MONDAY 19th
Psalm 56
NIV (v13) – ‘For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.’
ESV (v13) – ‘For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.’
The NIV & KJV commences this psalm with the words ‘be merciful to me, O God’ (ESV ‘Be gracious) it is a cry from the heart of an individual that needs to be rescued from those who are attacking him, oppressing him, he continues to make it known that he trusts in God, he can see all the work of his enemies on the one hand, but on the other hand he sees the provision of God, his protection and his deliverance. He is aware that in all of that which is going on, God is watching, and God is keeping a record, he states in v11 ‘. . . in God I trust: I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?’ He has already said, ‘What can flesh do to me?’ (v4) He is aware that man can only do what God will allow him to do, therefore he will trust God. He places his confident hope in God.
In verses 12 the psalmist says that ‘I must perform my vows to you, O God.’ That is that sometime during this experience and possibly through other experiences he had made promises to God, perhaps like an unbeliever today (even us who are believers) might go through an experience and during it they may cry out something like this, ‘God if you are real and you help me, I promise . . . .’ Now, some may fulfil whatever they promised, but others will just pass it by, and the writer of this psalm had sometime made a vow to God, and he was going to fulfil that vow. It is imperative to us who have made the decision to follow Jesus that we fulfil any vows that we may make, therefore it is also important that we do not glibly make a promise, we can for example sing many songs or even make a declaration that is found in the word of God and in doing so we are making a vow, a promise, and yet too often we fail to keep it. One of the hymns we will probably all remember, as it was a popular hymn in school assemblies is O Jesus I have promised, to serve you to the end . . .’ now, at school it was just a hymn we sang, but for many who later came to know Jesus as Saviour it is a promise we will have made to ‘serve him till the end’ and yet sadly so many fall back on that promise, and we can all fall back on that promise to easily if we are not careful, we can allow other things, activities etc, that come between us and our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, that yes, we are still saved, (unless we have backslidden) but as to how much we are willing to serve him and give up for him till the end is questionable.
Now I only know of the vows that I personally have made before God, and it is my responsibility to be found in the same place as the psalmist and to say, ‘I must perform my vows to you, O God.’ That is, to be determined to fulfil all that I have vowed to do regarding my personal walk with God, it may require me to make amendments, it may require me to change course, it may mean several different things, but what is important is that I fulfil what I have promised to do. You know your heart, you know where you stand in the fulfilling of any vows you may have made, my prayer is that we will all be willing to allow the Spirit of God to search our hearts and to put us back on track as we seek to fulfil those vows we may have made.
The psalmist ends with the verse which I have highlighted as our text, v13, ‘For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life’ and in coming to Jesus, God has delivered our souls from death, he does keep our feet from falling, and he has done so, so that we may walk before God in the light of life. ‘The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.’ Psalm 37:23–24 ‘Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.’ Jude 24–25