MONDAY, JULY 30
Psalm 28:1-9
1 Peter 5:7

“God is our refuge and strength …”

IF YOU CRY, CRY TO THE LORD

It is no shame to cry. Jesus wept. The pent-up feelings of sorrow, of anxiety, of fear, etc., are released to our good when we cry. We cry on the shoulders of our friends and loved ones. But it is far better to cry to the Lord, like a little child sobbing in his mother’s bosom. David knows how to do this. David not only knows how to “encourage himself in the LORD his God” (1 Sam 30:6), but also to pour out his discouragements. He would be the first to heed Peter’s words in 1 Peter 5:7.

Psalm 28 is placed after Psalm 27 in logical appendage. Spurgeon says, “It is another of those ‘songs in the night’ of which the pen of David was so prolific. The thorn at the breast of the nightingale was said by the old naturalists to make it sing: David’s griefs made him eloquent in holy psalmody.” America has become a mediocre society in this age of affluence. It was in times of pain and suffering that she produced greatness. Read 2 Corinthians 12:10. Cry unto the Lord in sweet submission. Crying to the Lord is a form of earnest prayer. It does not belong to the charismatics, where crying is emotionally and in some cases artfully worked up. For cool as cucumber Presbyterians, when there is good cause to weep, let us weep (Matt 5:4).

On lifting up our hands as a gesture of prayer, Spurgeon comments, without prejudice, “Uplifted hands have ever been a form of devout posture, and are intended to signify a reaching upward towards God, a readiness, an eagerness to receive the blessing sought after. We stretch out empty hands, for we are beggars; we lift them up, for we seek heavenly supplies; we lift them towards the mercy seat of Jesus, for there our expectation dwells. O that whenever we use devout gestures, we may possess contrite hearts, and so speed well with God.”

David was a man after God’s own heart because his heart was perfect. He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God listened to his prayer when he took up the holy cause of God.

THOUGHT: I must go to the mercy seat, often.
PRAYER: Forgive me, Lord, for going everywhere except to Thee.