God is Great!

A devotion on PSALM 70

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I grew up regularly hearing the Takbir from my Muslim neighbors. It is the commonly used Arabic phrase ʾAllāhu ʾakbar, meaning “Allah is the greatest”.

David starts and ends our succinct passage today with an urgent plea. He begs God to hurry and help him, admitting David’s utter weakness and neediness and complete dependence on his deliverer. It swivels on this gem:

4 Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;

let those who love Your salvation continually say, “God is great!”

All seek (search out, strive after) many things in life. Do you seek Yahwe? Here’s what it looks like in one of my favorite psalms: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water,” Ps 63:1.

  • “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God,” Psalm 42:2. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink,” John 7:37.
  • Why did Jesus say that? “For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things,” Psalm 107:9. It is not for power or a high or sex or friends that your soul thirsts. It thirsts for God. He alone satisfies you and that with good things. “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow to it,” Pr. 10:22. All these other ‘blessings’ you pursue may come to pass in your life but they are paid for with the currency of sorrow. Seek the main thing and all others will be added to you.

May your soul hunger and thirst for God alone. May it long for him and drive you to seek him. With all your will, your affections, your mind, your passions, your emotions and desires – may you strive after him singularly. He alone satisfies. He alone meets you in your place of deepest need despite your external circumstances.

There is a peculiar group that is distinctly marked by and notorious for their joy. You are a life member of that ragtag band. Is joy your signature? If not ask Holy Spirit to help you in that department. It is one of his fruits in your life. Call on Jesus as you answer his invitation to come to him and drink. Just walking through this world will leave you parched and scorch your soul. Come regularly for refreshment. You will be bright and cheerful because he will feed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper. May you be abundantly prosperous in joy and gladness.

Be one of those that delights in and prides herself in God’s salvation (deliverance, victory, prosperity). To that end, move your lips and mobilize your vocal cords today and all your days to constantly say “God is great!” May that be your story and your song!

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