14 day plan

Are We There Yet? Part Two

Day 9 of 14

NIV

Psalms 9:10

10Those who know your name trust in you,

for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Reflection:  Trustworthy

It is slightly odd. As I write today’s devotion, I’m waiting on a phone call that will tell me whether I will die sooner or later. I’ve been offered a place on an experimental trial that might keep me alive, but the fact that I’ve just had abdominal surgery might disqualify me, so that all that is open to me is palliative care. The poor doctors. Sometimes we place on them the burden of having to act like God!

All of this, of course, highlights the question of who it is you trust. You can glibly say, ‘I trust God,’ and then, with a shock, realise that your life really is on the line; forcing you to test whether what you say is true.

I can tell you that it is true. I trust the God who created a cosmos of unimaginable wonder so that we could exist and be loved. I trust the God who came as a man to die on a cross to pay the price for my sins that would otherwise disqualify me from his presence. I trust the God who has guided me and delighted me in every phase of my life, including (perhaps particularly) in my sickness.

God can be trusted.

Prayer:  Dear Father, you are the giver of all life, and you have promised us a place in your eternal kingdom after we die. Please forgive me when I struggle to surrender to death. Have your way in me, I pray.

Psalms 9:1-20

Psalm 9

For the director of music. To the tune of “The Death of the Son.” A psalm of David.

1I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

2I will be glad and rejoice in you;

I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

3My enemies turn back;

they stumble and perish before you.

4For you have upheld my right and my cause,

sitting enthroned as the righteous judge.

5You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;

you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.

6Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies,

you have uprooted their cities;

even the memory of them has perished.

7The Lord reigns forever;

he has established his throne for judgment.

8He rules the world in righteousness

and judges the peoples with equity.

9The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.

10Those who know your name trust in you,

for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

11Sing the praises of the Lord, enthroned in Zion;

proclaim among the nations what he has done.

12For he who avenges blood remembers;

he does not ignore the cries of the afflicted.

13Lord, see how my enemies persecute me!

Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,

14that I may declare your praises

in the gates of Daughter Zion,

and there rejoice in your salvation.

15The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;

their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

16The Lord is known by his acts of justice;

the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.

17The wicked go down to the realm of the dead,

all the nations that forget God.

18But God will never forget the needy;

the hope of the afflicted will never perish.

19Arise, Lord, do not let mortals triumph;

let the nations be judged in your presence.

20Strike them with terror, Lord;

let the nations know they are only mortal.