Category: “Listening to God” Devotional

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+108

 

 

Psalm 108

English Standard Version (ESV)

With God We Shall Do Valiantly

A Song. A Psalm of David.

108 My heart is steadfast, O God!
  I will sing and make melody with all my being!
2 Awake, O harp and lyre!
  I will awake the dawn!
3 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
  I will sing praises to you among the nations.
4 For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
  your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
  Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 That your beloved ones may be delivered,
  give salvation by your right hand and answer me!

7 God has promised in his holiness:
  “With exultation I will divide up Shechem
  and portion out the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
  Ephraim is my helmet,
  Judah my scepter.
9 Moab is my washbasin;
  upon Edom I cast my shoe;
  over Philistia I shout in triumph.”

10 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
  Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Have you not rejected us, O God?
  You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
12 Oh grant us help against the foe,
  for vain is the salvation of man!
13 With God we shall do valiantly;
  it is he who will tread down our foes.

 

Reflection

• David began this psalm, which is a prayer for help against Israel’s enemies, with an expression of total confidence in the Lord. David’s very petition was worship, for he knew that “your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds”.
• God has promised the victory that David claimed. To “cast my shoe” (v9) represented Israel’s domination of a humbled and submissive Moab. David, even before the battle, so relied on the covenant commitment of God to be with Israel’s armies, that he spoke as if the victories were already won.
• This is a great expression of dependence on God and trust in Him for the deliverance He promised. We who are God’s people should face our spiritual enemies with the same humility and confidence.
• How has God’s provision or rescue for you in the past give you hope for the future?

 

Prayer & Journaling:

Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me. Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.

 

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+107

 

 

Psalms Book Five

(The Book of Praise)

Psalm 107

English Standard Version (ESV)

Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So

107 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
  for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
  whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
  from the east and from the west,
  from the north and from the south.

4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
  finding no way to a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
  their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
  and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
  till they reached a city to dwell in.
8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
  for his wondrous works to the children of man!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul,
  and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
  prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,
  and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
  they fell down, with none to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
  and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
  and burst their bonds apart.
15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
  for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze
  and cuts in two the bars of iron.

Reflection

• The hungry, thirsty, and homeless of Judah cried to the Lord. God redeemed, and with unfailing love led them to a city where they could settle.
• The pattern seen here is followed in each portrait of redemption. (If time permits, try to read through the whole Psalm.) Calamity leaves God’s people in desperate straits. They cry to God. He rescues them. Each calamity and rescue enriches our understanding of redemption, that we might praise God.
• In response to God’s rescue, the psalmist calls us to: “thank the Lord for his steadfast love…” (vv8, 15, 21, 31). Thanksgiving leads us to remember God’s action, but even more, it gives witness to God’s character – his goodness, his steadfast love, etc.
• Are you likely to call out to God in the midst of your trouble as those in this passage did? Why or why not?
• In what ways can you imitate the goodness of God displayed in this psalm?

 

Prayer & Journaling:

Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me. Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.