What do we do when we are afflicted?
"Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?
Let me go over, please, and lop off his head."
Do we respond with pride and entitlement? Or do we show the humility of David?
Let him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.
Perhaps the LORD will look upon my affliction
and make it up to me with benefits
for the curses he is uttering this day.
David has come to terms with his own brokenness. But he hasn't given up on the LORD. It is a genuine blessing to our have our egos realize that they aren't all powerful. They can make mistakes and they can't control circumstances. Knowing this allows us to rely more completely on the LORD. It is entirely possible that the man from the tombs with unclean spirits lived in such a way as to open himself to those spirits. In any case, he certainly was not so perfect as to deserve anything from God. Yet Jesus nevertheless healed him. He had compassion which the man could not deserve. This is called mercy.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
David, too, realized there was nothing left for him but mercy. Insisting on his own way had entirely failed him. Let us learn to trust in the mercy of God without having to learn the hard ways that David and the man from the tombs had to learn. If we ask Jesus to help us surrender our pride and come to him for all that we need, not because we deserve it, but because he loves us, we will experience the complete transformation his mercy can bring.
When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.
No comments:
Post a Comment