If God were silent, if God were never to
speak to us or on our behalf we would be like those who “go down to the
pit.” That is a striking statement of
how truly and deeply we need God’s Word.
Without God speaking to us, without Him telling us that He loves us,
that we are forgiven for Jesus’ sake, and that His desire for us is to be saved
and not condemned, we are like the condemned headed for death.
In this psalm we are praying for God to
protect us from this great evil and those who lead us away from God’s
Word. Luther wrote about this psalm
pointing out that David dealt with this problem in Saul, Absalom and others. He says, “… they spoke well to him and acted
friendly at times, yet attempted to kill him….”
The same is true for us, although perhaps not of our physical
lives.
There are people out there proclaiming
“wisdom”, trying to show a “better” way than the one God has given us. They, in Luther’s words, “portray themselves
as friendly, yet in daily machinations they seek ways to kill and
destroy.” In other words, their purpose
and intent (knowingly or unknowingly) is to erode the foundation of God’s Word in
our lives, to point us to a different “gospel”, and to ultimately have us trust
in something other than Jesus (or in addition to Jesus) for our salvation. They look wonderful outwardly, pious,
generous, kind and good, “yet for all that, they seek the corruption of souls
and are, under sheep’s clothing, ravening wolves.” (Luther)
The Masons and the Mormons come to mind here,
along with other groups. They are moral
and wonderful people in this world. They
do much good. Yet the Masons would put
the foundation of your life on what you do instead of what Jesus has done for
you. The Mormons do much the same while
proclaiming a different Jesus than the one the Bible proclaims. Their teachings rob people of the salvation
Jesus has won for them.
In much the same way as David prayed, we pray
in the Lord’s Prayer for our Father to deliver us from evil. Essentially we are asking for God to, “deliver
us from every evil of body and soul, property and honor, and finally, when our
last hour comes, grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this vale
of tears to Himself in Heaven.” (Small Catechism)
In this world we live surrounded by peril. We are so used to this that we hardly see the
dangers to our physical and spiritual lives around us. We take our safety for granted. Yet the truth is that God is constantly
intervening on our behalf. We recognize
this from time to time when we have a close call driving, or in other areas of
our physical lives. Yet spiritually He
is every bit as much at work (if not more!) strengthening us with His Word,
providing forgiveness, and giving us His life.
“Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the
voice of my pleas for mercy.” “The LORD is the strength of His
people; He is the saving refuge of his anointed.” He acts on our behalf, and because He does we
are saved. All this He does simply
because He loves us, and our right response is to trust Him, thank and praise
Him, serve and obey Him.
As I write these words, my youngest daughter
is upstairs singing. For the most part I
can’t tell what she’s singing, but I hear very clearly, now and again, “Jesus,
help me!” It’s a great prayer for us in
light of this psalm. He is our strength
and shield; in Him we trust and we are helped, and therefore we rejoice and
give thanks to him.
Jesus, help me! Save your
people! Bless your heritage! Be our shepherd and carry us forever. Amen.
Comments