Bravado

“I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” Psalm 16:8

These words, written by David are admirable, as is the rest of Psalm 16.  But…in some way they are not relatable. I admire David’s words, but I’m not sure I can completely share in their meaning. Why?

David says, “I have set the LORD always before me….”  And I have to stop right there. David’s words here are full of Donald Trump-like bravado. Good for him. But that is not me, in that I know that I have not set the LORD always before me.  Those words point directly and boldly at my failings, and they are legion. As Donald trump might yell at me, “You’re fired!”

There is a worship song I really like. Made popular a decade or more ago by the Newsboys, it has lyrics like, “I'm forgiven because You were forsaken; I'm accepted, You were condemned….”

Great, true stuff.  But the song ends with a line sung as sort of a long coda which proclaims, “In all I do I honor You.”

I…can…never…sing…that…line.   Because I know myself.  I all I do?  No way.  To my shame.

But then I’m reminded.  That is why Jesus went to the cross.  Peter puts it like this (paraphrasing Isaiah), “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (visit 1 Peter 2:24) A tremendous grace note.  A grace that assures me that, “he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken….”

Maybe the day will come that I can write something with as much bravado as David and be able to say, I have set the LORD always before me…  Maybe someday I will get there, or maybe at least close.

But this I know, as a truster and believer in what Christ has done for me on the cross, I know he is at my right hand, and in spite of my sporadic failings, ultimately I shall not be shaken.

He has done the work, that is where the real bravado lies. Thank God!