Psalm31
v.3
Since you are my rock and fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
This is my prayer in the post-grad wasteland. Lord, I don’t know what larger direction you’re taking me in. Foreign missions? Full-time career? Seasons of singleness? The prayer remains the same through it all. Lead and guide me for the sake of your name, Lord!
jj 11/24/2022 Thanksgiving 2022
The Lord will deliver for the sake of his name, and he is the “rock” (GK 7446) and “fortress” (GK 5181) of his covenant people. The Lord identifies with them; his honor is at stake when they hurt, collectively or individually.
v.7-8
I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. 8You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.
That the Lord “saw” and “knew” is enough, because this is the first stage of his deliverance. The psalmist thus rejoices in anticipation of God’s act of deliverance, who will guide him into “a spacious place,” far away from his enemies.
v.14
But I trust in you, O Lord; I say , “You are my God.”
v.17
Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I have cried out to you; but let the wicked be put to shame and lie silent in the grave.
v.19
How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.
v.23-24
Oh, love Yahweh, all you His holy ones! Yahweh guards the faithful. But repays fully the one who acts in lofty pride. 24Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who wait for Yahweh.
Similar to Psalm 27:14.
The lesson is this: It is with the heart we must wait upon God. “Let your heart take courage.” All our waiting depends upon the state of the heart. As a man’s heart is, so is he before God.
The psalmist confesses his frailty in having questioned God by despairing in his “alarm.” But he was proven wrong, and the Lord triumphed. He did hear and did come to his rescue! The psalmist thus encourages the godly to learn from his experience. He exhorts them to hope and trust in the Lord regardless of their circumstances. Faith is not a one-time commitment but an abandonment to the living God, who has promised to “preserve” his own. The life of faith lets God be God—by responding to him in “love,” by living in the strength of faith, by observing his word, and by waiting in the “hope” of redemption.