The phrase David repeats in Psalm 56 is “I will trust in You.” David found himself being pursued by the Philistines, and he did what he always did: he called out to the LORD for help and he confessed his trust in the LORD. It’s important for us to do both when we find ourselves in trouble. After all, if we’re going to call on the LORD when we’re in trouble, it needs to be from a position of our trust in Him.
Psalm 57 is another brief psalm in which David calls out to the LORD for help, this time in escaping once again from King Saul, and alls out in trust to the LORD. David found himself in the position time and time again before he became the King of Israel of avoiding King Saul, and other enemies. In the middle of that David was always praying–calling out to God in trust and in petition for deliverance. Once again, we do well to emulate such faith, a faith that recognizes opposition and calls out to God for help to overcome it, and a sure trust that God hears us and is already at work on our behalf.
In Psalm 58, King David speaks frankly about his desire for the LORD to deal with evil rulers and evil people in general severely. He calls on the LORD to break their teeth. While we might find such a “prayer” offensive, few, if any of us, have ever dealt with ongoing assault in our lives as David did in his. He once again speaks of how the LORD will deal favorably with those who honor Him, but calls for judgment on those who don’t. We live in a culture that has stands against any type of judgment for all but the most heinous behavior, but David lived with a strong sense of justice, and often called on the LORD’s holiness and justice to judge the wicked and vindicate the righteous.
In Psalm 59, David calls out to the LORD to judge the evil men who lie in wait for him for no cause. We read in the notes at the top of the psalm this particular time the evil men were sent by Saul to capture him at his own house. Those notes show us the psalms of David are not presented in chronological order. We don’t know why the psalms are presented in the order we find them, but it’s clear chronology wasn’t the key concern. Once again, David calls out to the LORD for deliverance and affirms his trust that the LORD will deliver him. This recurrent theme offers us the challenge to do the same in our lives.
As we turn to Luke 11 the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray as John taught his disciples. In Jesus’ day, rabbis typically taught their disciples prayers to deal with various aspects of life. Jesus offers what we call the Lord’s Prayer in response. Then Jesus continued His instruction on prayer with several illustrations. First, He used the example of a man who went to his friend’s door at midnight to borrow some bread. He said even though the friend wouldn’t get up because of their friendship, he would eventually get up if the guy kept knocking. Wow! What Jesus was not saying, was: God doesn’t want to answer our prayers, so we need to nag Him until He does. He was saying we need to be persistent in prayer. Next, Jesus told us to keep on asking, seeking and knocking, once again telling us to persist in prayer. He reminded us that we, as human beings, even though we’re evil know how to give good gifts to our children, so how much more does our Heavenly Father want to give the Holy Spirit to us when we ask Him. Luke’s statement is a bit different than Matthew’s, because Luke made it clear what our Heavenly Father wants to give us is the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to live as Jesus, so it’s a helpful reminder for us to ask our Heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit to us.
Next, we’re told Jesus cast an unclean spirit out of someone, and the religious leaders said Jesus was able to do this by the authority of Satan. Jesus responded immediately by making it clear that idea makes no sense. After all, a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus continued on the offensive stating His casting out of demons was a sign that the Kingdom of God was coming. He then challenged them by saying whoever is not for Me is against Me.
Jesus offered another illustration, a vital one, about what happens when an evil spirit is cast out of a person. He said the man’s “house,” or soul, is swept clean, but the spirit will travel over arid places and find more spirits who will come back and possess the man again, and the last state of the man is worst than the first. The point here is if a person is freed of an evil spirit, the “emptiness” must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
As Jesus spoke these words of wisdom, someone in the crowd shouted a blessing on His mother. Jesus responded the blessed one is the one who does the will of God. Jesus wasn’t discounting His mother, but emphasizing that more than one person is blessed–all are blessed who obey God.
Jesus went on the offensive once again, telling the crowd it was an evil generation and wanted a sign. He said no sign would be given, but the sign of Jonah, which was a reference to His three days in the tomb after His crucifixion. Then he said the Queen of Sheba would testify against this generation, because she showed proper honor to the LORD in her time.
Luke 11 closes out with Jesus being invited to dinner by a Pharisee. While He was there, Jesus pronounced woe after woe on them for their practices, which didn’t honor God, nor lead people to God. When the lawyers said Jesus’ words offended them, too, Jesus was not impressed. He spoke similar words of judgment on them. The end result of all this was the religious leaders determined to find a way to catch Him in His words, and ultimately arrest Him.
As we read Luke 11, we see Jesus’ concern to teach His disciples, and to correct the Pharisees. This is helpful for us, because we want to remain in the position of disciples throughout our lives. Disciples are learners. As long as we remain teachable, we are useful to ourselves and to Jesus. When we think we know it all, we become Pharisaic, and we move to dangerous ground.