Psalm 51:
This is an excellent example of a repentant heart. David is aware of the sins he's committed and he says they haunt him continuously. He knows that he did wrong in God's eyes and he is asking for forgiveness. Through his words you can feel his remorse. You can also feel that he has confidence that God will forgive him. Being able to let the sins go is very important. When you present your sins to God know that He has forgiven them completely. Let them go. Satan will try to dig these up and throw them in your face in the future in order to show that you're not worthy of something. You must have confidence that God has forgiven your sins and they are no longer an issue. Trust that God will do this. Have confidence that He has done this.
Sometimes I hear people say 'Well, God may forgive me but I can't forgive myself." I'm not really sure what sins you may have committed but keep in mind David committed murder over an adulterous affair. God forgave David's sins - He has forgiven your sins as well. When someone says "God may forgive me but I can't forgive myself." they are saying that they have a higher standard for perfection than God does. Also, they need to understand that they don't have the power to forgive sins. Only God does... and it sounds like it's good thing because God forgave their sins and they wouldn't. Let go of those sins. Don't hold onto them like a security blanket. They will not ever comfort you. Drop them and grab hold of Jesus' hand. That's all the comfort you will ever need!
Psalm 52:
David wrote this psalm about the Edomite named Doeg who considered himself to be a great warrior. He killed God's priests and boasted about it as if it were a great deed. Sometimes we confuse doing a job well and doing good for God. He certainly was proficient at killing but God did not see it as a good deed. David compared himself to an olive tree that thrives in the house of the Lord by trusting in God's unfailing love. An olive tree is one of the most longest living trees so David was referring to eternal life in God when he made this comparison. Some trust in their own skills to get them through life, David puts his trust in God, and by doing so receives guidance, providence and eternal life.
Psalm 53:
There is a school of thought that is unfortunately growing across the land that goes something like this: "The more educated you become the less you need to rely on the existence of a god because only the uneducated believe in such udder foolishness." At some point, the educated start to believe in their own importance and, like Satan, believe that they know everything... that they are more knowledgeable than others... that they are more powerful because of this knowledge. Oh, how foolish they are!! This is nothing more than their prideful nature taking over their vision, their thinking, their life. Their whole being is so wrapped up in themselves that their couldn't possibly be a god because there's not enough room in the universe for both the atheist and a god. When you speak to an atheist, and I mean have a heart-to-heart with one (if you can), you most likely will find that some where in their past something awful happened that caused them to hate God... to lash out at Him in anger... in rage... with a vengeful nature. They are going to make sure that everyone knows that God doesn't exist.
Charles Darwin, for example the author of "On the Origin of Species", was well-known and respected for his biological knowledge of all creatures. What most people don't realize is that his mother died when he was 8 yrs old. He began to question the existence of God since God did not save her. But it wasn't until later in life, when his 10-year old daughter Annie died from a disease, that he focused his hatred on God, Christianity and all religions for not saving her. His goal was to create a theory that would undermine and destroy the basis for a god. His theory of "natural selection" was created and embraced by a society eager to believe anything - except God. Just before dying, he made it known that he had embellished major sections of the work in order to make the theory more plausible. Unfortunately, this non-sense is what is taught to our children today, even though there isn't ANY substantial proof to support the hypothesis.
Need another example, research Stephen Hawking. His own research and findings support the fact that the universe was created in a "Big Bang" yet his own pride keeps him from aligning that big bang to Genesis 1:3 "God spoke into the darkness saying 'Let there be light, and there was.'" Come on, Stephen. How smart do you have to be to know that. It's on page 1 of the Bible!!! Everything that science has uncovered, is in the Bible, which is why the schools should just use the Bible as a textbook.
I could go on and on and on in this area but I need to focus. Perhaps, you could post your questions and we could chat about it. I'd love to share some of my conversations with atheist (Ha - even there title is lie - it has God in it. If God doesn't exist then how can you be anti-God - you'd be against nothing). I truly relish these conversational opportunities when they present themselves.
Psalm 54:
Many of the psalms move from prayer to praise as David's spirit is lifted up through the process of communicating with God. This will happen to you as well. As you lay your emotional baggage at the foot of the cross, God will put His arm around you and comfort you and give you the guidance you're looking for. Try it - I dare you.
I'm reminded of a story about a man and his wife who spent their entire life working in the mission fields of Africa. They were finally leaving the mission fields and heading back to the states. They had raised their family in the mission fields but they had grown and went their separate ways. Now they were going to have more time to spend with their children and grandchildren. They really didn't know what they were going to do when they got to New York but they knew that God would help them figure it out. As they boarded the ocean liner, there was much fanfare. It turns out the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was going to be on the same ship. He was returning from one of his famous big game hunting trips.
All the pomp and circumstance of having the president on board was beginning to agitate the man. He had spent his entire adult life tending to the needs of the tribal people of Africa. Here the president had gone hunting for a few days and was receiving all kinds of attention. As they came into the harbor, there were marching bands playing and thousands of people cheering for the president, but no one was there for them. No signs waving welcoming the home, no fanfare whatsoever. This continued to eat at the man more and more.
Finally, the couple made there way to there modest little apartment and unpacked. The man said to his wife that he just can't stand it any more. It's just not right and it's eating at me. I've got to do something about this. His wife told him to go into the bedroom and pray about. Ask God to help you understand. So he did. He prayed for a long time and when emerged from the bedroom he had a new perspective. His wife asked him how he was doing and what God had said. He turned to his wife and said "God listened and comforted me as I laid all of my concerns out to him. Then it was as if He put His arm around me and told me "You're not home yet, my son."
As Christians, we must realize that this world is not our home, we're just passing through. The world has everything upside down. The things the world puts importance on, Christians do not.
I'm sure when those missionaries returned home to heaven there was great fanfare and a party like never before.
Psalm 55:
God wants us to give our burdens over to Him so He can dispose of them for us. Trust Him to take them from us and replace their weight on our shoulders with unending joy in our hearts! He is the truth, the way and the life. Find the truth and the truth shall set you free. Free at last, free at last, thank God above, I'm free at last!
The Shepherd
Psalms 56-60
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