Weekly Devotional 1st of March, 2024
by Bruce Billington
Weekly Devotional – 1st March 2024
We are continuing to explore the knowledge of God as expressed in the Psalms. This week we look at some verses from Psalm 86 – a prayer of David’s.
Psalm 86:8-10 – “There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours. All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You”
All of us recognise that there are kings, leaders, judges, magistrates etc. that perform an important task here on earth, but we must also realise that they are nothing when compared to the might and majesty of our God. None of them can claim the power to be self-existent; all creating; completely holding all power and authority and sitting unchallenged on His throne in the true heavenly realm.
Satan and his cohorts cannot claim the ability to create or uncreate what God has made. When did the devil ever divide the sea, provide mana from the skies, or split a rock to provide water?
Here we have David, in a time of urgent need, turning to the Lord in the knowledge that He alone, is the only living and true God. He alone is alive and real. He alone is God and no one else can help him.
But as he begins to pray, the cry of His heart becomes deeper and more alive with the truth of who God is. He prophesied (v9), that all nations will one day turn from their idols and acknowledge his Lord and Master as God (v10). They too will submit to His Lordship and worship Him. They will bow their knees in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and they will glorify Him (Philippians 2:9–11). On that day, all of creation will join with God’s people in declaring that God is great and that He performs miraculous, wonderful deeds. All will confess that He alone is God (v10).
So, what can we take from this? We can carry our most urgent prayers, petitions and needs to God with full confidence that He is alive and that He is the one true God. We do not pray to an object but to a living Spirit—the force of creation, the source and sustainer of all life (John 4:24; Acts 17:28).
As believers, we can call on God with unwavering assurance that He hears us and will answer us (1 John 5:14–15).
Furthermore, we can pray with absolute certainty that He is able to solve our greatest problems, meet our deepest needs, and deliver us from our fiercest enemies. He is God. He is omnipotent. Nothing is too hard for Him. No one can do what He can do!
Yes, I agree – it is hard to convince ourselves of these things at certain times in our lives, but Jesus endorses this promise in Matthew 7 when he says,
Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
There is one more point that should be made here. David wasn’t only coming to God because of a desperate need – he was seeking yet a further opportunity to get to know Him so he could walk in His ways. That is the end goal of everything we face in life. We see this in David’s cry in verse 11.
Psalm 86:11 “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.”
God bless you.
Bruce Billington