Daily Vows

The last verse of this Psalm caught my attention. Especially the idea of doing daily what we ought to do. The Christian life is not lived from Christmas to Christmas, or Easter to Easter, or month to month, or week to week, but every day, all the time.

Exercise institutions will experience their greatest enrollment at this time of the year. Many of those who sign up will not go over a couple of times. More people will say, “I’m going to lose some weight,” at this time of the year than at any other time.. Now certainly I’m not expert in Physical fitness, but I’ve figured something out about it just through observation and common sense. I’m sure if I have figured it out, you have known it for a long time, but I’ll tell you anyway. The reason I’m so bent on telling you is because there is a parallel between maintaining physical well being and maintaining spiritual well-being. Before I tell you, let me say that when I speak of physical well being, I’m talking about controlling weight and muscle tone and cholesterol and blood pressure. Now, I am aware that there are some of you that I could call on, who could speak with far more authority than I on these matters, but I believe you will not disagree with what I have to say. When I speak of spiritual well being, I’m talking about living in a closeness to God, where you realize His presence and power in your life. Where He is not just a philosophical ideal, but He is the Friend in your life that sticks closer than a brother. Okay, here it is, this is what I’ve figured out: Whatever you do, you can’t just do it one time and forget about it, you’ve got to continue it every day, all the time. That’s true if you want to lose weight, or if you want to draw closer to God.

I saw a man on C-Span, who had written a book entitled, “It’s Getting Better All The Time.” He said there has been more progress within the human race in the last 50 years than in all of past history. No one can argue that we have made great progress in many things, but as Bible believing Christians, we are aware that we have regressed in some very important matters. We have gone the wrong way instead of the right way! We have not merely forgotten God, we have deliberately pronounced that we do not need God.

David, King of Israel, is the writer of the 61st Psalm, as he is the writer of many others. Being King, he had a wealth of human resources at his disposal, but in his circumstances, human resources wasn’t enough. No generation has ever lived on the face of the earth, who have come close to matching what we have in human resources. In spite of all we have, it’s not enough. It doesn’t begin to be enough. We can buy the finest in treatments, medical and otherwise, but we cannot buy health. We can buy a beautiful house, but we cannot buy a happy home. We can buy the finest foods, but we can’t buy a good appetite. We can buy our way to about anywhere we want to go, but we cannot buy our way to heaven. (Well, you get the idea.)

There is a need to be heard by someone who can help.

The circumstances of this Psalm is that David’s son Absalom had led a revolt against David, and David had run away to keep from having to kill his son, or to keep his son from killing him. If that’s not enough, the northern part of the kingdom was rebelling, and one of Saul’s sons, named Ishbosheth had taken the throne there. A couple of men, who thought they were doing David a favor, went in while Ishbosheth was asleep and cut his head off and brought it to David. David had those men put to death. Everything seemed to be going wrong. David knew where to turn, he turned to God. He felt like he was at the end of the earth. He felt like his heart was overwhelmed. He was at that place, where we all get, when he was thinking, “I don’t know what to do, I don’t think I can go on.”

Sometimes we think we just need somebody to listen to us, but we really need somebody who can help us. God can! David didn’t just say, “Let me pray more,” he said, “Lord, here me when I pray, attend to my prayer.” (Answer it for me!) The Bible tells us that if we want God to answer our prayers, there are some things that we have to have in place in our lives: 1) Sin must be forsaken, (Is.59:1-2); 2) God’s word must be believed, (Ja.1:6-7); and, 3) Christ must be received, (Jn.14:6). I want to live on “praying ground,” don’t you? I know that there is a “rock that is higher than I.”