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May 12th
The Bible reading today is in the Songs again...Psalm 65-67 and 69 and 70.
I have chosen Ps 69 for the podcast today. It’s one of the two most Old Testament passages quoted in the New Testament.
David had many an occasion to sing this prayer that he wrote. “Save me O God...I'm drowning...”
How many times have we felt like we were drowning? How many times have we thought that we were about to be overwhelmed by something bad that we could not change? And all we could say was what David said...”Save me O God!”
Remember with me when the Son of David heard that desperate request from a drowning disciple...“Peter said, “Is that You, Lord...if it is You, command me to come to you on the water...Jesus said Come...and Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water...but when he saw the wind he got scared and began to sink and cried out, “Lord save me!” And he did.”
Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed into the hands of evil men, took his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemene to pray. Like David, the Son of the promise, Jesus, faced his own “deep water with no footing”...and Jesus said to his disciples, “My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death (kind of sorrow)...”
David said that he was completely worn out from his crying and his praying.
Wow...that’s intense!
Reminds us of Luke’s gospel record where Christ’s Gethsemene experience is defined a bit more graphicly. “Being in agony, Jesus prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.”
Now that is even more intense.
Jesus could have said the very words of David...”Father, I am weary in body and soul...my throat is parched with my groaning, ...my eyes grow dim with my tears...waiting upon my God.”
And the Messianic tone continues in this song of David...“More in number than the hairs on my head are those who hate me without a cause.”
David was hated by Saul and his entourage. How could that be? David served Saul faithfully and selflessly. Putting his life in danger over and over again for the sake of his king. And still, Saul and his thousands hated him...seemingly without cause. That was hard on young David.
Reformed theologian, Christopher Morgan, wrote the following about undeserved hatred: “Undeserved reproach is a most crushing grief for a sensitive soul.” Yes, that sure lines up with David and Jesus.
It’s hard for us to believe that such a Godly man as David would be so hated. It seems to be human nature...which is even more evident in the hatred without a cause directed toward Jesus...David’s greater Son.
Jesus specifically referred to our reading today when he spoke to his disciples the night before his crucifixion.
“This happened that the word might be fulfilled...They hated me without a cause!” John 15.
Some will say that the Scribes and Pharisees had plenty of cause to hate Jesus. But the fact is there was no cause in Christ...for their hatred. It was the self-righteousness that came from within them...from their own evil hearts... that hated Jesus...all the while that He was loving them with truth and grace.
And one more Messianic point in the text...“Though I have stolen nothing, I am made to restore it...”
This was certainly “Injustice toward David”. Truth was laid aside and judgments were based on lies...yes, injustice increased David’s sense of despair.
Though innocent he was treated guilty. Though David had no share in the plots against Saul, he was held accountable for them. David said, “I have stolen nothing”.
The devil tried to take what was not his...heaven’s throne. Adam took what was not his...forbidden fruit. Moses took what was not his...the the life of the Egyptian. David would take what was not his...the married Bathsheba
But Jesus? He would not take what was “rightfully” his...” the divine privileges of the Godhead”....and Died!.
For me and you so we could have “His eternal life”.
Have a great day
