Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


11.27.2008  

Word

Psalm 28
To You, O LORD, I call; my rock, do not be deaf to me, for if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, when I lift up my hands toward your holy sanctuary. Do not drag me away with the wicked and with those who work iniquity, who speak peace with their neighbors, while evil is in their hearts. Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices; requite them according to the deeds of their hands; repay them their recompense. Because they do not regard the works of the LORD nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear the down and not build them up. Blessed be the LORD, because He has heard the voice of my supplication. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart exults, and with my song I shall thank Him. The LORD is their strength, and He is a saving defense His anointed. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.

There is one reason that David could pray this prayer with confidence. As I pondered this psalm last a week ago, I was struck by the source of this confidence, saddened and humbled and silenced by the thought that I, too, share this confidence with David. I thought about how David could go before the LORD, seeking Him and finding Him, never being turned away nor forsaken, and how I, too, am never turned away nor forsaken.

Let's be clear of one thing before going further: David's life is not one that displays a man getting what he deserved. The guilt of murder and adultery alone would have been enough to condemn him in ways that were clear and fatal in God's law, yet David's guilt is not ultimately fatal. David is a man that got away with murder...literally.

On his radio show yesterday, Dr. Mohler made mention of the pardons that President Bush recently issued. Dr. Mohler pointed out that such a pardon, issued by the President of the United States of America on behalf of the people of the United States of America, does not actually say that the guilty party is acquitted of the charge(s) against them. Rather, the pardon is clear that the guilty party is still considered to have committed the crime(s) they were found guilty of, but are not to bear the punishment for their guilt.

I read this psalm of David with silent awe. While I still want to question and wrestle with how David, a man that was clearly aware of his sinful nature, can point toward the guilt of the wicked around him and ask for justice to be done, my thoughts have slowly yet inexorably shifted toward a higher one: why is it that sinners like David, like John Letoto, are not turned away nor forsaken, yet the precious Lamb of God, Jesus, was? You see, when David asks for God to requite sinners for the works of their hands, I can't help but see how God requited upon His Son the punishment for the work of my hands. There was a cry that the Son gave upon the cross, asking His Father why He was forsaking Him; that cry went unanswered and unheeded, unlike my cries and my pleas for help, which are always answered and always heeded, even though I think otherwise. And when David asks God to be our shepherd and carry us forever, I cannot help but think of how the slain Lamb was forsaken and left to die the death I was to die.

The pardon for sin the LORD has issued does not mean that we never sinned; no, we have indeed sinned, but we are now loved and cherished as those whose righteousness is Christ's righteousness, freely given and freely cherished.

posted by Bolo | 1:50 AM
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