Saturday, March 1, 2008
PSALM Fruitful Branches...

I wasn’t really sure of the background of psalm 60 but with the help of the psalm’s guide, I was able to have a better understanding and clarity of what this psalm is all about. Here’s a little background of psalm 60 from what I have found from the psalm’s guide:

A national prayer for God’s help after suffering a severe blow by a foreign nation, presumably Edom (v9). The prayer leader may have been a king. God has promised to be with His people; but in his own wisdom, He seems to have abandoned them. God’s people live a meaningless existence without His presence. They take defeat seriously because divine abandonment is the most miserable condition. The experience of divine rejection brings out a renewed faith and confidence in the Lord.

It is seen in psalm 60 that God had seemingly abandoned His people. But why would God reject His people? Well He was angry with them. The verse to this reason was found in v3, ‘you have shown your people desperate times; you have given us wine that makes us stagger.’
What is this wine that made them stagger? It was the cup of the Lord’s wrath and this wrath was mentioned in both Isa 51 and Jer 25:15.

God may have been angry with His people but know that He is a compassionate and just God. In psalm 60, the psalmist was quick in repenting his sins and responded to this divine rejection by praying as their first recourse. He humbles his heart and believes that it is only through God that they will gain the victory as seen in v12. We should recognise the fact that we are nothing without God. It is only by His spirit that we can do all things but do you put your confidence in Him? Do you trust that God can see you through tough times and vindicate you? If you do, would you seek prayer as your first recourse and not the last resort?

God honours those who seek Him with an attitude of brokenness. Always remember the story of the Vine and Branches in John 15.
For Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

We can do nothing without God…

Labels: Devotion, PSALM devotions