The Commnd

DEVOTION

PSALMS

THE COMMAND

Ps 71:1-4

In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. 2 Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness; turn your ear to me and save me. 3 Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. 4 Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of evil and cruel men.

NIV

Again we can look at this from a historic view of the plight of David as Saul seeks to kill him because David had already been anointed by Samuel as the new king to replace Saul. From all the other accounts we can come to this conclusion and know this is the pain that floods his soul because he truly has no bad feeling toward Saul. So we interpret many of these psalms from that historic point of view. Yet there is much more there which we can see which gives spiritual value to these words. Of course in a physical sense we do not have wicked men, evil and cruel men seeking to destroy us that we have to take refuge in the Lord. However, we do have evil trying to destroy us. We also, in some sense, have the wicked, which are defined as anyone who does not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, endeavoring to destroy us. The wicked, those of this world are making every effort to get Christianity out of the public square. They have a grasp on the seat of power in this land, and it is almost like they have a grasp around our throat. It does not appear like it on the surface, but they are plotting behind the scenes, their schemes are driving by Satan himself. He is always scheming in some way to do us harm. He attacks us within our thoughts. He tempts us in ways we may not be aware of. Sure, we know our weak areas, but we miss others. His plots and schemes are designed to find areas where we are weak. If we deny he is tempting us, we are like and ostrich with our head in the sand. Sure we may not actually do anything really bad, but want about our attitude toward others. Do we harbor and ill feelings? Do we get judgmental? Are we critical of others? Do we fail to forgive someone? Is there any greed at all in our life? Do we have too much of a concern about our financial security? For that matter, are we too self-centered? What is our thought life centered on? There is so much we need to run to the Lord and hide in the Rock of our Salvation. We need him to be our fortress, our defense against all the schemes of the evil one. When we are always aware of God, always having him in our thoughts, being our righteousness, our rock, our fortress, then those schemes will roll of our backs like water rolls of a ducks back. We will not be effected by the wicked, the evil men who would do us harm or from the evil one himself. God will always give the command to save us. If we look to him, he will give the command. All authority is  given to him in heaven and on earth, so Lord give the command.