Psalm 41:11-12

Psalm 41:11-12

You are pleased with me!

We all like to know that someone is pleased with us. Children vie for the attention of their parents and their teachers; a word of affirmation, a pat on the back, a “Well done” in an exercise book means a great deal. We use such means to get the best out of them and to encourage progress. Not much changes in adult life; a husband seeks to please his wife – or vice versa. An employee works to please his / her boss, an athlete seeks to please the crowd, a musician plays to please an audience. The list is a long one, life for us all is about having people who are pleased with us. What a sad person it is who neither pleases others or takes pleasure from them, this gift to please and be pleased should be common to all. So, how do we get to please the Lord? There must be a thousand ways; from service, to worship, to lifestyle, to study, to prayer, to the way we think, there are so many opportunities to please Him. The closer we become the more we realise how much we are loved and how bountiful He is. Nothing is withheld from us, all things work together for good, every minute of our lives we are protected and provided for. It follows that if things go well, the Lord is pleased with us. Ok, so we need a bit of discipline and we have to be constantly reminded of our dependency but if disasters are averted, if the worst-case scenario never happens, if those who oppose us never gain ground; then we can say, “I know that You are pleased with me.” Hallelujah!

 

V12      David may be a sinner, he may have failed in many different ways, but his heart is true, he is a man of faith, he has no greater wish than to serve the Lord and in that, he has integrity. Maybe we can identify with him, we make mistakes, we know our weaknesses but above all we seek to honour the Lord and whatever happens, however much we may fail, inevitably we have to come back to Him in repentance and then move on. How gracious He is, how patient and how merciful. I wonder if you and I dare say to the Lord, “You protect, guard and stand by me because of my integrity?” I wonder if the opposite is true? 

David had no allusions, he was the king of a great nation on earth, but he was no more than a servant when he knelt before the King of heaven. There follows a great statement that echoes the thoughts of the Apostle Paul many years later. Paul, writing in Ephesians, talks often of our being seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. It’s a big subject but it means that we have access to the courts of heaven, that because we are in Christ and because He is seated at God’s right hand then we too share His glory, power and authority. That position is ours forever, we will always have access to Him and be in Him and He is within us by the Holy Spirit. He made that all possible when He died, rose again and ascended to the heavenly realms. Hallelujah!

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