With God’s Help

Meditations on Christ in the Psalms

January 6, 2023

With God’s Help

I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.

    I will sing your praises among the nations.

Psalm 108:3

Psalm 108 was created by joining parts of two previous psalms: Psalm 57:7-11, and Psalm 60:5-12. Apparently, Israel was encountering a crisis, and Psalm 108 was developed as an intercessory prayer.

In the opening half of the psalm, the psalmist affirms that God is the ground of their hope:

“My heart is confident in you, O God;

For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.

    Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”

Psalm 108:1a, 4

Then the psalmist makes his petition,

“Now rescue your beloved people.

    Answer and save us by your power.”

Psalm 108:6 

The psalm then becomes a divine oracle as God speaks in verses 7-9. God’s Word affirms that the land of Israel still belongs to Him, thus He is still in control and will remain faithful to His covenant people. The psalmist then responds with an affirmation that on their own they are helpless, but “With God’s help we will do mighty things” (Psalm 108:13a).

When we are in a crisis, when we are beset with problems, it seems all we can see are the issues we are facing. However, by including daily devotions and meditation time in our life, the Holy Spirit will help us to put into practice the simple formula in Psalm 108.

First, we can affirm Jesus is the ground of our hope: “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise” (Hebrews 10:23).

Next, we can listen for God to say, “Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this (crisis), for the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15-21).

My Takeaway: And then, we can affirm, “I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.