Sunday 6 September 2020 Psalm 17
Hear a just cause, O Lord, attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips….
As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness. Psalms 17:1&15
The Psalm is an earnest, fervent prayer by David to God, with a confident hope of deliverance. Going through the Psalm we come to know that wicked people were trying to oppress and persecute David for something that they thought he had done wrong. But when we look onto David’s prayer we can see his confidence in his innocence regarding this particular matter. He says:
Psa 17:1 – his prayer is not from deceitful lips
Psa 17:3 – he wants God to test his heart, visit him in the night but can find nothing in him
Psa 17:3 – he is sure that his mouth has not transgressed
As David was surrounded by bitter enemies many times, we too are engulfed by many problems in different phases of life. It may at be our workplace (your colleague who is backstabbing you) or family (everybody may be against you as you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior) or business rivals or false accusation of abuse, and we come to a point where we feel just torn into pieces as a prey going to be devoured by a lion. And then as David does, we just run to God for His divine protection. When David prays he is very sure that
Psa 17:6 – the Lord will hear him
Psa 17:7 – the Lord will show His loving-kindness and save those who trust in Him
Psa 17:8 – the Lord will keep him as the apple of His eye and hide him under His shadow
How about us – are we assured of being heard by the Lord? Let us look into ourselves and our prayer life. Are we confident enough to say as David said that my lips and my mouth have not transgressed, they are pure? Are we ready to give our hearts to be tested by God? Unfortunately, many times when our prayers go unanswered, we blame God, may even doubt His existence without realizing our own faults that prevent God from answering us.
But from this day on, instead of blaming God, let us look within and see if we our lips and mouth and hearts are clean as God wants it to be. Only then we will be able to pray confidently as David prayed. Only then we too will be called as David was, ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (Acts 13:22).
The climax of David’s prayer is expressed in Psa 17:15— his vision of fellowship with God in eternity. No matter how hard the circumstances in life may be, the hope of being in God’s presence, free from it all is strengthening. The hope of seeing God, face to face is satisfaction enough. Brethren, the problems or the enemies you are facing today is time-bound, as is your life on this earth. But how about your eternity—like David can you say that ‘I will see His face’?
You cannot see God in eternity if you have not accepted the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour. Are you ready dear friend to give your life to the Lord Jesus in this life and spend life with Him in eternity? He is knocking at the door of your heart. Will you open it for Him?
Think on it: A blind person asked God: “Can there be anything worse than losing eyesight?”
He replied: “Yes, losing your vision!” Let us not lose our vision for eternity.