When I was in middle school (we called it Jr.
High back then) and high school, I was not a great fan of grammar. It wasn’t until I started studying other
languages that parts of speech began to really make sense to me, and I began to
care about verb tenses, participles, and subjects. To be sure, I still bend the rules of grammar
often, but now I usually know when I do.
I bring up grammar, the bane of many students,
because while reading this psalm it struck me how often the subject of the
verbs is God – all the verbs where things are really happening belong to God. God:
-
Inclined & heard
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Drew me up
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Set my feet on a rock
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Secures my steps
-
Put a song in my mouth
-
Multiplies wondrous deed
and thoughts
-
Does not require offering
or sacrifices
-
Will not restrain His
mercy
-
Takes thought of me
Look at the verbs where “I” am the
subject. I:
-
Waited
-
Proclaim and Tell what
God has done
-
Come – but it is because
I am inscribed in His scroll
-
Desire to do God’s will –
but it is because His Law is in my heart
-
Have not hidden God’s
deliverance
-
Have spoken of God’s
faithfulness and salvation
-
Have not concealed God’s
steadfast love and faithfulness
-
Cannot see
-
Am poor and needy
David wants it to be absolutely clear that
salvation is from the LORD. What do we contribute to it? Nothing.
Zip. Zilch. Nada. And
because of this we praise and worship God.
This is something we need to get through our
rock-hard skulls. There is always a piece
of us that says, “I have to do something,” as if we can earn salvation. Or we say that we will do some wonderful
thing for thing for God, as if can add value to what He has done. Or we say, “I know that I’m forgiven, but I
must now do this that or the other thing,” as if we have to contribute to or
round out what Jesus has done for us.
Listen to contemporary Christian music for long and you will hear ideas
like these. Read contemporary Christian
authors and you will likely run into thoughts like these.
The Bible teaches a passive righteousness and
salvation. God has provided everything
from first to last.
Does that mean we do nothing? No indeed!
We wait. We respond. We tell what God has done. We point people to the cross of Christ. We direct people to Jesus’ empty tomb as our
deliverance. We make known the deeds of
our savior who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and tell
others about Him so He can save them, too.
O Holy Spirit, set my eyes on Jesus and empower me to point others to Him,
too. Amen.
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