Thursday, October 11, 2018

Poor and Needy


DEVOTION
PSALM
POOR AND NEEDY

Ps 70
Hasten, O God, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me. 2 May those who seek my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. 3 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!" turn back because of their shame. 4 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, "Let God be exalted!" 5 Yet I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.
NIV

Although we do not have anyone seeking our life in a physical sense that David may have been speaking about here, we surely have someone who is seeking our life spiritually. So we could pray that Satan would be put to shame and confusion. He certainly desires to be our ruin, so may he be turned back in disgrace. The idea here which David is expressing here is that he is not able to defend himself and needs the help of the Lord. He says he is poor and needy, come quickly to me, O God. David was a warrior among warriors, but says he is poor and needy. As a young boy he stood fearlessly before a giant of a man in front of two armies of warriors and defeated the entire enemy army single handed, with but a sling shot. But he says he is poor and needy, come quickly to me, O God. David could have stood his ground and battled his enemy face to face, if only it was an enemy of human descent. Yet maybe even then David would have felt his poorness and neediness for his strength came from the Lord God Almighty. What a lesson for us today. So often we go about our daily activities in a more or less self-sufficient attitude.  We rely on our own abilities at our work, or profession because we took the time to learn the skills needed to perform our daily work. We take on tasks at church before asking God if that is what he would have us do. We do them because we have the abilities. Most of our life is about what we can do, how smart we are, how well we can provide for ourselves, how much money we can invest, or store up for our future, we feel we have control of our destiny, our old age. We have planned appropriately, our life is on track. But wait, what about God? Should we really think we have control? Are we not poor and needy? Do we not need God to provide for us? We can’t help thinking about the words of Jesus to the church.

Rev 3:17-18
17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
NIV

David understood his condition before God, respecting his position regardless of his position in this life. We are all poor and needy, for we are in desperate need of God in every aspect of our life. Come quickly to me, O Lord.

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