Musings and Contemplations

O magnify the LORD with me. Let us exalt God’s name together.[1]
Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.[2]

God’s Faithfulness in Deliverance

Psalm 40:1-5, 13-17 NRSV
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. Let all those be put to shame and confusion who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.

Matthew Henry
There is a holy reverent fear of God, which is not only consistent with, but the foundation of, our hope in him . . . God’s dealings with our Lord Jesus are our great encouragement to trust in God; when it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief for our sins, he demanded our debt from him; and when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand, he made it to appear that he had accepted the payment he made and was satisfied with it; and what greater encouragement can we have to fear and worship God and to trust in him? The psalmist invites others to make God their hope, as he did, by pronouncing those happy that do so (v. 4): “Blessed is the man that makes the Lord his trust, and him only (that has great and good thoughts of him, and is entirely devoted to him), and respects not the proud, does not do as those do that trust in themselves, nor depends upon those who proudly encourage others to trust in them; for both the one and the other turn aside to lies, as indeed all those do that turn aside from God.”^[3]

The Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.^[4]

Martin Luther
Though I am a sinner and unworthy, yet I have the command of God, that tells me to pray, and his promise that he will graciously hear me, not because of my worthiness, but for the sake of the Lord Christ. By this means you can drive away the thoughts and doubts, and cheerfully kneel down and pray, not regarding your worthiness or unworthiness, but your need and his word upon which he tells you to build; especially since he has placed before you and put into your mouth the words how and what you are to pray for, so that you joyously send up these prayers through him, and can lay them in his bosom, that he may lay them by his own worthiness before the Father.[5]

O Spirit of Christ, give us a joy that outlasts our sorrows, give us a hope stronger than the despair of our discouragement, and give us a new belief that we have reason to rejoice – to be glad for who we are because you made us and gave us life, and all we have is a gift from you. In the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, Amen.[6]

Turn Your Eyes

[1] Psalm 34:3 NRSV
[2] Psalm 124:8 NRSV
^[3] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 800.
^[4] The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Mt 6:9–13.
[5] The New City Catechism Devotional, 2017, pp. 179-180.
[6] The Worship Sourcebook, p. 191.