Grace and Works

 February 8, 2024

There are some things I wish weren’t in the Bible. Take Psalm 18, for example. It all starts out well enough, with praise for who God is:

”I love you, Lord, my strength.

 The Lord is my rock, 

my fortress and my deliverer; 

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, 

my shield and the horn of my salvation, 

my stronghold.“

David goes on in v. 6 to speak of God’s deliverance:

”In my distress I called to the Lord; 

I cried to my God for help. 

From his temple he heard my voice; 

my cry came before him, into his ears.“

He follows this with a description of how that deliverance was accomplished, with volcanic eruptions, storms, wind, rain, hail and lightning. It is a moving, poetic description of the magnificence of God’s power and love.

The psalm ends similarly, with David emerging in triumph over his foes due to the hand of God upon him. It’s what is sandwiched between these two triumphs that bothers me. After testifying how God reached down and delivered him in his distress, David says this:

”The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; 

according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. 

For I have kept the ways of the Lord; 

I am not guilty of turning from my God. 

All his laws are before me; 

I have not turned away from his decrees. 

I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. 

The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, 

according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.“

—Psalm 18:20-24 

“I,” “Me,” “My;” Even while speaking of God’s gracious deliverance, David can’t seem to help inserting himself into the narrative. His pride and self-assurance are on full display. Years later, this pride would be his undoing as he took another man’s wife and had her husband murdered to cover it up. How unsettlingly true it is that even in the midst of praise and dependence on God, our hearts can harbor a pride that makes us believe our own strength is our salvation, and that we are exempt from even the most basic of God’s commandments.

Our judgmental spirits imagine we are better than others and are immune to the devil’s tricks and our own human weaknesses. It is only by God’s unmeasurable grace and love that flawed as we are, he allows us to participate in his salvation work. Praise him for his deliverance, and humbly acknowledge that it is God alone who is our deliverer.