Psalm 86:14-15
“Arrogant foes are attacking me, O God; ruthless people are trying to kill me— they have no regard for you. But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”- When David was under threat, which was quite often, he remembered the characteristics of God that he could rely on and put all of his trust in. In Psalm 86:15 above, David remembered that God is a “compassionate and gracious God, who is slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.” We should all say hallelujah to that. If God wasn’t slow to anger and didn;t abound in love and faithfulness, we would have no chance to survive this life’s many threats and valley experiences. But because we can count on God to be with us through the perils of this life, we have a chance to survive when under attack. I don’t just mean physical attack, but much more so spiritual, emotional and mental attack. Those are the common places where the enemy attempts to demoralize us and weaken our witness for Christ. But God is above all of our pain and our fears, and He allows us to get through the storms of life because “He never leaves us or forsakes us,” as Hebrews 13:5 alludes to. He is the God of the fat chance, the 2nd chance and the slim chance, and that means we need to simply cling to Him when we can’t see the way through the darkness that appears to envelope us at times. We don’t deserve all of God’s grace and mercy, but it is simply who He is, and that gives us hope during hopeless times.
Psalm 101:1
“I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise.”- David loved to express his love and gratitude to the Lord for all He had done in his life through song and worship. It is a great way to demonstrate our love for God, through the songs of our heart. I love to sing worship songs to the Lord while driving in my car listening to the radio or my playlist. It makes me feel connected to Go on a heart level. It brings me closer to God, and it makes me feel good to shout out my praise to the Lord in song. How about you? You can make worshipping God through music a big part of your own personal faith walk. It honors Him, and it comforts you- kind of what I call a classic win, win situation. Let’s follow David’s example and sing of God’s love and praise Him.
Psalm 103:11-12
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”- David always remembered how blessed he was by the Lord to have all of his sins forgiven as verse 103:12 says above. Therefore, he lived from a place of gratitude. He acknowledged God’s sovereignty over the heavens and earth, and remembered that God’s love was unparalleled and therefore required great praise from him. David loved the Lord and that was the biggest source of joy in his life. Like all of us, David had his share of trials and tribulations. His life was not easy. But through it all, David’s steadfast devotion to the Lord gave him the strength and focus he needed to carry on.
Psalm 108:13
“With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.”- David was well aware of the limitations of his human strength, and thus he realized that he needed God’s strength to carry him to victory. Of course we always think of his triumph over Goliath in this regard, but actually this was true throughout David’s reign as King of Israel. he always relied on God’s wisdom, power and strength to deliver him the victory, because he was humble enough to know that in his own strength, it was impossible. I always say you & God equals a majority. David knew that full well. 2 Chronicles 16:9 (a) says “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” Will He find you fully committed to Him as David was? He can do impossible things through you if you are fully surrendered and committed to His authority.
Psalm 109:
26-27 “Help me, Lord my God; save me according to your unfailing love. Let them know that it is your hand, that you, Lord, have done it.”- Sometimes David came to the end of the rope and realized that it was there where he needed God the most. He realized in his own strength, the victory was elusive. Have you come to the end of your rope? I sure have, and in fact I have been going through a season of feeling weak to determine the right path for my future. I have been praying for God to show me the right path ( Psalm 32:8 ) and there is no doubt that when the path is illuminated, there will be no doubt that the Lord’s hand has done it, as David prayed above in Psalm 109:27. Coming to the end of ourselves is a scary place. We feel utterly weak and worthless. But in a spiritual sense it can be a very good thing, because it is when we can realize just how much we need the Lord to help us through the storm we are in.
Psalm 110:5-6
“The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.”- David knew and we should also know that God is the Sovereign King over all time. Eventually, even those who had great power on the earth that they misused to lord it over others will be held accountable. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” These promises allow us to trust that even while we suffer for a period of time under the wicked rule of bad earthly rulers, one day God will judge everything and those deserving of wrath will certainly be held to account.
Psalm 133:1
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”- David wanted all people to be united under God’s guidance and love. Our hearts are the same today, but yet we see how the enemy has used politics to divide our Country and the world. We have forgotten our humanity and become each other’s enemies instead of each other’s brothers. The enemy has infiltrated the media to sow chaos and division, hatred and fear and because we live in such a media driven world, that has resulted directly in the chaos we see all around us. Only in God is true and authentic unity and peace possible.
Psalm 138:3
“When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me.” - David remembered God’s past faithfulness often in order to find the energy and strength to fight his current battles. Boy, is that a lesson we need to remember in our own everyday battles. When things seem helpless, which can happen quite often today, we must remember that God is in control and He has never failed us yet.
Psalm 139:13-15
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.” - King David wrote beautiful songs of praise to the Lord, acknowledging the Lord’s sovereignty over all aspects of his life. In Psalm 139, David talks in vivid detail about the beauty of God’s power to create life and to know everything about us. He knows all the details of our existence, and how He ‘wove us together” in our mother’s womb. David was so aware of God’s Omniscience, Omnipresence and Omnipotence over all of Creation, and it left him awestruck. But in practical terms, it did something even more compelling: It gave David confidence to approach God in all situations in his life, and it gave him the strength to continue on, even in the midst of great weakness, pain and struggle. David’s intimate relationship with the Lord can serve as an example of what we should aspire to in our relationship with God. We can all have this type of genuine relationship with God, in fact, it is what He desires from us. Total sharing of our true feelings, our fears and worries, our gratitude and contentment. God wants us to bring it all to Him. David understood this above all else, and we would be wise to emulate his heart by reading through His prayers to the Lord and incorporating them into our own prayer life.
