August 28th, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

LEARNING GOD’S WAY

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Here I am, Lord, ready to do Your will. I will not withhold myself from You this day.

Read PSALM 25:1–22

[1] Of David. In you, LORD my God, I put my trust. [2] I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. [3] No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause. [4] Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. [5] Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. [6] Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. [7] Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, LORD, are good. [8] Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. [9] He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. [10] All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. [11] For the sake of your name, LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. [12] Who, then, are those who fear the LORD? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. [13] They will spend their days in prosperity, and their descendants will inherit the land. [14] The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them. [15] My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare. [16] Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. [17] Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish. [18] Look on my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. [19] See how numerous are my enemies and how fiercely they hate me! [20] Guard my life and rescue me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. [21] May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, LORD, is in you. [22] Deliver Israel, O God, from all their troubles!

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Meditate

“Do your actions and words bring glory to God? Are you living in his will? Are you depending on his grace?” (Warren Wiersbe).

Think Further

I asked some students how I could pray for them over the summer break. Most replies reflected pressing concerns: “Please pray about my internship, my exams, my hospital placement, my research.” Then a Thai physicist, soon to graduate, spoke up: “Pray that I will do whatever God wants.” It was such a simple request and yet so refreshing.

 

Psalm 25 gathers up both disparate everyday preoccupations and deeper heartfelt yearnings and places them trustingly before God. While it is very personal, with repeated reference to “my” and “I,” it expresses the petitions of all of God’s people (22) then and now. It is an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It starts and concludes with prayer (1–7,16–22). The presence of enemies, be they people who harm us, spiritual opposition or the adversaries of poverty, illness or shame, are immediate issues which repeatedly throw us onto God. To remind ourselves that we can trust him, a creed-like elaboration of God’s character is included in verses 8–15: the One we address is committed to us. He is loving and good, forgiving and faithful.

 

Petition for deliverance and pardon will always be part of our prayer, but there must be more. At the heart of the psalmist’s entreaty is a longing to know God’s ways and walk in them. Verse 14 is breathtaking: “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.” That God should open his heart, like a trusting friend, is mind-blowing. More vital than the details of guidance and assistance is this wider sense of learning God’s truth revealed in his covenant. My Thai friend is discovering that when our heart’s desire is to know God and his purposes, we place ourselves close to him. That transforms everything, even work and enemies.

Apply

How do you answer the questions posed in the CONSIDER quote above? What changes are facing you?

Closing prayer

Lord, let me see You and please You amid the challenges of my life!

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