Psalm 34:15-22 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 34:15-22 on biblegateway.com
Verse 15The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
Verse 16The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
Verse 17When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.
Verse 18The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.
Verse 19Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all.
Verse 20He keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken.
Verse 21Evil brings death to the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
Verse 22The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
Devotion
When we choose a god to depend on, we also want to be good, or, as the psalmist says, righteous. We are righteous when we are obedient, follow the rules and are nice. The righteous get praised for doing good. The righteous get God's help, and the righteous get rescued from their afflictions. It's a good god who can do that because it makes dealing with the day so much easier if our god saves us from all our daily headaches and griefs.
But the new thing is that Jesus makes us righteous apart from us being obedient ourselves. This gift is a great relief, for it is never the case that we are always obedient. To trust in what we do to make us righteous is to choose ourselves and what we do as our god. So we really need Jesus' death and resurrection for us to make us good.
Prayer
Forgiving Father, use Jesus as how you deal with us. Use his death and rising to make us look good to you. Help us to give Jesus to others to make them good. Amen.