God’s Love Secures God’s People - Psalms 30-32

God’s Love Secures God’s People

Psalms 31:21-22 (ESV)
21 Blessed be the LORD,
for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was in a besieged city.
22 I had said in my alarm,
“I am cut off from your sight.”
when I cried to you for help.

In Psalms 31 we are reading a song of David when he was in a very bad place.   Earlier in the song he wrote:

Psalms 31:11-13 (ESV)
11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach,
especially to my neighbors,
and an object of dread to my acquaintances;
those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I have been forgotten like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.
13 For I hear the whispering of many—
terror on every side!—
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.

Those who were his friends, were not.  Security he thought he had, was not.   The strength he thought he had, was not.  And, he confesses why all these failed:

Psalms 31:9-10 (ESV)
9 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my eye is wasted from grief;
my soul and my body also.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.

His “iniquity” had separated him from God.  Yet, it is God’s unfailing and steadfast love that brought David out of this siege of his soul.   He desires God’s mercy and receives it.   He receives it because God is loving.  He concludes the song with this stanza:

Psalms 31:23-24 (ESV)
23 Love the LORD, all you his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD!

David was cut off from God’s sight because of his own sin and the wickedness of those around him.  Yet, he pleas for mercy and grace and God’s loving kindness rescues him.   That should give us all, as David states, strength and courage.  

But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy