Year 5, Day 168: Psalm 13-14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.

These two psalms before us today are an interesting pair to say the least.  They present a very honest perspective about humanity.  Yes, humanity is evil.  Yes, human beings treat each other poorly.  But human beings also tend to feel separate from God – especially when life is difficult.  Let’s look at this more deeply.

In Pslam 13, the psalmist clearly asks God how long He will hide from him.  Here the psalmist clearly feels forgotten.  He clearly feels abandoned.  But look at what we can glean from this context.  When the psalmist feels abandoned and forgotten, what does He need most?  He needs God’s guidance.  The reason the psalmist feels forgotten and abandoned is because at this point in his life the psalmist is in great need of God.  When we feel like God has given us a plan and set us on an agenda, we are content in life.  But when we feel like we are wandering aimlessly it is a sign that we have drifted from God and need to recognize our need for His guidance.

In Psalm 14, we get a very blunt and honest perspective upon humanity.  There is none who are good among us.  Not even one, as verse 3 asserts!  We lack knowledge.  We lack understanding.  We are corrupt.  Our deeds are abominable.  If that isn’t a disparaging reflection upon humanity I don’t know what is.  But it is also a true reflection upon humanity.  This is why we need God’s guidance.  If we have no wisdom or understanding and that leads us into abominable actions, then we need God’s guidance to do anything well.  If we want to be more than our natural unwise abominable selves, we need God.

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