Message from Scripture: 11/03/2020

 

Our message from Scripture today is Psa. 18:32; “God—He clothes me with strength and makes my way perfect.”

 

In this psalm, David stops to praise God for delivering him from His enemies, but specifically Saul, who had been pursuing Him and seeking to take his life. David knows it wasn’t by his own strength, or plans, or anything else that originated in him that saved him, but by the power of God. In our lives, we face many challenges as well, physically and spiritually, and the troubles of life can be a burden, not only to endure, but to overcome. As we are children of God, what does David by inspiration tell us we have available to us that can help us during such times?

 

David first thanked God for clothing him with strength. The word for clothes, or girds, means to bind up. It is used of soldiers putting on armor and girding themselves for battle. Here it is used metaphorically, as God clothes us, not with literally garments, but with His strength. He is able to do this because He is a God clothed with strength and might (Psa. 65:6). It is similar in thought to Paul exhorting the Christians in Ephesus to put on the full armor of God (Eph. 6:11-17). God provides us His strength to deal with whatever comes our way, to remain faithful to Him. Paul prayed that God “may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 316-17).

 

Finding strength in His will for our lives, the result is our way can be perfect, meaning blameless or complete. He matures us through His word, which gives us the best way to live, and to find help for anything we encounter. Paul preached the gospel to present everyone mature in Christ (Col. 1:28). This is our greatest need, to be complete in Christ, to have His life in us, and for the hope of eternity to be real and active in us.

 

David faced so many real issues in his life, but he knew God was the only one who could help him and bring him through them all. So it is for us as well. May we seek to clothe ourselves in God’s strength, finding His way for our lives, perfecting and completing us, helping us conquer the enemy of sin. Live for Jesus and have His best for you. God bless.

 

Robert