"Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God."
Psalms 43:1-5
Woof.. that's a lot to take in.. especially from David. Yeah, you know.. the man who was King David. Deemed the man after God's own heart. That guy who killed the mighty (and very scary) Goliath when his job wasn't to be a warrior, but to watch sheep... He's also the guy who slept with a married woman, got her pregnant, tried to pass it off as her husband's doing, and when he could't, killed the husband and married the now widowed wife. Um, what? And THIS is the man that God proclaims is after His own heart?
I could go on and on about David forever.. Not only does the Bible comment on his studly looks (like hey baby worthy looks), but it also shows us our true human nature through him, and how God loves us just the same even when we are on that crazy roller coaster of emotions.
"Vindicate me, O God..." Why should he? What have we done to deserve clearance or be absolved from our sins? Oh sure, I never killed anyone like David did... but that one lie I told last week was enough to nail Jesus on the cross. And it's not limited to that one lie, I haven't just sinned ONCE. Jesus died on that cross loooong before I could even speak, let alone before any perversity could come from my mouth.. he took the punishment for it. And now, because of that.. because I have accepted Christ, follow him, and his blood has washed me white as snow, I am vindicated. I am absolved. I am redeemed. Now this doesn't mean that I won't ever ever sin again.. but it does mean that Jesus has already got my back when I do sin, and all I have to do is turn my heart back to him, and say sorry. And even when that happens, how sweet of God to correct me gently.
"So correct me, LORD, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die."
Jeremiah 10:24
"For you are the God of my strength; Why do you cast me off?" -- Ever feel like God isn't responding to you? Like He's just cast you off, doesn't care, or isn't responding to your needs? This is where things start to get a little sticky... we trust our emotions. Everyone says follow your heart, do what you feel and think is best.. But the Bible tells us opposite.
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9
"For out of the heart come evil thoughts--murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." - Matthew 15:19
We can't always trust our feelings. They can be deceitful and evil without us recognizing it. What we can trust, no matter how we are feeling is God's Word.
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." - Luke 21:33, Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31
Wow.. important enough to restate three times... HIS WORD WILL NOT PASS AWAY and that means we can trust it to ALWAYS be true. And what does it tell us when we feel like God doesn't care and is far away? Well firstly it tell us over and over and over how carefully and with specific plans God created us. How he loves us so unconditionally and unstoppably (that's actually a word!), and how he wants us to come to him.
"Come close to God, and God will come close to you." - James 4:8a
The verse goes on to tell us how to come closer to God.. We are to wash our hands of sin (and wash them physically of germs.. but that parts not biblical... just good hygiene :P), purify our hearts, and stop being divided between the world and God.
God doesn't write you off. I mean, if David, who committed most of those evil things in Matthew 15:19 turned back to the Lord continually, and God still named David the one after God's own heart... well I don't know about you, but that makes me feel a whole lot better when I feel like God is casting me off.. His Word reminds us that he's calling us in, not casting us off. I can imagine God saying..
Come near to me, dear one. Wash your hands, purify your heart, and set your mind on me. I can't wait until you let me draw near to you.
"Oh, send out your light and your truth! Let them lead me..." -- In Proverbs it tells us countless times to seek truth and wisdom and understanding.. but what I love about this part of the verse is the verse it connects with..
John 1:5 "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it."
David knew that the only spark of hope in a dark, dark place was God's light. The same holds true to us. No matter WHAT we are going through, from something seemingly small, to things so big we could've never imagined them, darkness will never be able to put out God's light. And more so, the light let's you see. I know you're thinking.. well, duh. Bear with me here, and trust me, I'm not on any percocet today :P The light lets you see things otherwise hidden in darkness... In other words, the light exposes the truth. How often do I ask God to send me his light and truth and let them guide me? That's the best kind of guide someone could have.. and yet.. do I ask, or do I wander around in the darkness, without seeing, without truth.. without a guide?
"Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God." -- TRUST HIM, then PRAISE HIM! David was SO confident that God would rescue him, he started making plans of praising God before anything had even changed yet! How awesome is that, and talk about hope! He's already feeling more joyful because of the hope promised in God. Trust God.. he goes way beyond our expectations.
"Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God." --So... he just started feeling a little better.. talking about praising God and being joyful.. and then goes back to how his soul is down cast.. sometimes just in our humanness, our emotions don't make sense.. and it's ok. It's ok to be sad sometimes for a good reason, or for no reason at all. The part that isn't ok is if you stay there. It's so easy to throw a pity party or start snowballing into negativity (trust me.. i could build 98674 snowmen with all the snowballs i've accumulated) but David didn't. He spoke the truth about how he was feeling.. "cast down.. disquieted". What are your true feelings? Sadness, depression, joyfulness, discontentedness..etc? Whatever it is.. it's ok to feel that.. but don't forget the most important part trailing behind that.. "Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God" .. HOPE! He will never leave you nor betray you, he thinks about you more than there are grains of sand, he knit you together, he LOVES you! and he knows these crazy emotions happen.. but he wants you to HOPE in him. PRAISE! Praise him! (that one doesn't really need more explanation.. pretty flat out there..) HELP! Let him help you, he is so eager to come to your rescue. "MY GOD" -- Let him be your God. Walk with him, talk with him, let him be your friend.. I promise he'll be the best one you ever have.
Thank you, Lord for using David as an example of how you love us even when we make the wrong decisions or don't live up to who we think we should be. And thank you, Lord for light in the darkness, for your hope.
My God is a vindicator, a helper and a hope giver because God is love.
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