Hope in God

Psalm 25:20-21
Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you.


I love the 25th Psalm. If ever I want a morsel to feed my soul, I can always turn to this Psalm and find food - good, meaty food that makes me chew a while. I generally tend to focus in on the passages that I’ve underlined - they are the ones that have struck me before, so chances are they will hit me again. Yet, today, this is the passage that God used to speak to me, and it’s one that has never really stood out to me before.

What I love about it is that David, the author, is asking for God’s intervention, and his whole reasoning behind asking is that he takes refuge in Him, and his hope is in Him. Let’s think about that for a moment. He didn’t say "because I’m a man after Your own heart," or, "because I’m a good guy, doing all the right things." He did not try to convince God that he deserved it. No, David knows that action on God’s behalf generally has nothing to do with us, and what we’re doing or not doing. Most of the time it has only to do with the character of our God.

Now, there are things that God wants us to do - even expects of us. And there are times when His blessing and actions towards us are a direct result of our doing what He asks (or not). But how many times do we ask something of God, and then give Him a list of credentials, and reasons why He should fulfill our request (whether it’s legitimate, or not)? We try to convince Him of why He should answer "yes," as though He can’t see the complete truth of the situation better than we can. Rather than simply asking, knowing that really in and of ourselves (apart from Christ), we are not good enough, and there is really nothing we can do to convince Him otherwise. When we are good enough, it is not really us, but Christ in us - so again, it’s all a work of God.

Oh, that we could simply recognize that many of the blessings God pours out on us, His grace, His love, His shelter, have nothing to do with us, but have everything to do with Him. May we seek Him, humbly, recognizing that it is His great love and faithfulness toward us that are our greatest assets, as all our righteousnesses are as "filthy rags."