ultimate example of giving – Jesus Christ.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of giving. The one who was richer than everyone became the poorest of all to make us rich. This is the maximum extent of giving. He had to give to this extent to bring reconciliation between man and God. It’s not equality with God but reconciliation.

Jesus's Poverty

Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich.  What are the circumstances in which a rich person would become poor? His business has collapsed, or if he has gained money illegally and he is caught, or some loss in the market. We have not heard of any rich person becoming poor voluntarily.

What do we understand about the richness of Jesus Christ? God of all, everything was created by him, for him, and through him. But how do we understand the poverty of Jesus Christ? Does this mean his financial status? He dint have a home to take birth. He was born as a son of a poor carpenter. He had to work to earn a living? Is this the poverty of Jesus? No. It means much more. Even if he was to take birth on this earth as a king still it would be considered as poor. It is clearly depicted in Phil 2:6,7,8.

God of everything -> Man

Son -> Slave

Dwelling in heaven -> Dwelling on earth without a home.

Sits over everything controlling everything -> Suffering at the hands of the creation.

He's humbled himself, his humility was his poverty.

The author of life and one who gives life to everyone – is suffering to sustain his life on the cross.

We are living in a world where everyone tries to be better than their current position. But in Jesus, we see clearly against the principles of this world. Did not consider equality with God but came down from his position.

Our Riches in Christ

What are our riches in Christ? Our richness does not mean our financial status. It does not mean that we became millionaires. Let’s read a verse that clearly conveys our riches.

Col 1:21,22 – Reconciled, Made us holy, Made us free from all accusation.

Our richness means our access to God which was made possible through Jesus Christ.  We are now reconciled before God. What is reconciliation? We are made right with God, we are no longer alienated from God. We have fellowship with the king of the universe.

We are holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation – We are free from accusation. How can it be? A person who was a thief is no longer called a thief today. A person who is an enemy to God is no more enemy to him.

Col 1:13 – From the domain of darkness to the kingdom of a beloved son. Then the ultimate richness – our entrance into the kingdom of God eternally. A kingdom where there is everlasting joy, peace, and rest.

Conclusion

 To bring equality ie the reconciliation between man and God, Christ became poor. It also talks about how we have benefited by this giving. How we became rich through the poverty of Christ. As we partake from this bread and wine let us meditate on the ultimate example of giving – the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. May this table exhort us to excel in our giving.  

Devotion: Magnanimity an attainment

Luke 23:34

 “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” This is a very powerful statement. We cannot fully understand its power since we have not gone through a situation like this and we have never said this before.

In our newspaper, we read about the murders in the name of revenge.

The cross of Christ also shows his magnanimity along with His love, grace, and his physical sufferings. I would like to point out 2 things so that it helps us to understand his magnanimity.

1. A rare instance of Human Magnanimity
2. A beautiful example of practicing what you preach

A rare instance of Human Magnanimity

It's very important to note that when did he say this statement. He said this statement when he was on the cross. These first of the seven words from the cross seem, from their position in the record, to have been spoken very early in the awful scene, probably while the nails were being driven into the hands and feet.

Different from other holy dying men, he had no need to say, “Forgive me.”

Conscious, not only of perfect innocence but of the purest and even the loftiest aims, Jesus Christ found himself not only unrewarded and unappreciated, but misunderstood, ill-treated, condemned on a totally false charge, sentenced to the cruelest and shameful death a man could die.

What wonder if, under those conditions, all the kindliness of his nature had turned to the sourness of spirit!

2. At this very moment, he was the object of the most heartless cruelty man could inflict, and must have been suffering the pain of body and of mind that was literally agonizing.

3. At such a time, and under such treatment, he forgets himself to remember the the guilt of those who were so shamefully wronging him.

4. Instead of entertaining any feeling of resentment, he desired that they might be forgiven for their wrong-doing.

5. He did not haughtily and contemptuously decline to condemn them; he did not and reluctantly forgive them; he found for them a generous extenuation; he sincerely prayed for his heavenly Father to forgive them. Human magnanimity could hardly go further than that.

6. The greatness of his forgiveness can be better understood when we compare it to our forgiveness. It’s very difficult for us to forgive a person who has done wrong to us and love him as before.

A beautiful example of practicing what you preach

There are certain topics about which it's very easy to preach about but difficult to practice  One of such topic is forgiveness.

When in his great sermon, (Matthew 5-7.) he said, “Love your enemies. Pray for them which despite-fully use and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven,” he urged upon us to cherish and to illustrate the loftiest virtue on the highest grounds.

This he now beautifully, perfectly exemplified. He was literally and truly praying for those who were using him despite-fully, as the greatest generals and captains have proudly and honorably claimed that they “never bad men do that which they were not willing to do themselves,” so this our glorious

Leader, he who came to be the “Leader and perfector of the faith”

(Hebrews 12:2), never desired of us any virtue or grace which

he did not possess and did not himself adorn. He could and did say to his disciples, not only,” Go thither in the way of righteousness,” but also, “Follow me in every path of purity and love.” We may well love our enemies, and pray for those who despitefully use us, that we may be the children of our Father in heaven, and that we may be followers of our patient, magnanimous Master. And it is here, truly, that we have —

Conclusion

I just wanted to point out the greatness of his forgiveness. His forgiveness is not like ours. Just like he forgave the soldiers and the people around him he forgave our sins also. This should not encourage us to do more sins to test his forgiveness. The nails that the soldiers hammered were on his hands and feet, but today we are hammering the nails on his heart through our sins after getting that salvation. To pray sincerely for those who do us wrong is one of the very highest points, if not actually the very loftiest, of human magnanimity. To dismiss all vindictive purpose, all resentful thought; to look at our enemy’s procedure in a kindly light, and to take, as Christ did here, a generous view of it; to cherish a positive wish for his good; to put this wish into action, into prayer; — by these stages we reach the summit of nobility.