Our daily reflections follow the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan, designed for those who want to read the whole Bible in one year. Each reflection focuses on one of the chapters from that day's readings. Darllenwch rhain yn Gymraeg.
Lord, prepare me to receive your word. Clear my mind and warm my heart. Assure me of your loving purposes for me, and speak into my life today.
The Hebrew title of this psalm relates it to God's preservation of David in the face of Saul and his other enemies. God is envisaged as a mighty warrior, fighting irresistibly for the psalmist and overcoming his foes.
This sense that God is our protector against those who seek to harm us is enormously comforting for the believer. Many of us find these verses a powerful support in times of trouble: when we read, 'The Lord reached down from above and took hold of me; he pulled me out of the deep waters' (verse 16), we're connected directly to our own experience of God's mercy.
The psalmist, though, appears to link God's protection of us to our own virtue: 'The Lord rewards me because I do what is right' (verse 20). That's not so easy – does it mean that if I do wrong, he will abandon me? Here's where we need to take the whole Bible into account rather than just a few verses. It's generally true that if we live in the way God intends, our lives are likely to be better than if we don't. But God's grace to us means that we get what we don't deserve; even when we sin, we're not forsaken.
So we might want to take these verses as expressing an ideal relationship with God. He is faithful to us, and we are faithful to him (verse 25). None of us is perfect, but we are all perfectly loved.
God, thank you for rescuing me when I've needed help and had no one else beside me. Help me to respond to your faithfulness to me with faithfulness to you.
This reflection was written by Mark Woods, Bible Society's Editor
Read the Bible 
Processing...