Daily Reading: Zechariah 9, Psalm 28, 58, 88, 118
Psalm 118:17-19 “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. (18) The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. (19) Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:”
Rarely are we faced with the possibility that what we are going through would bring us death but I see this scripture as a common plight for me. There are trials, testing and disciplines that seem insurmountable at times. No…they will not kill me but they seem to want to drag me down so deep that I cannot see the light of day. Although I would say that the whole tubal pregnancy thing came close to being a life or death situation. I wasn’t afraid of dying though. I think it’s the little things that really get to me. The things that make me worry and the things that make me cringe at my failures or stupidity. Those situations cause me to choose…death or life. I shall not die but live…and declare the works of the Lord. It doesn’t matter what it looks like or how horrible I feel about it I am not on earth to declare the works of my mind or my hands…I will declare the works of the Lord. Yes, as verse 18 says, I am chastened sore, my heart is pained by my own doing and the shame I have endured by the realization of my depravity, but God does not give me over to death…I am now disciplined I have received whatever chastisement I deserve from my Father and I am free as never before to walk through the gates of righteousness. I will go in and I will praise the Lord. No wasting time trying to clean myself up with filthy rags…just open the gates! I am free to go in…I don’t care what I did or who I did it to…God has forgiven me, chastened me and brought me to life…the gates are no longer closed for me. It’s interesting to me that no matter how righteous we truly are…we are not carried into the gates of righteousness we have to get up and test the legs of the new creation that we are. We make a choice to either live on the side of death or on the side of life. Passing through the gates of righteousness we choose to believe the forgiving and merciful grace of God and stand up in His righteousness as whole and newborn. We declare as the Psalmist did…I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord.