In Psalm 17, King David calls on the LORD to protect him from his enemies once again. He describes the tactics of his enemies, and then he acknowledges the LORD will prevail and David will serve Him faithfully as always.
Psalm 18 is the longest psalm we have encountered to this point. In it King David praises the LORD for protecting him from all his enemies. He speaks of the LORD’s fury being poured out on his enemies, and how the LORD protected him at every turn. These words came from the time in David’s life when he was eluding King Saul, and when he was being disparaged by Saul for no reason. David realized the LORD was vindicating him, and he offered the LORD praise and thanksgiving for it.
Psalm 19 starts out as a creation psalm and then in the middle turns to an affirmation of the LORD’s word. King David is consistent in praising God for the wonder of His creation and the amazing truth and power of His word. We do well to emulate King David in this. How often we race here and there without pausing to consider the majesty of the LORD we see in creation. How many times do we rush to read the Bible, so we can check that off our list for the day, without pausing to let the words sink not only into our minds, but also into our hearts? We must not let the busyness of life or even the work of the LORD, keep us from focusing on the LORD of our work!
Psalm 20 is a “royal psalm” that affirms the king and calls on God to protect him. While it was written by King David, it seems to have a bigger purpose, which was to affirm God’s leadership over all the kings who would follow him.
Today, we turn to the Gospel of Luke for the first time. Luke is the only gospel writer who tells us up front why he wrote a gospel. In Luke’s case, he wrote for a friend, most likely a Roman official, name Theophilus. He wrote to assure Theophilus of the certainty and truth of his faith in Jesus. Luke tells us he looked at the available accounts of Jesus’ life, as well as interviewing eyewitnesses. The result was an orderly account of the birth, life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus. As we read through Luke over these coming days, we can be sure Luke, who was a physician, will give us a clear account of who Jesus was, and what He did on our behalf.
After Luke tells us why he wrote his Gospel in Luke 1:1-4, the remainder of this long chapter is devoted to two major events: the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Zechariah, who would become the father of John the Baptist and then Gabriel’s appearance to Mary to tell her she would become the mother of Jesus. The chapter is divided into three sections: 1) John receives the news from Gabriel while serving in his priestly duties at the Temple. He doesn’t believe the news, so he isn’t able to speak until the time of John’s birth; 2) Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her she has found favor with God, and will be the mother of the Messiah. Mary, also questions the news, but for a different reason: she is a virgin, and she can’t understand how she will have a son. Gabriel tells her the pregnancy will come about through the power of the Holy Spirit, which will make her son the Son of God. After receiving the news Mary went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who was also Zechariah’s wife. As Mary approaches Elizabeth, the child in her womb leaps in recognition of the child in Mary’s womb; and 3) the birth of John takes place, and because Zechariah cannot speak everyone wants to name the child Zechariah. When Elizabeth tells the people the child’s name is John, they turn to Zechariah, who writes the child’s name for all to see: John. At that moment Zechariah’s ability to speak returns and he offers both praise to God and a prophetic pronouncement about John’s future ministry.