Read Psalm 60:1-5. 1O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us. 2You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters. 3You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger. 4You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. 5That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us!
With David’s great success and power came more problems not less. As his main forces are far from home in the east, the Edomites attack Jerusalem from the south. David’s theology doesn’t hesitate to trace the cause back to God himself.
- YOU have rejected us.
- YOU have been angry.
- YOU have made the land quake.
- YOU have made your people see hard things.
- YOU have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.
Does your theology allow the same? Or does it fall short of tracing all things back to God himself and his sovereign control of every event in your life and the life of the church? Even the bad events?
A God that allows, controls, and even causes the suffering in our lives? Is that a God worth worshiping? Worth trusting? David thought so. And we should too. Why? Because a life where God isn’t controlling all things, using them for our discipline to drive us back to himself, isn’t a meaningful life at all. It is not the life of Christ nor is it the life of Christ in us.
The same YOU who made his people see hard things has also set up a banner for his people to see and flee to – the lifted up Christ whose cross draws all to himself.
To live is Christ is to flee to Christ. To run back time and time again to the cross, especially in times of God’s loving discipline.
You: Does your theology allow you to see God as sovereignly controlling all things, including the difficult things of life?
You in Christ: How does knowing that God controls every part of your life help you to run to him in times of distress?
Christ in you: What discipline or distress are you facing today? How can you purposefully acknowledge Christ’s control over it?
Pray: Father your banner over me is love. The love of Jesus. May I see it and run to you and away from the flexing of my own power and glory. Amen.
To Live is Christ 