READ Psalm 71:1–6. 1 In you, LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. 2 In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me; turn your ear to me and save me. 3 Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. 4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel. 5 For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth. 6 From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you.
DELIVER ME IN YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. The psalmist asks for help because God is righteous (verse 2). But shouldn’t that lead him to punish rather than aid us? “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins [and he does], Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). How can God love us and still be true to his own righteousness? The Bible is one long, great answer to that question. It happens only through Jesus. Who else completely relied on God from birth and always praised him (verse 6)? He earned the blessing of salvation we don’t deserve and took the curse for sin that we do deserve (Galatians 3:10–14). If we are in Christ, the confidence David had (verse 5) becomes ours by grace.
Prayer: O Lord—you are more ready to hear than I am to pray, and you are inclined to give me more than I desire or deserve. Because I have taken refuge in Jesus’s saving work on my behalf, give me the protection and joy for which it would be presumptuous otherwise to ask.62 Amen.