Daily Reading: Psalm 51-57
Psalm 56:9
When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
King David knew something every child of God would benefit from knowing. He knew that God was for him. His confidence is clear, his dependence is settled, his victory is certain, his outcome is inevitable, and his heart was singular. God was for him, who could be against him? Just as the Apostle Paul would write to the book of Romans just over a thousand years later: What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) This was David’s assurance, it was Paul’s assurance, and it can be your assurance.
When one considers the question, “Is God for me?” This too must be asked, “Am I for God?” In the book of Acts Gamaliel warned the religious leaders of the day to beware of how they treated the disciples of Christ. Speaking of their work for the Savior, he said in Acts 5:39: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. If not careful, any person can turn against the Lord God and be against Him. Peter learned this lesson when he rebuked Jesus, the Lord saying to him Get thee behind me, Satan: (Matthew 16:23). At that moment Peter was opposed to the Lord God, but God was for him. Proven, by the Lord rebuking him and correcting him, allowing him to be ever careful about falling into a trap even being against the Lord.
We all must learn to be careful of being found to be against the Lord. But even in times of our stumbling, we also must learn that through it all, in spite of it all, and in light of it all, God is for you. He is on your side, He is watching over you, protecting you, guiding you, enabling you, and yes, when needed chastening you.
David’s firm understanding of the fact that God was for him allowed him to write bold statements like: What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee (verse 3), In God will I praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me (verse 4), and again in verse 11; In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me, and finally verse 13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
Statements like this can only be communicated from a heart filled with the confidence that God is for me. There are too many promises in the Bible that prove this for anyone to doubt its truth. The question should not be “Is God for me?” But rather: “Am I for God?”
Until tomorrow, live for Christ today.