I opened up the Bible to Psalms 38, a Psalm written by King David. This Psalm reflects a dark period in David's life, a period filled with strife, fear, depression, loneliness, and we read David's pitiful pleas to God to not abandon him, to not stand away from him, to protect him from his enemies who seemed to have the upper hand over him. The Psalm starts out with his plea to God, "O LORD, don't rebuke me in your anger! Don't discipline me in your rage! Your arrows have struck me deep, and your blows are crushing me." (vs. 1-2). The Psalm ends with another plea, "Do not abandon me, LORD. Do not stand at a distance, my God. Come quickly to help me, O Lord my savior." (vs. 21-22)
As I sat thinking over the Psalm, I was sitting under our living room ceiling fan and it blew the pages over. Thinking I was reading Psalms 18, I thumbed through the pages to Psalms 18 and started reading it. It also is a Psalm written by David. But this Psalm was a Psalm of hope, boldness, courage, strength, and assurance of victory in God. The Psalm starts out, "I love you, LORD; you are my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold." It ends with a proclamation, "You give great victories to your king; you show unfailing love to your anointed, to David and all his descendants forever." (vs. 1-2). After I finished reading the Psalm, I sat there thinking, hmmm... This was not what I was reading before. Finally, I found the Psalm I had started out with, Psalms 38, and read again and noticed the stark contrast in the tone and statements of the two Psalms written by the same man, King David, whom God had proclaimed to be a man after God's own heart.
I saw the reason for the mood in Psalms 38 in verse 4 and 5, "My guilt overwhelms me -- it is a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins." And in verse 18, we read David confess to the LORD, "But I confess my sins; I am deeply sorry for what I have done."
In Psalm 38, we see a fallen David, someone who had succumbed to life's temptations, while in Psalms 18, we see a David who loved his God and delighted in obeying his commands. We read, "He led me to a place of safety; he rescued me because he delights in me." Why does God delight in David? "The LORD rewarded me for doing right; he compensated me because of my innocence. For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not turned from my God to follow evil. For all his laws are constantly before me; I have never abandoned his principles. I am blameless before God; I have kept myself from sin. The LORD rewarded me for doing right, because of the innocence of my hands in his sight." (vs. 19-24)
Verses 25 and 26 of Psalms18 hits the nail on the head, so to speak, pointing out David's state of affairs as he wrote the two Psalms. "To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity. To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the wicked you show yourself hostile."
This was a caution to me: to be careful with my daily choices in life. If I walk with integrity in God's sight, I will be able say with David, "In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall." (Psalms 18:29).
Apostle Peter warns, "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
Hey Christian, throw caution to the wind at your peril!
May God's grace sustain you and bless you!
