Video Talk
Psalms 86:1-8 ESV
“Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am godly;
save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.
3 Be gracious to me, O Lord,
for to you do I cry all the day.
4 Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
listen to my plea for grace.
7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you,
for you answer me.
8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours.”
So, I was reading this passage of Scripture this morning,
and something stood out to me about it. In verse two the Psalmist David claimed
that he was godly, that he was a servant of the Lord who put his trust in the
Lord, and God was his God (Lord, Master, Savior). So, he was walking in
righteousness and holiness in obedience to his Lord, and not in sin.
But then I got down to verse five where it says, “For you, O
Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon
you.” And immediately this thought came into my mind, and I asked the Lord, “Why
would the forgiveness of God be mentioned in a passage of Scripture where the
one writing it was claiming to be godly?”
And the Lord reminded me of a song he gave me to write back
in 2012 based off this Psalm. And so I read the introduction I had written to
the song. My husband and I had both been sick at that time and neither one of
us was doing well. Well, I walked into our bedroom and I turned on the light
and immediately he responded in pain. He was in bed sick. And I felt so badly I
cried. I wasn’t trying to hurt him. My mind just wasn’t all there.
And from that the Lord had me write the song based off this
psalm about how loving and forgiving is God. Now, did I sin against God or my
husband? No. So what this got me thinking about is the little things we do
sometimes that are not defined as sin, and they are not deliberate or habitual,
but sometimes we might say the wrong thing or not in the best way, or we might be
distracted by something, or maybe we just have an area of our lives that needs
some growth, and so there are things we need to work on and change so that we
can mature in our walks of faith.
And this brought to mind another psalm of David, Psalms
19:12-13:
“Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.”
David had two categories here, one of hidden faults, and the
other of presumptuous (willful, audacious) sins. The former he asked the Lord
to declare him innocent of, so he was not talking about willful and secretive
sins, but things perhaps he didn’t do so well at that he was not aware of. And
the other is definitely describing sin which you know you are committing, and
it is blatant, deliberate, and usually habitual.
So, the point here is that no matter how godly we are, we
are still not perfect people. But lack of perfection is NEVER to be used as an
excuse for deliberate, blatant, and habitual sin! But Jesus doesn’t demand
perfection. He demands that we make godliness, holiness, righteousness, and
obedience to him our practice, and that sin NOT be our practice. And if we
should sin, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1-2).
But, if we are walking in deliberate and habitual sin, and
not in holiness and righteousness, and not in obedience to our Lord, we do NOT have
an advocate to speak in our defense. We have a God who is saying, “I never knew
you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” for they would not yield
control of their lives over to the Lord, and they would not obey him and walk
in holiness and righteousness, in practice, but sin was their practice,
instead. And so they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NzcEJ7D6_o
You
are Loving and Forgiving
An
Original Work / February 19, 2012
Based
off Psalm 86
You are loving and forgiving,
Jesus, Savior, King of kings.
You provided our redemption.
By Your blood You set us free.
You are gracious; full of mercy.
No deeds can compare with Yours.
Great are You; there is none like You.
Glory be to Your name.
Teach me Your way, and I’ll walk in it.
O Lord, I will walk in Your truth.
May I not have a heart divided,
That Your name I give honor to.
I will praise You, O Lord, my Savior,
For great is Your love toward me.
You have delivered me from my sins.
Your grace has pardoned me.
You, O Lord, are full of compassion,
Slow to anger, bounteous in love;
Faithful to fulfill all You promise;
Glory be to Your name above.
Hear, O Lord, and answer Your servant.
You are my God. I trust in You.
Turn to me and grant Your strength to me.
You are my comforter.
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