“For the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.” (1 Sam. 13:14 NLT)
David is named a man after God’s own heart. Can you even imagine? I want to be a woman after God’s own heart, which is why I love investigating the Psalms. Here, I can see how David thought, spoke, and moved forward.
Psalm 71 was written by David or Asaph, who transcribed David’s words. Within this Psalm, we see a clear strategy to victory that is common in many of David’s Psalms. . .
One: David knows it is not sinful to declare God’s power to save; it is biblical. He declares, proclaims and reminds himself of God’s might, power and provision to save often.
David writes, God “will restore my life again.” (Ps. 71:20)
God “will again bring me up from the depths of the earth.” (Ps. 71:20)
God “will increase my honor.” (Ps. 71:21)
God “will comfort me again.” (Ps. 71:21)
Proclaim truth, until you start to own it. Until you start to believe God can rescue — even you!
Two: While David waits for God to move, He also moves towards God.
“My mouth is filled with your praise.” (Ps. 71:8)
“(I am) declaring your splendor all day long.” (Ps. 71:8)
“I will tell everyone about your righteousness. All day long I will proclaim your saving power,” (Ps. 71:15)
“Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me.” (Ps. 71:18)
We keep declaring, speaking, thinking upon, proclaiming, telling others about God — until the predicament, person, or problem changes course under His mighty hand. We don’t do it because we have to have some sort of outcome, but simply because we love Him and trust Him. Here, we see results. We get new eyes to see. We come to find, maybe it was less about Him changing ‘them’ and more about Him ‘changing us’.
Either way, we hope in His help and trust it is coming. We move our mouth in praise, for the good thing He is doing is at work in us and around us.
“But I will keep on hoping for your help;
I will praise you more and more.” (Ps. 71:14)
God’s help is coming; keep on praising.
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Amen! The basis of our faith is that intimacy with Jesus that can only come when we yield to Him. You are so right that it is more about God changing us than it is about God changing them. We are often too focused outwardly that we miss His tender call to spend time with Him inwardly. It is in the quiet place where we hear His still small voice. When we learn to follow that voice He will always lead us down the path of change, just as He did with David. Not that the path of faith will be easy but we certainly will find that we are different at the end than we were at the beginning. Then praise and thankfulness will flow from our lips. We will find that we are powerless to stop it.
Homer Les
http://www.homerlesandwandaring.com