Psalm 138:7-8 - Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life; You stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand delivers me. The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of Your hands.
"I walk in the midst of trouble." That sounds like a fairly accurate description of daily life. We face all kinds of trouble—difficulties at work, financial worries, family strife, health concerns—the list is often very long. Is that the Lord's purpose for us, to endure trouble? The psalmist does not say the Lord removes the trouble, but that the Lord preserves his life. Like the psalmist, even in the midst of trouble we are held securely in the Lord's care. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, promises, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:27-28).
The Good Shepherd who holds us in His hand laid down His life to deliver us from the wrath of enemies who threatened trouble far greater than any earthly challenge we might face. Sin, death, and Satan were foes that wanted to snatch us from the Shepherd's hand. It was trouble we could never overcome. Yet for us Jesus walked willingly into the midst of those deadly threats. His life was not preserved and by His death He destroyed the powers of sin, death, and the devil. To save His sheep, the Good Shepherd laid down His life and took up His life again because, He said, "This charge I have received from My Father" (John 10:18b). Jesus fulfilled His Father's purpose.
What is our purpose? Speaking of the psalmist's death, the apostle Paul said, "David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers" (Acts 13:36a). David fell asleep, not after he fulfilled his own purpose in life, but when he fulfilled the purpose of the Lord. It is what David had announced in the psalm: "The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me." That is our confident statement as well.
The day will come when the Lord has fulfilled His purpose in our lives and we will fall asleep in Christ. Before that day, we may not know all that the Lord has planned for us, but we place our trust, as David did, in the steadfast love of the Lord. Nothing in life, no earthly or eternal troubles, not even death itself, "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39b). God has created us anew in Christ Jesus for His purpose and He will never forsake the work of His hands.
WE PRAY: Lord, I know that You will fulfill Your purpose in my life. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler.
Reflection Questions:
1. Sometimes God doesn't remove our troubles but preserves us through them. Can you think of an example of this?
2. Can you name some shepherd-like qualities Jesus displays in His care for us?
3. How do we know that Jesus is concerned for our welfare?
Today's Bible Readings: 1 Chronicles 17-19 1 Corinthians 13
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