Year 2, Day 182: Psalm 40

Psalm 40

I stand greatly convicted by the opening verses in Psalm 40.  I’ve spoken frequently about the need for us to completely put our trust in God.  But what is ultimately challenging is David’s words in verse 4.  Blessed is the one who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, or go astray after a lie.

At first, these words might not sound so challenging.  After all, there is a lot of truth in them.  In fact, there is absolute truth in them!  That’s what is so challenging, actually.

How many of us cannot claim to chase after a lie?  How many of us have ever fallen under the belief that the ways of the Lord are too hard?  Or maybe we fall prey to pride and believe that the ways of the Lord don’t apply to us?  I don’t know about you, but I know that I am guilty of that from time to time.  My own agenda takes the place of God’s ways.  My own desires take the place of God’s overarching plan.

You see, the next stanza of verses really does talk about how important this line of thinking really is to God.  What does David say?  It is neither sacrifice – that is, the blood sacrifice of animals – nor offerings that God genuinely desires from us.  In this I am reminded of Psalm 51:16-17 or Hosea 6:6.  What it the quality that He desires of those who come into His presence?  God desires that we delight to do His will.  God desires that His Law – His ways – is inscribed upon our hearts.

So I must return back to the questions that I brought up two paragraphs ago.  Do I really pursue the ways of the Lord?  Or do I simply speak a belief in God but not actually live out that belief?  Now I am reminded of Isaiah 29:13 or its New Testament versions in Mark 7:6-8 and Matthew 15:1-9.  This is getting to the essence of what made David a man after God’s own heart.  Yes, David made many mistakes.  In his passion for living, he made many rash decisions.  But He repented of them.  He genuinely wanted to follow God’s ways.  David genuinely proclaimed the ways of the Lord and the greatness of following them.

When David sinned, he didn’t make excuses.  He didn’t try to justify himself.  He repented and he began to proclaim the greatness of God’s ways and the foolishness of his own.

In the end, this is all that any of us can do.  Every single one of us will make poor choices.  Every single one of us will follow our own hearts.  We will follow our own passions.  We will think our own desires and our own passion is more important that God’s plan for us.  It’s called sin.

But we can repent.  We can see the error of our ways.  We can stop pursuing our own desires and begin to once again proclaim the ways of God as good through both our words and actions.  As David says, we should not hide His deliverance in our hearts and we should speak of His faithfulness. 

All of this should lead us to the place where David finds himself: in God’s mercy.  How many times do we rebel against God?  How many times do we pursue our own desires instead of God’s ways?  Yet God is merciful.  He is patient.  He forgives us when we repent.  We have every reason to rejoice and be grateful.

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