Only For You

4.17.2011

Psalm 59:9-10a 9 O my Strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress, 10(a) my loving God. NIV

Much of what we learn about David, the great king of Israel, can be gleaned from what we hear him sing about in his songs – like, Psalm 59. David may never have sung these songs had not God tapped him to be the next king after Saul. Thanks a lot God, we might say.

David was God’s choice as was Saul God’s choice, but David had a heart different than Saul’s. David was the baby of his family, and that’s why we have the saying, “[It] rolls downhill.” Because he was the youngest, David got all the crap jobs while his older brothers went and did the normal men-stuff like being soldiers and vying for society’s attention. The youngest didn’t get the birthright; the youngest usually got the inheritance leftovers. But David, however, won the lottery, so to speak – God had His anointing poured on David’s head; and that’s what David became to his nation – the head.

David’s life was that of difficulty – being the youngest of the household notwithstanding. David was acquainted with difficulty all of his life but he seemed to have the innate ability to accept it all of as from the hand of God; and therefore, as we would say, okay. David looked at his life under the gleaming radiance of God’s glory and proclaimed, “It’s all good!” And Psalm 59, is a testament to the life of a guy who knew how to make comparisons between the life of the godly and that of the ungodly. David was pretty danged good at it.

I don’t claim to be the sharpest tool in the shed but the longer I live the more I can adopt some of David’s perspective that, (a) it’s all from God; and (b) it’s all good. By God’s grace I seem to have picked up some of the ability to make comparisons somewhere along the way, and lately my only response to what’s going on around me is this: it always goes good for the godly and always goes ill for the rest…(Cf. Psalm 59.11-13)

Lord God Almighty,
You care for the godly and work in their lives to affect holiness. You give them the ability to make comparisons between their lives and the lives of those who refuse You. And You help them to see that You are truly the only Choice worth making because, Lord, through adversity, difficulty, and trials, they learn how to watch only for You! Amen.