A Meditation
Pastor - Rev. Elroy Christopher: First Moravian Church of Georgia
FOR July 19, 2020
Based on Psalm 80:11
This psalm is a prayer or cry to God in which the psalmist acknowledges his vulnerability to what he describes as the arrogant and ruthless. He also acknowledges his need for God’s mercy and protection. So, he begins the psalm :
“Hear me, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God”
Like the psalmist, although (or because) we are seeking to be faithful to God, there will be similar tensions between the joy of knowing, living for and serving God versus the temptation to go the way of the world’s arrogance and ruthlessness, and in so doing, lose the true joy of real and meaningful living. In these circumstances we too must seek God’s mercy and protection.
Like the psalmist, we must pray to God as he did in verse 11:
Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
We must seek to have a discerning spirit so that we may understand and live by what God is imparting to us through His Holy Spirit, because we are constantly having to facing many things that are contrary to the what we understand to be God’s will for His world and for our individual lives.
Our experience is that there are many voices, each offering many different opinions, that many are feeling torn between one or the other, wondering which one is truly reliable. Many do not know with any certainty what should be done or what ought not to be done. In this climate of uncertainty, we know that our God is reliable and faithful, always ready to hear and answer, to give guidance when we call on him. So, let us call today and listen as he teaches us in these troubling and swiftly changing times. Instead of following the noises of the world, let us rely on him who is faithful and just in all his ways. Our reliance on God must be wholehearted and not conditional.
Let us be always ready and willing to allow His Holy Spirit to be our teacher, comforter and guide because:
He is teaching us to have love for God, for others and for ourselves.
He is teaching us to depend more and more on God who freely gives us of his grace and mercy, which the world cannot give.
He is teaching us to have faith in the God whose name is holy and to be adored, God who is our Saviour through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
What a wonderful world this would be if more people call upon God and follow his truths in our daily living!!
Let us therefore cry out to God and hear him speaking that truth into our lives today and beyond as we pray like the psalmist: Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
AMEN