David's understanding,,,

(Psalms 40:6) “…Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.”

When I consider the requirements needed from God’s chosen people in times past, how they had to offer up sacrifice in order to find forgiveness and then they were never guaranteed absolution. How week after week they would sin and then have to perform a ritual and a life of some poor animal would need to be slaughtered so that God may accept their sacrifice. This was a never ending process that all of the seed from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had to adhere to if they wanted to find favour from Jehovah God. Yet David pens these words in the book of Psalms; “Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.”

Let us consider the importance of His understanding, when Moses came off Mount Sinai he had the Ten Commandments in His hand, God had just given Him the Law, the rules and regulations that they were to keep if they wanted to find support from God. Then later they received the breakdown of how they needed to apply themselves by fulfilling and keeping those bylaws and in turn have the only true eternal God as their protector. God proves His commitment to them by signs and wonders. They witnesses many miracles coming out of Egypt and there could be no doubt of God’s ability to save, they had seen him in action! But God now required faith from them and obedience was needed from every individual if they wanted to make it through the Wilderness and into the Promised Land. As time progressed with the genealogy getting them close to the birth of Jesus their lives still full of the does and don’ts as they looked to implement God’s Law into their lives, there was very little liberty in their religion, but they became so mundane in their application and with heart always looking to outwit the law. I have a greater appreciation and a far deeper understanding of trying to serve and please God in the flesh, it is impossible, we will never get it right. Why? We have been hewn from a pool of sin and as good as a person’s intention may be we will always gravitate back to our roots as we look out for ourselves. Look how the Lord Jesus singles out the leaders of his time; “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7) 

The danger we all face being religious is to find justification by what we do instead of resting in what the Lord Jesus has done. Test your family and friends that profess to be Christians and then ask a couple of questions and find out why they think God should let them into heaven. The answers will always be the same, they will speak of their good works and that they are good people, there is no good person in comparison to God our Father, man has fallen, and outside of Christ even the most astute do-gooder will be left expose when He stands before our awesome God, his very best deed will be like a filthy rag in contrast. That is why we see that sinners finding repentance, people that understand that they are lost and have failed God and need rescuing, you often hear of prisoners getting saved as the Lord Jesus did not come to save the self-righteous but He came to call sinners to repentance. The self-righteous will seldom be saved. The leaders of Israel learnt to manipulate the laws of God to try and find justification from God, but their hearts were far from Him. That is why he called them vipers. They heard that by being baptized they would find support from God and yet they were preoccupied with self, their hearts were far from Him. These were the teachers of Israel, and today we see many religions and pious leaders applying exactly the same falsehood and pretence to appear godly and yet it is the blind leading the blind and then we know what will eventually happen, both will fall into the ditch.

David had understood that through his life, although he also made mistakes (some serious ones), that it was all about God and His purposes; he believed God and trusted in Him. When he fell into sin, he called out to the One who had the power to forgive. He did not try and find justification in doing things by sacrificial atonement in order to find forgiveness. He understood that it was impossible to keep the law and be justified by it. He realize that the Law could never be kept but it was a teacher that God implemented to show us that we required His help and that we needed to be rescued, we could never be a people that God could leave to their own devises, if He did that we would all be lost, and hell would be our final destination! David understood that God was able and because of God’s ability he was now able to kill the lion and the bear for God was on his side, not because he had spent hours training with a sling and was able to brandish it with precision, which obviously was also very true. He understood that by doing things he could never be justified. What amazes me with David’s example is that he believed God before the actual account of Calvary unfolded. Its god who opens a person’s eyes and gives them life, praise His name. David understood that “burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.” He trusted in His God! Will we trust our God, will we remember to find justification in our Saviour and not always look for acceptance by the things we do! Can we learn to rest in Him, I pray that we will become more like David and learn to have faith in our great King in every area of our lives? Give us a heart like David’s, may we always find the resolve to want to please you Father by obeying your voice and resting in the finished work of Calvary.

Signing off

Tyrone