A Thought For Your Christian Journey:

Being faithful in life’s struggle

Psalm 18.23-28

Psalms 18:23-28 ²³ I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. ²⁴ Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. ²⁵ With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; ²⁶ With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. ²⁷ For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. ²⁸ For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

According to the heading for this Psalm David wrote it after being delivered from his enemies and from King Saul.  If you know anything about David’s life you know how he struggled throughout his life.  In his early years he was called into King Saul’s service, selected by God, anointed by Samuel to be King in Israel; while Saul was still alive and reigning.  Saul sought to kill David time after time.  Eventually, David is found hiding in caves, running for his life.  Yet, in the midst of all his struggles David kept a pure heart.  He struggled to maintain his integrity before God, regardless of what people might have thought about him. 

On at least two occasions King Saul was delivered into David’s hands.  David and his men could have killed Saul, and David’s men viewed Saul’s vulnerability as a deliverance by God; they said (in so many words), here he is let’s lets kill him and take the kingdom, God has given his life to us.  Yet we find David, under the deep conviction of God restraining his men, holding his integrity before God and keeping himself from taking matters into his own hands.  David wrote, 

Psalms 18:2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

In essence David was saying, there are some things that only God can do, and regardless of appearances or the counsel of trusted confidants we must trust God and wait on His divine deliverances.  In verses 23-28 David reveals that a faithful trusting servant in the midst of trial is one that maintains uprightness (vs 23), righteousness (vs 24), cleanness (vs 24), mercy (vs 25), and purity (vs 26).  David then notes that with the froward God will show himself froward.  Frowardness is the opposite of all the other characteristics; it is crookedness.  We might call it compromise.  The froward is one who would say, well something is telling me to wait on God, but . . .  Whenever the but arises in your decision making beware.  God is looking for integrity in the midst of life’s temptations and trials.  Throughout this Psalm David contrasts the honor of integrity with the obscurity of compromise and its ensuing wickedness.  Compromise always ends in tragedy. 

The point seems clear.  It is not always easy to wait on God’s deliverance.  Circumstances lure us, our desire to work it all out for ourselves and to be out of the trial draws upon us, but our integrity before God will always be honored by God.  I have often said, when you are in a trial and you are not absolutely sure what to do, do everything you can that maintains your integrity before God, and then trust God to do the rest.  It is not easy to step back and trust God, especially when things are in the gray or unclear, but it is our only real option.  There are many times in life when we just must say, “Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, make me stand . . .”  Perhaps you need to take your Lord Jesus’ hand today. 

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