Psalm 140:6-8
“I say to the Lord, “You are my God.” Hear, Lord, my cry for mercy. Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, you shield my head in the day of battle. Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord; do not let their plans succeed.”- We all come to points in our life when we simply need God to come through for us, and in these times we cry out to the Lord. We ask the Lord to grant us victory and not to let the wicked or evil foes triumph over us. David cried out to the Lord in such a manner on many occasions. There were times when David looked like the Lord had forgotten about him, but that was never the case. Sometimes, it’s just that the Lord’s timing is so much different than ours.He sees the future so clearly, and His plans are so much bigger than our own. We must simply surrender to His ways and plans, and acknowledge His sovereignty over all situations. David cried out for mercy on many occasions when it seemed like evil was triumphing, We should also do the same.
Psalm 141:1-2
“I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”- David’s plea for the Lord to come quickly to answer his prayers is the cry of all of us who trust in the Lord. In our humanness, we don’t know exactly what happens in the spiritual realms, and so we cry out many times in hope that God will move quickly to not only hear but also to answer our prayers.We are limited by our finite conditions, but we pray to an infinite God, so we can sometimes feel so weak. But God is huge, and He works for those who are righteous in their alignment of their hearts with His heart. Doing good for the Lord is in our best interest, because it is His will for us. We will get anxious at times, and we will feel like the Lord isn;t hearing our prayers or responding at times. But He does answer all of our prayers, just in His perfect timing and many times in His omniscience, the answer is no. Not to punish us but to protect us! That’s what a loving Father does!
Psalm 142:5-6
“I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.”- At certain times in our life, we will face circumstances that are just way above our ability to control. David experienced such circumstances often, many times when others were in pursuit of his life, though through no fault of his own. At such times, David made the wise decision to turn all his fears over to the Lord. He wisely knew he couldn’t solve the problems in his own strength, so he prayed for the Lord to intervene. In today’s world, we often seek to find solutions in our own strength. We read self-help books, or try to take “the Bull by the horns,” and achieve victory in our own strength.But many times this is a futile effort, and it leads to fatigue, burnout or depression. It takes wisdom to know when our strength is too limited to gain the required victory, and too simply cry out to the Lord for Him to intervene and save us. Transferring our burdens from us to Him is a mark of maturing faith, as we realize how big He is, and how limited we are. When we make God big, our problems become very small. When we try to solve complex issues on our own, we make God small and so our problems become very large.
Psalm 143:5
“I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.”- One of the greatest lessons we can learn from King David is how he always remembered God’s faithfulness in the past to strengthen him for the future and his next battle. By looking back and remembering God’s hand of blessing and deliverance upon him, he could face his current challenges with confidence that God would deliver again. It is like when we have success in a task in our life, like in sales or being a QB who leads a game winning drive, we can call upon that past success to give us confidence for the future. In our faith walk, we must always remember God’s promises and His deliverance in the past to gird us through the current storms we are facing. David is a great role model in this respect. Let’s take time to remember the lessons learned and our victories in the past to help us with the challenges of our present situations.
Psalm 144:3-4
“Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.”- King David always had an awe when he wrote and spoke about the God of the Universe. He never lost his amazement that a shepherd boy like him could be used as a King of Israel for God’s purposes and because of God’s blessings. David was in awe of God. He loved God and he often wondered howGod could even be mindful of us mortal humans, who are upon the earth for just a moment of time. We should never lose our own fascination with our Creator. It keeps us young to ponder such things, and it keeps our imaginations flowing to think of how big and great God really is, and that He would even choose to be mindful of us is in itself a great miracle.
Psalm 145:8
“The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.”- David had an intimate relationship with God, so he could express his true feelings about how gracious and compassionate God was based on his own real life experiences. There really is no substitute for that is there? There is nothing more compelling than testifying about your real life experiences that changed you and proved beyond a reasonable doubt that God was real and very involved in all the details of your life. David knew firsthand that God was “slow to anger and rich in love,” and therefore he wanted others to know that as well. When there is something really awesome in your life, don;t you just want to share it with others? In fact, you want to scream it from the rooftop! That is what David loved doing when he expressed his joy for God’s goodness and how much he had been blessed by knowing God intimately. The same can be true for all of us. If we seek him, we will find him. ( Matthew 7:7-8 ) God is so good that He doesn;t give us what our sins deserve. If He did, who could survive? The answer is no one could. Thankfully He is “Gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love,” which He demonstrates to us through His son Jesus Christ, who paid our sin tab in full on the Cross.
Psalm
Consider your focus. Waiting helps us to focus (and refocus) our heart, soul and mind. David doesn’t twiddle his thumbs and pace the floor—he focuses his thoughts and aligns himself with God’s Word. “I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His Word do I hope” (Psalm 130:5 NASB). Reading and repeating God’s Word helps us focus on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable (Philippians 4:8). God’s Word is the plumb line for our prayers. When we pray the scriptures, we pray the thoughts of God and His will are certain.
● Consider God’s ways and be watchful. David prayed, “My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning; indeed, more than the watchman for the morning” (Psalm 130:6). God may answer prayer in ways we don’t expect. When Elijah prayed fervently for rain, the answer came in a cloud as small as a man’s hand, on the horizon (1 Kings 18:44). Waiting requires watchfulness, so don’t dismiss those whispers from heaven.
● Consider God’s purpose and stay hopeful. Even as he waits, David reminds himself (and us!) who God is, what God has done, and why we should continue to hope in Him. “Oh Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows” (Psalm 130:7NLT). God wants us to live with great expectations, with an enduring sense that God is for us, that He loves us deeply and will, at any moment, move in power on our behalf.
When God delays, He isn’t disconnected. He waits … with purpose. He is after a purpose greater than our immediate gratification. Remember, God doesn’t just fix our problems—He fixes us in the process! So, what should we do in the waiting? Keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep going.