Psalm 40 starts with a statement that has become extremely important to me: 1I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1 (NIV) I waited. On a daily basis, after I turn to the LORD in praise for who He is, I wait on Him. He is our King, so we wait on Him. We wait for His instruction. We wait for His encouragement, His correction. Whatever it is He wants to do in our lives, we must wait for it. King David said, “I waited patiently…” Patiently. That’s a big challenge for most of us. We want to get to the tasks of the day, or the appointments of the day, or we’re distracted with the needs of our husband, wife, children, parents, or …. Life waits for no one the saying goes. But unless we wait for the LORD, how will we know what life is? How will we know who we are, and why we were created in the first place and what we were created to be and do? The remainder of the Psalm speaks of how the LORD delivered David, and how David continue to call on the LORD for deliverance. It all starts with waiting.
Psalm 41 is a blend of King David reminding us the LORD blesses those who are kind to the poor, and a call for the LORD to remember David as he struggles through illness, his enemies crying out against him, and even hoping he will die. David asks the LORD to deal with these enemies and closes with his usual affirmation of praise to the LORD.
In Psalm 42, King David offers a powerful image of his great love for the LORD. He tells us “as the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after You.” What a vital reminder! The LORD is the Creator of the universe. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He sent Jesus to live a perfect life and die in our place, so we might have a restored relationship with Him, and life forever! How can we not long for the LORD in the same manner a wild deer who has been running through the forest on a hot day pants for a drink of cold water? I have often heard preachers say, “If you are too busy to pray, you are too busy,” but what about this, “If we are too busy to long for the LORD, to seek His Kingdom and righteousness in our lives, we are too busy.” King David understood that all of life flowed from the LORD, just as water sustained the panting deer. May we not only understand that but live it in our lives today.
Psalm 43 is anonymous no author’s name comes at the top of it. Yet, it is reminiscent of King David’s cries for the LORD to deliver him from his enemies. Indeed, Psalm 43:5 is “cut and pasted” from Psalm 42:11. They are word for word the same. What is the meaning of that? The meaning is simple: when we are downcast in our souls, because of life’s circumstances, we must look up to the LORD, because He is always with us, and is always worthy of our praise.
As we turn to Luke 7, Luke recounts for us Jesus’ encounter with the Roman centurion who wanted Jesus to heal his servant. We’re given some details here we don’t have in the other gospels. We’re told he loved Israel and had even built the synagogue in the town. Once again, when Jesus responded, and was willing to enter the centurion’s home, even though it would have made Him ceremonially unclean to enter a gentile’s house, the centurion appealed to Jesus’ authority. The centurion understood authority. He knew his soldiers didn’t obey him, because of his authority, but that he had the delegated authority of the emperor, and therefore his men obeyed him. In the same way, the centurion understood Jesus’ power and authority came from God and trusted that was enough. Jesus marveled or was amazed at the man’s faith and healed the servant. (Jesus is only recorded being amazed twice in the gospels. He was amazed at the Roman centurion’s faith, a faith greater than any Israelite had displayed in His experience, and He was amazed at the lack of faith of the people in His hometown. Far better to amaze Jesus with our faith in Him than with our doubt!)
Next, Luke tells us about Jesus approaching a funeral procession outside the town of Nain. The widow was mourning the loss of her only son. Jesus’ compassion moved Him to touch the young man and restore him to life. As we would guess, this amazed everyone who saw it, and the people marveled at Him. Some of John the Baptist’s disciples were watching Jesus as He did these things, and reported them to John, who was in prison. John sent two of his disciples back to ask Jesus whether He was the one to come–the Messiah, or whether they ought to wait for someone else. John, and many in Israel, expected the Messiah to be a conquering hero, not a traveling miracle worker, who would ultimately sacrifice His life for the people of Israel and the world. Jesus responded by quoting the book of Isaiah, a passage with which John would have been well acquainted: 22And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. Luke 7:22 (ESV) As John’s disciples left Him, Jesus told the people John was greater than anyone who had come before him, and they ought to receive his message. This pleased the tax collectors and other “sinners” who had responded to John’s message, repented, and prepared their lives to receive Jesus. Not so much with the Pharisees and other religious leaders, who had rejected John and were also rejecting Jesus. Afterward, Jesus told the people they were like children, whose beliefs are fickle. He said this because John had come neither eating nor drinking (John didn’t eat normal food, or drink wine), and they said he had a demon. Then Jesus came eating and drinking, and they said He was a glutton and a drunk. One application of those words of Jesus is not to get our assessments of what is happening around us from the latest poll, but rather from the voice of the LORD.
Luke closes the chapter by telling us the account of Jesus having dinner with a Pharisee who offered Jesus none of the culturally accepted amenities upon His arrival in the home: a kiss on the cheek, water to wash His feet, and oil to anoint His head. Yet, during the meal a prostitute came in and anointed Jesus feet with oil, “washed” them with her tears, and dried them with her hair. The Pharisee was aghast that Jesus didn’t know what kind of woman this was. Jesus offered a parable to the man about two men who owed their master differing amounts of money. One of the men owed a great amount, while the other only a tenth of the amount. The master forgave both debts. Jesus asked the Pharisee, which would love the master more? He answered, the one forgiven the most. Jesus agreed, and then told the Pharisee the woman’s sins, which were many, were forgiven, because of her great love for Him, and the implication was the Pharisee’s sins remained, because he didn’t even show common courtesy to Jesus. We do well to be sure we don’t assume we are better than we are, because the best of us deserve eternal punishment separated from God apart from the grace and mercy we receive from Jesus on the cross. Once we realize how much we have been forgiven, our task is to live that forgiveness forward to others in Jesus’ name.