God’s Will: Doing right under pressure
“Show me the way I should go… Teach me to do your will,” prayed David (Ps. 143:8, 10).
I wonder what God’s answer to David’s prayer looked like? To understand that it is important to grasp the circumstances during which David wrote this prayer in psalm.
David was fleeing from Saul. His enemies were using treachery and slander against him. It would be easy for David to lash out in kind back at them. David did not want to do that, though emotions burned within him. But still, David must respond to this current crisis in some way! What was that way to be? What truths, principles, morals ought he turn to to guide him?
“Show me the way I should go… Teach me to do your will…”
(Ps. 143:8, 10)
He turns to His God, Jehovah, and pleads.. “Teach me to do YOUR Will… for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” His prayer is not unlike that of Christ who in similar, yet far more strenuous struggle, prayed and surrendered “…not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42).
Barnes restates the sentiment of David’s prayer in light of his circumstances like this: “Teach me in the present emergency to do that which thou wilt approve; which will be wise; which will be best adapted to secure my deliverance and my safety.”
We are all in a time of present emergency, of threat against our health, our welfare, and possibly our lives. How we respond during this trial is what we will be stuck with when we look back upon it. Will it be Christ honoring? Noble? Courageous? What truths, principles, morals will guide you?
On this passage Henry notes, “Teach me to do thy will, not only show me what thy will is, but teach me how to do it… If we do in sincerity take God for our God, we may depend upon him to teach us to do his will, as a master does his servant.”
Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matt. 12:50).
“To be found doing the will of God is the only safe state for man.” – Clarke
Press on…
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