Reading: Psalm 13-15
QUESTIONS
Psalm 13:
- Do you ever feel like God has forgotten you? What do you do in times of despair?
- Spend some time finding passages that remind you that He is always with you.
- In what ways has the Lord “dealt bountifully with you”? Thank Him for those ways!
Psalm 14:
- What do you do when you realize you are caught up in corruption? How do you go back to God to receive His forgiveness?
- Thank the Lord for being your refuge and be specific.
Psalm 15:
- If you had a checklist, could you say that you have kept all of the items in Psalm 15?
- Our righteousness comes from the Lord! Thank Him that you do not have to keep his ways perfectly, that He forgives your true repentance and gives you His righteousness!
DEVOTION
Psalm 13: How long?
David cries out “How long?” four times in this prayer to the Lord. He feels forgotten by God – abandoned, sorrowful, and defeated. In his agony, David takes his desperation to God in prayer. His prayer brings the solution, possibly after a long time – certainty of God’s goodness even in his distress. He ends with his trust in God’s unfailing love, rejoicing in God’s salvation of him, and remembering God’s goodness.
Psalm 14: The Fool
The fool is an atheist who thinks that God isn’t relevant to his life. He rejects wisdom and suppresses the truth of the God of creation, like the unrighteous people who deny God in Romans 1. Remember, that when we sin, we act like the foolish atheist who believes God isn’t relevant. In this Psalm, David looks ahead to Jesus, the one who will come out of Zion, who will save us from sin.
Psalm 15: Who may dwell with the Lord?
Here we read about the high standard for drawing near to God – speaking truth, generosity, and contentment. The description of this upright man reminds us that we can’t keep this standard, and our holiness is in Christ who makes it possible to go in to God (Hebrews 4:15-16).
– Deborah Holt