Psalm 88-91 Our Obedience, His Watchcare

“Lord, I cry out to You day and night.  Receive my prayer and listen to my cry.”

His cry implies that God may indeed be deflecting his prayers – that they are never heard in God’s ears.  I suppose that since God knows who the prayers are coming from, He could certainly choose to ignore them rather than listening to them.  It made me wonder, though, how God could do that, yet at the same time know when a true prayer of repentance had been prayed, so that He would begin to listen to the prayers again.

“Your love continues forever; Your loyalty goes on and on like the sky.”

The sky truly never ends, so God’s loyalty to His children won’t either.  Would His loyalty, therefore, need to include the turning away from us in order that we would feel the loss of His presence so that we’d desire that presence again and change our lives to get it back?

“My loyalty and love will be with him.  Through me he will be strong … My love will watch over him forever.”  These verses appear messianic – referring to Jesus before His actual incarnation on earth.  Yet they also could apply to David as king, or to any child of God.

“You have put the evil we have done right in front of You; Your clearly see our secret sins.”  God loves us enough to pry.  Because He is all-knowing, even our secret sins are known to Him.  In His love, He desires to change us, and secret sins are a good place to start.

The last part of Psalm 91 seems to wrap up the connection between obeying God and experiencing His love for us:

“Because he loves me, I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name.  He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble.  I will deliver him and honor him.  With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.”

Father, that’s what I want and that’s what I need.  Make it so, Father.  Strengthen me so that I may love You more!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford