Aug 3, 2022
The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame. (Psalm 22:3-5)
Have you ever watched a movie for the hundredth time and wished for a different ending, even though you knew it would end the same way it did the other 99 times? This is how I feel whenever I read about the Israelites in the Old Testament. I get my hopes up and think, “Okay, now they’re following what God told them to do!” But no, they always go astray. It is frustrating to see them constantly shooting themselves in the foot. I wish I could grab them by the shoulders and shake some sense into them! “Don’t you see? It would go so much better for you if you would just do what God says!”
It is easy to pick on ancient Israel, but whenever I find myself making the same mistake for the millionth time, I realize I am no different. I am very good at ignoring my own pep talks, not to mention God’s word. I know what’s best for me, but I am not able to do it.
These verses, attributed to David, are about Israel trusting and crying out to God. It’s interesting that in the middle of his suffering, David looks to his ancestors. But how does looking to the people of the past bring hope in our current suffering? Is it exemplary behavior that we can imitate? No: Their hope, and ours, is in the way God pulled them out of despair over and over again. Hope was and is in the Deliverer, who never fails to keep his promises.
Though the curse of sin seems never-ending in Israel’s history and in our own lives, it does not have the final word. These verses are preceded by the words which Jesus will repeat from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). And the final word in this psalm is the final word for us and for the Israelites—simply, “he has done it” (v.31). It is finished. God has delivered you, saved you, and will never let you be put to shame. He did what he promised through Jesus Christ, who bore the sin of the world: past, present, and future.
[Juliette Alvey, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]
