<< Download all Five Days >>
Pray:
Ask God to orient or reorient you to himself. Confess any known sin. Thank him for his forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and his sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s word. Pray for others in your life that they too would know and love God today.
Read:
35:4-10
4 May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay. 5 May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away; 6 may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them. 7 Since they hid their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me, 8 may ruin overtake them by surprise— may the net they hid entangle them, may they fall into the pit, to their ruin. 9 Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation. 10 My whole being will exclaim, “Who is like you, LORD? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them.”
Understand:
Verse 4 is known as an imprecatory prayer. Imprecate means “to invoke evil upon or curse” one’s enemies. We find these prayers when David was going through gut-wrenching times. These kinds of prayers come out of a longing for justice to be done. David lived in a time when they we’re looking forward to the coming of Christ. But we now live in the time after Christ appearance.
Christ death on the cross brings the ultimate justice—we know that in him all things will be made right at his second coming. We place our hope in him. So as we live in the “already not yet” reality of the Gospel of Jesus, we turn to him for Justice. We do what he tells us to do: we pray for our enemies; we pray for their salvation first and foremost, and then for God’s will to be done.
It means we have given up the idea that we know best and instead are now relying on and trusting in God to work His will. If a personal wrong has truly been done to us, we seek God in prayer about it, and then leave room for God’s judgment and trust Him to do what is best.
“Hid their nets” and “dug a pit” our metaphors for the insidious character of their plots.
In verses 9-10 David says he will rejoice in the LORD, and delight in his salvation…you’ve rescued the poor and needy.
David’s longing to see God’s justice led him to breakout in praise for God.
The longing for Justice had been answered in the Gospel of Jesus.
Apply:
We all have a sense of what justice is in side us; we want to see things made right. We can spot injustice easily. So when David is attacked by his enemies, he knows he is being treated unjustly. We see him pouring his heart out to the Lord—he’s being completely honest with God. He’s not calling out for God to let him bring justice on his foes, but instead he is calling for God to bring his justice to David’s plight. He is placing his trust in Gods righteousness and justice—he’s calling for God to save him.
It’s what we need to do when our enemies come against us. We need to bring are prayers and lay them at the feet of Jesus. We set our hope fully on Christ. Remember the victory you have in Christ! (1 Cor. 15:15). Set your hope fully on him! (1 Pet. 1:13)
What do you have to do to set your hope fully on Jesus?
How difficult is it for you to let go of past and ongoing hurts that you’ve experienced from people you thought were your friends? Ask God to help you to forgive them?
Pray for the lost, for those who are far from God, pray that their eyes would be opened to the Gospel.
Pray for those who make life difficult for you, pray they would come to know Jesus.
Live:
(Personalize this prayer for today, make it specific to the circumstances that face you.) Ask God to lead you through his Spirit as you go through your day. Ask him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell him “Yes” to his will today and ask him for his power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask him to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY TODAY.