Skip to main content

Daily Devotions for 1st October 2020

Psalm 75

The Psalmist, Asaph, continues from Psalm 73 and 74 where he is struggling when he is looking around and the wicked prospering. He was concerned with prideful evil doers who seemed to flourish. It is only natural to feel disturbed by the injustice and evil whether in our own lives or in the world and we grieve when people get away with their wrongdoing and goes unpunished for their evil deeds. We want justice to be done in our own timing. However, in verse 7, Asaph acknowledges that, one day, God will judge the wicked. This is an important shift of perspective which we must apply in our own lives. This Psalm describes God as the ultimate judge — righteous, holy, fair, and equitable in all things. God is the only one capable of righting every wrong, the only one we can trust to always do the right thing. Otherwise, it is our human tendency to judge everything: people, places and so on. We are almost never satisfied with what we see about life on the basis of our judgments. A realization of this truth can free us from self-condemnation or a tendency to condemn others.

Even though others are doing better than us, we should not let these issues that bother us and that can cause us to be anxious. It will take a toll on us mentally and physically and this will spillover to our relationships with others. Most of the time these issues are beyond our control and we must fully surrender it to God.  The Psalmist placed his faith in God that he remembered God’s faithfulness in the past and did not doubt that God will bring about a resolution to the wicked. When we fully surrender to God, we can find comfort and hope. We must realise that God is in control just like Asaph when he said when the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is God who keep steady its pillars (V.3). This is a beautiful image- when the world around us seems to be failing apart, God is the one who will keep things steady. As long as this is true, we don’t have to worry about the world crumbling around us, we don’t have to worry about injustice happening around us. Let us not doubt God’s faithfulness and his promises to His children and to cut off the ‘horns’ of the wicked.

Personal reflection:

  1.  How does knowing God is a righteous and fair judge change your perspective of the world around you? 
  2. Does knowing God is in control and he is the one steadying the pillars of your life bring you comfort and peace?

Prayer

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you are God of love as well as justice. Grant me peace and teach me to surrender our lives into your hands knowing that all our circumstances are in Your control. I take comfort in knowing that You are a loving, merciful and just God.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Danger of Spiritual Infancy (Hebrews 5:11 - 6:12)

Have you met people who refuse to grow up? There are some adults who prefer to remain as children because they do not want to take on adult responsibilities. Not only is immature behaviour unpleasant to observe or deal with, the consequences are often destructive. In Hebrews 5:11-14, the writer expresses his frustration that some members of the church were refusing to grow into spiritual maturity. They were no longer trying to understand God’s word (v 11). Instead of taking on the responsibility of teaching others as they themselves had been taught, they needed to be taught the basics all over again (v12). Therefore, they were unable to take on “solid food” which is for mature Christians, and they were not able to distinguish good from evil (v14) or to understand teaching about righteousness (v13). Spiritual maturity is a necessary part of our walk with God. Remaining as a spiritual infant means that you are not good at discerning right from wrong and you will have a hard time maintain

A prophet prophesies and the church fully obeys (Acts 11:27- 12:4)

During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. 12 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. When Jewish believers from Cyprus (Europe) and Cyrene (Liby

THE BLESSINGS OF HIS NAME (Numbers 6:22 - 27

I find this interesting because I remember listening to Pastor Betty’s message for 2021, and it was on the same Benediction Blessing verses. And today’s Scripture reading is exactly the same, and I am sure the Holy Spirit wants to remind us of “The Blessings of His Name” for 2022. Today, our mobile phones are loaded with New Year wishes, TV and radio personalities wish into microphones and cameras – we hear them from so many different sources. Carefully note what God tells us: “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them, The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you; The LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace.’ So, they will put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:23-27) In this way, God places His all-important NAME on us, His people. A comparison would be that of signing on a cheque. An unsigned check is void and worthless until the owner ‘s “name” has been pl