Daily Devotion With Pastor Dan – October 13th, 2020
Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. 2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.” 3 As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” 4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, Nor take up their names on my lips. 5 O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. 6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance. (Psalm 16:1-6)
This Psalm is one that David writes of himself, but according to Peter in (Acts 2:25), and Paul in (Acts 13:35-39), this Psalm also relates to Christ’s sufferings and victory over death and the grave, including His exaltation to the right hand of God. Since it was necessary for God to “preserve” His Son, and seeing David’s request that God would “preserve” him, how important might this be for me and you?
The word for “preserve” comes from the Hebrew word (shamar; shaw-mar), and it means to hedge one about (as with thorns), to guard, to protect, to attend to, and to keep. Notice that David’s desire of God is to not let him go, to not forget him. This is what David’s trust’ was in.
How about us? Do we completely trust that God will preserve us? The truth is, we are being carefully “guarded” in Christ! Peter uses a different word (phroureo; froo-reh’-o) to express a similar idea (1 Peter 1:3-5). Paul used yet another word (sozo; sode’-zo) to express his own confidence in God’s preservation (2 Timothy 4:17-18). Jesus Himself reassured his disciples that no one could “snatch” them out of His hand (John 10:27-29).
Is it God we have to trust for our preservation? Can’t we trust ourselves to do it? No! Emphatically no! We cannot trust ourselves, not one bit. Yet this is what so many people do, they trust in themselves to not only get to heaven, but they trust in themselves to keep them in God’s favor. The Bible declares the danger of trusting in our feelings (Proverbs 14:12) (Proverbs 28:26).
We must, like David, trust in our God. While the Christian may feel insecure the reality is that he/she is very secure (Proverbs 3:25-26) (Hebrews 4:16). While the Christian may feel helpless, the reality is that he/she has great help (Psalm 27:4-5) (Romans 8:31). While the Christian may feel alone, the reality is that God is always at his/her side (Matthew 28:20) (Hebrews 13:5-6).
Are you a Christian? I mean of course how the Bible defines what a Christian is, not what the culture says a Christian is. If you are give the Lord praise this morning for His preservation of you for all eternity.