the Third Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Discovering Christ Day by Day
Today’s Reading: Psalms 17-21
“Hear the right, O Lord.”
Psalms 17:1
No one could ever make such a prayer as this before God and be accepted except the Perfect-man, the God-man, our Mediator. Only he can appeal to the justice of his cause and the rightness of his deeds as a reason for God to hear him. So, when we read expressions like this in David’s psalms, it is obvious that God the Holy Spirit would have us see our Savior in the psalmist’s expressions.
In Him
Child of God, you and I approach God with boldness, and obtain the things we desire of him in Christ’s name. In his righteousness we look to God, who is just and the Justifier of all who trust his dear Son, for mercy and grace. It is in union with Christ, by the merits of his blood and righteousness, that we are accepted at the Throne of Grace. To the Throne of Grace we may come, to the Throne of Grace we are commanded to come with boldness. At the Throne of Grace, the sentence of our justification in Christ comes forth with sweet assurance, because the Holy Spirit gives us faith to look up to God in heaven and cry, “Abba, Father!”
God has found no iniquity in our glorious Surety. Therefore, when we come boldly to the Throne of Grace in Christ’s name, we are telling our heavenly Father that the life of his darling Son was perfect, that his blood is our only and our effectual cleansing from sin, that his righteousness is all our righteousness, and that he is all our acceptance with the holy Lord God. How sweetly the Father hears such acclamations given to the Son of his love. He turns away none coming to him in the Savior’s name.
Precious Lamb of God! What unanswerable arguments may the souls of thy redeemed find in this holiness of thine as our Surety! And what can a sinner tell Jehovah so pleasing to him as when he follows up the gracious voice and proclamation from heaven, in which the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;” and saith, Lord! I am well pleased, too, in Jesus and his justifying righteousness, and am now come for acceptance in the beloved!
Christ Our Victor
Psalms 18 speaks of David’s deliverance from Saul and all his enemies, and of his mighty conquests. Behold, my soul, a greater than David is here. Christ is our mighty Victor. Here he declares his love to God for all his promised help and strength as our Mediator in this world. Our Divine Representative was the only man of perfect faith ever to live. Then, having accomplished our redemption, having conquered death and hell, sin and Satan for us, he sat down in heaven as our mighty Victor in whom we triumph and glory for the everlasting glory of God and salvation of our souls.
God’s Books
Our great and gracious God has written three great books by which he declares himself to men upon the earth, so that all are without excuse. These books his chosen, redeemed, called children delight to read. These three books of God are set before us in the 19th Psalm. Enlightened minds hear God’s voice in his word of creation by which he shows his eternal power and godhead, his word of providence by which he accomplishes his will and warns of judgment to come, and his word of inspiration (the Bible) by which he reveals the gospel of his grace and everlasting salvation in Christ, showing sinners the way of life.
Christ’s Glory
The 20th Psalm is a prayer for the prosperity of Christ as the King of Zion, the Head of his Church, a prayer for his conquest over all his foes. Soon this prayer shall be answered! Soon every knee shall be bowed before him and every tongue made to confess him as Lord, either in mercy or in grace. O gracious God, every day, every hour, and forevermore bow my heart to Jesus Christ as my rightful and only Lord!
The 21st Psalm declares that our dear Savior’s glory shall be great in God’s salvation. In the accomplishment of that salvation, the salvation the triune God devised for our souls from everlasting, Christ obtained his glory as the God-man our Savior (John 17:5). That glory he has given us (John 17:20; Romans 8:17). And it is great glory!
