Day 173

God’s Deliverance

Read: Psalms 48-53

Psalm 46 expresses David’s joy on an occasion of deliverance. God’s rescuing us should be reason for expressing our gratitude. Surely “great is the Lord and greatly to be praised” (48:1).

We have pointed out that the poetic section of the Old Testament is called Wisdom Literature. In Psalm 49, we see a connection between the psalms and other books in this section. In the first few verses, there are a number of words such as “wisdom,” “proverb,” and “riddle,” which are also in the opening verses of the book of Proverbs. The transiency of human achievements as described in the twice-used line of this psalm, “Man cannot abide in his pomp, he is like the beasts that perish” is another way of stating the theme of Ecclesiastes, “All is vanity.”

While God is a deliverer, he is also a judge. In Psalm 50, God’s people are reminded that both those who are spiritually careless and those who have hardened themselves in wickedness will be called before his judgment seat.

Psalm 51, another penitential psalm, describes the wonder of deliverance from the guilt of sin. Psalm 52 is a condemnation of Doeg: he betrayed the priest, Ahimelech, who had helped David when he fled from Saul. Psalm 53 is almost identical to Psalm 14 and is another plea for deliverance.

PRAYER
Father, in your grace deliver us from all our sins and trials. For the sake of Christ. Amen.