Listen here.
Welcome to
Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the appointed Scripture readings for
the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
in Hudson, OH. Thank you for being with me today.
If I were going
to choose a couple words that summarize our readings for this week they would
be repentance and forgiveness. In the Psalm for this Sunday, King David writes
of his righteousness – he recognizes that he is a forgiven sinner. But also
seeks to live a life of repentance – a life that turns away from sin, and seeks
to follow God’s ways for his life.
Let’s read it.
The Psalm appointed for the 3rd Sunday of Easter is….
The Reading: Psalm 4 ESV
To the
choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
Answer me when I
call, O God of my righteousness!
You
have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
2 O men, how long shall my honor be
turned into shame?
How
long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the LORD has set
apart the godly for himself;
the
LORD hears when I call to him.
4 Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder
in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices,
and
put your trust in the LORD.
6 There are many who say, "Who
will show us some good?
Lift
up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!"
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both lie down and
sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Comments:
The
Psalms are beautiful examples of what it means to meditate on God’s Word. They
are, actually, at the same time meditations on God’s Word and God’s Word.
Pretty cool!
David
begins with thinking about God’s salvation as he calls out to God. He trusts
God will hear him because God makes him righteous. He forgives him. He gives
David relief from the distress of life, which all flow from sin. He trusts God’s
grace to hear his prayer and answer him.
In
verse 2 he begins to remind himself (and us) of different parts of God’s will
for us. He is calling us to turn away from things like slander, lying, anger,
sin, and doubt, and to turn toward faith in the LORD, remembering God’s mercy,
speaking to our hearts about God’s love, His will, His deeds, His salvation, and
trusting in Him.
And
notice that this meditation on repentance and forgiveness has an impact on
David. God gives him joy and peace.
We
too can remember God’s forgiveness and consider ways we can repent, ways we can
turn from our sin. We can meditate on God’s love and salvation and we can think
about what our response His love and salvation should be. And we, too, receive
joy and peace as we do. So let’s listen to the Psalm again to meditate on God’s
forgiveness and our response of repentance.
The Reading: Psalm 4 ESV
To the
choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
Answer me when I
call, O God of my righteousness!
You
have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
2 O men, how long shall my honor be
turned into shame?
How
long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the LORD has set
apart the godly for himself;
the
LORD hears when I call to him.
4 Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder
in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices,
and
put your trust in the LORD.
6 There are many who say, "Who
will show us some good?
Lift
up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!"
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both lie down and
sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Prayers:
O God, You answer
when we call on You, and because You answer us we have joy and peace in our
lives. Thank You for hearing our prayers and leading us to live our lives
walking in Your paths. We pray for your forgiveness though, because we know that
too often we turned away from godliness, we have become angry and sinned. This has
robbed us of our joy and it has stolen our peace. Forgive us and restore Your
joy and peace to us, so that as we dwell in safety we will walk in Your ways.
Amen.
Memory Verse: 1 John 3:1 - See what kind of love the Father
has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The
reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 Jn. 3:1
ESV)
Thank you so much
for using Devotions for Worship, I pray that our time together has blessed you
and given you something to meditate on – some reminder of God’s grace to rattle
around in your brain – for the rest of the day.
Would you do me a
favor? If you got something out of this devotional time, would you like and/or
share it on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever you do social media? That would help
me get the word out, and hopefully help these devotions be a blessing to others.
God bless you!
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Devotions for
Worship: Psalm 4 - audio: https://soundcloud.com/pastor-tritten/april-14-psalm-4
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