Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Daily Devotional Thought--From the Psalms

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today's Psalm is #11:

The Lord Is in His Holy Temple
To the choirmaster. Of David.
11:1 In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,“Flee like a bird to your mountain,
2 for behold, the wicked bend the bow;
they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
3 if the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
4 The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord's throne is in heaven;his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
5 The Lord tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
6 Let him rain coals on the wicked;
fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the Lord is righteous;he loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold his face.

From Reading the Psalms with Luther:
The 11th Psalm is a psalm of prayer. It laments over the heretics and false interpreters of the Scriptures who lead the people away from the true ground of faith and bring them to their mountains, that is, their great high holiness of works. To that end, the heretics and false interpreters of the Scriptures mock the true Teacher and say, "What shall the righteous do?" But the psalm ends with the comfort that God will certainly see this. The false teachers will be condemned and the righteous will remain. This prayer can thus be an example for us. This psalm belongs in the Second Commandment and the First Petition, as all Psalms of prayer.

And so we pray:
Lord Jesus, You cam into this world to reveal to us the will of Your Father and to teach us the way everlasting. Behold how Your sacred Word is denied and corrupted in these perilous days. Have mercy upon us, save us from the snares of unbelief and the seductive teachings of the world, and grant us to abide in Your Word that, made free from error and sin, we be found Your disciples indeed. Amen.

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