Living Blessed

DEVOTION

PSALMS

Ps 144

LIVING BLESSED

144:1 Of David.

Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. 2 He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. 3 O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? 4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow. 5 Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. 6 Send forth lightning and scatter [the enemies]; shoot your arrows and rout them. 7 Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners 8 whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. 9 I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you, 10 to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David from the deadly sword. 11 Deliver me and rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. 12 Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. 13 Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; 14 our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets. 15 Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.

NIV

The first thought that comes to mind is the command of making every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy from the letter to the Hebrews as well as in Paul’s letter to the Romans he says to make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. David is asking God to train his hands for war. That sounds a bit contradictory with those commands of the New Testament. However, we know there was much war in the Old Testament and many peoples were destroyed before Israel. However, we should also seek the Lord to train our hands for war against the enemy of our soul, and against the traps and snares of this world. When we live in the right manner we do make the Lord our Rock, our loving God, our fortress, stronghold, deliverer and our shield. This is complete trust in his hand, his design, his purpose for our life. He subdues everything in our way which is on the path he set before us. It might seem when we face hardship or difficulties we might consider if we have wandered off the path and in his hand. Yet throughout many of the letters to the believers in the early church, they endured suffering, and were told Christ suffered for them and us, so  suffering is the life of a believer. That is only true if we are suffering because of our faith in Jesus. If we suffer because of our own stupid mistakes, as wandering off the path God has set before us, then that does not count as suffer for Christ. David asks God to part the heavens and come down and touch the mountains so they  would smoke. At the same time David is considering just how small man is compared to God and why would God even be mindful of such small men. God did come down, but not as a mighty king making the mountains to smoke, but as a small human infant to deliver his people from the hand of their enemy, sin which leads to death. We have been delivered from the mighty waters that would drown us, and from the hand of foreigners who's mouths are full of lies and hands that are deceitful. They are of the world, and we are of the kingdom of God, so all in the world are foreigners to us and us to them. We have nothing in common with them which is why we are commanded not to be yoked with them in any way. our mouths sing a new song now, not the same tune the world sings, but a new song, a new language, a heavenly song of praise and thanksgiving.  When we live in this new kingdom of God, we do not live under the deceitful lies of the world. There is a promise for those who live as kingdom people. Our children will prosper and we will prosper, our barns will be full. The wall God has put around us will not be breached, the enemy will not be able to enter and destroy us. We will not be carried off into captivity by sin or the ways of the world. There is no distress in our streets, in our lives, because we are living in the kingdom of God. It just makes us wonder if there is distress, are we living in the kingdom or the world, well of the world, taking on the methods of life the people of the world use in an effort to advance their own agenda, desires, goals and ambitions. Because we are kingdom people, we live for the kingdom, for our Lord, for his agenda, his goals, and his will. Then we will be a blessed people because God is the Lord, our Lord. We will be living blessed.