GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 71:13-15
13 May my accusers perish in shame;
may those who accuse my very soul
be covered with scorn and disgrace.
As we have seen, this is the psalm of an old man, probably King David. One of the last events in David’s reign was the rebellion of his son, Adonijah. Physically, David’s strength was gone. He couldn’t keep warm. He had trouble sleeping. In those days (971 or 970 BC, the last year of David’s life), Nathan the prophet and Bathsheba, David’s queen, reminded the king that he had promised to make Bathsheba’s son Solomon the next king. The succession of Solomon was supported by Nathan, Zadok the priest, and Benaiah son of Johoiada. Benaiah was one of David’s mighty men (his exploits are worth looking up: 2 Samuel 23:20-23). He commanded one of the divisions of David’s army and the king’s personal bodyguard.
The king’s accusers had similar credentials. David’s own son led the rebellion, and another priest and another bodyguard followed. Their sin was against the Fourth Commandment, rebelling against God’s anointed king (and Adonijah’s father). Sometimes our accusers are disobeying the Fourth Commandment, and sometimes the Eighth. When we are attacked because of our faith, our accusers fall into sins in the First Table of the Law—opposing God’s word (the Third Commandment), or his name (the Second), or his very existence (the First). In any case, we have him on our side:
14 But as for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure.
Verse 15 is one of the most profound passages in the Bible. To describe God’s righteousness and our salvation is something we try to do all the time. It’s what our preaching and teaching are all about. And yet, “I know not its measure.” How forgiven am I? I don’t know. I don’t remember all of my sins. I don’t recall every time I frustrated my parents, angered my brother and sister, infuriated my classmates, or swiped a cookie, or swore, or did something against God’s will. I could never enumerate my failures. If a man is caught in a sin, any sin, part of his relief as far mankind is concerned is that he’s glad that so much more wasn’t revealed. And yet, just how saved are we?
Outside my office window is a lovely little lot of grass lined with trees and a hedge. The church uses it for overflow parking. Just a few years ago, there was a house there. The house was small, old, and full of secrets. But one day, all of that ended. A yellow machine came with a huge pair of jaws like a prehistoric monster, and it chewed up that little house like a small boy smashing a sandcastle. Nothing of that house remains. The grass grows green on the plot, and children play there. That’s what’s happened to our sins. That’s what’s become of the whole account of our shame and guilt. It’s gone forever in the terrible crushing jaws of the crucifixion. The agony endured by Jesus Christ wiped out every last trace of our sin, all of our secrets, and all of our shame. Now our status before God is like a quiet plot of pristine, unused grass with trees and a hedge, where children can play, useful to God’s church.
Even a rebellion like Adonijah’s is forgiven by the blood of Christ, and makes us all say with the Psalm, “I will always have hope. I will praise you more and more.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota