Additional Scripture Reading: Romans 1: 14-17
Scripture Emphasis:
Psalm 31: 1 O Lord, deliver me in your righteousness.
Psalm 17:15 KJV: As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. (1)
” Prayer is the Soul of religion. Consequently, when human effort is over, lots of adventure still unfolds because God is waiting in solitude to meet you, and He acts.
Psalm 7, and Psalm 31, contain the introductory remark “A Prayer of David.” The autobiography that follows that introduction creates an immediate and stark contrast. David’s scars from engagement in life’s front-line battles are evident to all. Therefore, he exercises no economy of words in remembering his enemies. This response is too often the distinguishing mark of our humanity. Yet, the fact that David appears before God, scarred and wounded, makes God a more profound reality in the grip of personal anguish.
The meaning of human existence is incomplete when considering empirical evidence alone. Chance happenings, skilled manoeuvring, and even noble engagements lack the complete unfolding of the human story. Whether or not they know it, humans always aspire for something beyond themselves. Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that a world beyond apprehends them. Therefore, consider David’s theological understanding of the word righteousness used in both Scriptural references.
Recall the scene! David stands before the God of his creation. He bears in his body the marks of worldly conflicts. But more important than all else is David’s consciousness of being shut in God, as if in some impregnable fortress.” In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge.” Finding the Fortress Door open suggests that David might be an expected visitor by God.
Consequently, the Place exudes friendship and goodwill, such as when a father welcomes home his prodigal son. At that moment, David reiterates his request, “Deliver me in Your righteousness.” The expectation of an answer to his prayer depends upon David’s understanding of God’s righteousness being always available.
Persuasively, David’s faith in God stands revealed from early childhood. “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” (Psa. 27:4)Yet, David’s faith is that attitude in which, acknowledging one’s complete insufficiency for life’s most pre-ordained goals, we rely utterly on the sufficiency of God.
God’s righteousness is an act originating beyond our present environment, designed to undertake and safeguard the purpose of our creation. In reality, it is God’s righteousness which creates David. And as with David, so it is with humankind. The intended product a person is to become never results from human initiative and skill; instead, one remains in God’s workshop for the entirety of his lifespan. No one expresses the possibility of that truth more fluently than the poet William Wordsworth in his poem Intimations Of Immortality.
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home: ” (2)
Every quality, every gift, and guidance required to complete his appointed task are already in reserve, awaiting David’s request. Everything David will need to fulfil God’s plan the day He commanded, ” Let us make man in our image ( Genesis 1:26)” is now being revealed as David petitions God, ” Deliver me in Your righteousness.”
The New Testament confirms the universality of this essential truth through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In his New Testament letter to the Romans, St Paul states,” The Gospel reveals a righteousness from God, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.” (Romans 1: 17 )
When Paul says, therefore, God’s righteousness is revealed, he means that a divine act or activity is manifesting within the field of human experience-. In contrast, much of His operation is inscrutable and mysterious.” (3)
Thus, not for David alone does the abiding Presence of God fashion his earthly sojourn, but for all of us. Therefore, when that morning finally dawns, and we stand in His righteousness, may we, like David, be satisfied that He, looking upon us, shall see the likeness of Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness revealed from Heaven.
( Psalm 17:15)
A Prayer To Follow This Meditation
Thank You, Father, for leaving the door to Your dwelling place ajar for me. You were expecting me to drop in because I have finally realized that without You, I cannot live, nor dare I die!
Father, I believe that “The Best Me” is hidden in You.
Therefore, You know me better than I know myself. And You understand better than I do the pressures of living in this world. Almost everyone ensnares themselves in a web of pretence, self-seeking ambitions and alternate facts. Neither am I unscathed by these harsh realities. It is altogether futile for me in Your presence to pretend otherwise. That confession is another burden You have lifted from my Soul while in this mysterious solitude, where You are in complete control, ‘Spirit with Spirit doth meet. Closer are You than breathing, nearer than hands and feet.’
I know that in numerous ways, I have not fulfilled the mission You had in mind on the day You said, ” I will make him in My Image to be my ambassador in the world. But, Father, does that mean lost opportunities and abandoned hopes? So, Father, in Your righteousness, deliver me now. Show me what You initially desired to accomplish in me. And what I have not yet attained, equip me now with all that’s needed to reveal Your likeness at the meeting on that final morning.
I pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
Hymn: I Feel The Winds Of God
Editorial Notes
- Biblical references are from the NIV translation of Scripture except when indicated in the text.
- The quotation is from the poem Intimations of Immortality written by William Wordsworth.
- Reference C.H. Dodd in The Epistle of Paul to the Romans.
- Hymn “I Feel the Winds Of God” as performed on YouTube
- Painting is from open stock on the internet.