WEDNESDAY 21st
Psalm 58
NIV (v6) – ‘Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; LORD, tear out the fangs of those lions!’
ESV (v6) – ‘‘O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!’
I almost ended yesterday’s devotion by saying that what the devil who is going around as a roaring lion needs is a good old kick in the teeth! But I didn’t and then I read the psalm for today and saw verse 6 ‘O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!’ David is referring to everything that comes from the wicked, (v2) and he asks that God would come and destroy them. ‘Break the teeth’! (See Psalm 3:7)
I want to suggest today that God did come and break the teeth of the devil and he did it at Calvary! When Jesus went to the Cross he was going as our representative, our substitute, he was dying an atoning death for our sin, and when he went into the grave, he was going to deal a decisive blow to the devil, to kick him in the teeth as it were for, we read in Revelation that Jesus declared, ‘I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forever more, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’ (Revelation 1:17-18) In 1 Corinthians 15 we read, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The answer comes ‘The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (vv 54-57) The devil’s teeth lie broken on the floor of the empty grave for Christ has delivered the master strike that has gotten the victory!
The empty grave is a sure sign that Christ has gotten the victory, he has triumphed over death, he has removed the sting of death, he has conquered and as a result he is able to grant eternal life to all who will believe.
Yes, the devil does roar like a devouring lion, seeking whom he may devour, it is important that we don’t make the devil less than what he is, he is the evil one, the adversary, the wicked one but also not to make him more than what he is, he is defeated, remember he hasn’t got all his teeth! There is One who is on our side who has kept all his bones, not one of them was broken, (Psalm 34:20, John 19:36) and his name is Jesus, and as we keep close to him, as we continually abide in him, the devil cannot harm us, we are safe, we are kept by God’s power.
If you feel that the devil is hounding you, resist him, firm in the faith, and stand up against him in the power that is found in both the mention of the blood and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Jesus is Lord, and it is at his name alone that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.