However, it will be great opportunities preaching that much and trying to keep up with everything else. It is going to make the month of December fly by though which means basically my vicarage is half over come January. I am not the happiest about this because I know the second half is going to go just as fast as the first half! I am not going to be ready to leave next July. I wonder if I could just become a permanent vicar!
Here is my devotion on Psalm 7. I will also be posting all of my sermon manuscripts over the next several weeks so you all can read those. Psalm 7:
Psalm 7
In verses 1 and
2, King David asks the Lord to protect him from all his enemies. He uses the image of a lion tearing apart his
“soul”. The Hebrew word for soul here is
“nephesh”. This word very regularly gets
translated as “soul”, but that is not really an accurate translation. Your “nephesh” is really your body, your
personality, your talents, your traits, everything that makes you you. Everything physical, emotional,
psychological, etc. about you that makes you individually you is your
“nephesh”. So David is not specifically
worried about his “soul” as in his spiritual self, but really about his being. He doesn’t want these “lions” to tear apart
his body, spirit, mind, or anything that is included in his nephesh. He is
asking for his Lord’s protection, but I find it funny how he adds the end of
verse two. When David says, “rendering
it to pieces, with none to deliver”, it makes me think of Humpty Dumpty. David is worried that the “lion” will tear
everything about him apart so none of it can be delivered. If they tear apart his body, his soul could
still be saved, or if they tear apart his mind, his body could still be
saved. In David’s mind though they are
going to completely annihilate him so there is absolutely nothing left for the
Lord to deliver. Humpty Dumpty fell off
the wall and all of the king’s men and the king’s horses could not put Humpty
back together again. It is almost as if David is saying God is like the king’s men and horses who could not put him
back together again. As if these
enemies, the “lions” are going to render him to so many pieces, even the
Almighty All-powerful God could not deliver his pieces. And yet I do not believe this is what David
actually believes at all. In my opinion,
David is exaggerating the situation to show how much he fears his enemies. He is like a teenage girl who turns something
bad into the worst case scenario possible for the drama effect. He is adding the drama that his enemies want
to render him into so many pieces that none can be saved, not even by the most
powerful God, in order to show how much his enemies hate him and want to hurt
him. However, David does trust in the
Lord for his protection, asking God to be his refuge. He asks God to save and deliver him, because
he knows his only defense is from the one true Almighty God. Then he ends this psalm with a praise of
thanksgiving to his God who does save and deliver him. We too might find ourselves adding drama and
exaggeration to situations we find ourselves in, claiming that “not even God
can help us with this one”. However, we
always know God is the Most High, and He can do anything. More importantly we know that if He sent His
one and only Son to save and deliver us from our sins, why would He now let the
“lions” of our lives tear us apart. He
has saved us and delivered us from the biggest lion of all, and now that we are
His children, He is not going to let be eaten by the smaller “lions”. He has saved us from sin, He will save and
deliver us from all eternal harm. And if
you ever do find yourself in a situation where you have become Humpty Dumpty
and nobody, not even all of the king’s men and horses can put you back
together, know that the God Almighty can.
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