Oh that I had a heart like David that was firmly fixed & confident in God that I would be able to wake up singing “with all my being” (1)! David didn’t need coffee or an energy drink to wake him up. The great steadfast love and towering faithfulness of God fueled his thanksgiving & praise singing – even among those who were not God’s people (3-4). I’m sure he wanted to let the nations know of God’s greatness & power & salvation. More than anything else, David wanted God to be exalted “above the heavens” and his glory to be “over all the earth” (5). He knew that, if God’s “beloved ones” were to be delivered, salvation would have to come from God’s “right hand” (i.e., by his might) (6). David understood that God governed both his people (7-8) and those who were not his people (9). That’s why he wanted God’s praises sung among the nations (3). David also knew that victory over his enemies could only come from God. He could rely on no human source, for “vain is the salvation of man” (12). His confidence was firmly fixed in God, who would “tread down our foes” (13). Such humility is the key to all victory.
In his masterful work, The Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther wrote:
“God has assuredly promised his grace to the humble, that is, to those who lament and despair of themselves. But no man can be thoroughly humbled until he knows that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, devices, endeavors, will, and works, and depends entirely on the choice, will, and work of another, namely, of God alone.” (Cited in the ESV Devotional Psalter.)
Luther spoke about the greatest of all salvations, the deliverance from the power and penalty of sin. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that no man can save himself by his own works, no matter how “good” he thinks they are or he is. The Bible makes it clear that “there is none who is righteous” and none who does enough good to satisfy God’s standard of righteousness, no not one” (Romans 3:10-12). Only Jesus Christ and faith in him alone can save us from our sins and God’s wrath. The Bible also makes it abundantly clear that, whenever God determines that a virus will bring the world to a standstill and kill people and wreck economies, ONLY GOD can stop its spread and devastation in HIS time and in HIS way. Any “salvation” from COVID-19 will come from God and God alone, with or without the use of human means. This is a message that a certain governor from a certain northern state needs to hear. Only God’s intervention and mighty power will “flatten the curve” or squash it altogether. The United States of America is “one nation under God” that needs to hear over and over that God reigns supreme “above the heavens” and “over the earth” (5). Any “salvation” from the coronavirus or any other “foe” America is facing will come by the will & power of God. Oh that we all had a humble heart like David that was firmly fixed & confident in the God who enables his people to live “valiantly” in every circumstance we face.
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