Saved for Good Works from Psalm 116

Today I am commenting on Psalm 116. Verses 1-4 and 12-19 read:

I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I pray, save my life!"

What shall I return to the LORD for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones. I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!

YouTube has become a staple of the internet and many people will turn to that social media outlet to discover all kinds of information. One of the most popular genres of YouTube video is the product review.

Many product reviews on YouTube will produce a glowing report of how a product is the best at doing a particular thing that a reviewer has ever seen. Actually, what I find more interesting are the product reviews that reveal that a particular item doesn't actually work as advertised.

In this passage of Scripture, we see David responding to the realization that his lifestyle did not work to foster a relationship with God. Let's look at some elements of his confession in Psalm 116.

First, We See God’s Initiative:

The Old Testament is a rich source of understanding about the qualities of God. I remember one of my seminary professors complaining mildly that he had tried to write a book on the doctrine of God in the New Testament. The problem was that the New Testament depiction of God is totally in line with the Old Testament depiction of God and He could find nothing new there, so he couldn't write the book.

As frustrated as my professor was, the truth is we can easily discover all the character qualities of God by studying the Old Testament. We know God is all knowing, we know God is ever present, and we know God is all powerful. These are the classic depictions of God in the Old Testament.

Another thing we see about God in the Old Testament is that he is all benevolent and all loving. These are common understandings of the qualities of God as reflected in the Old Testament Scriptures, but in this case, David adds an additional factor to that list of the qualities of God.

What David reveals in Psalm 116 is the character quality of taking the initiative. God took the initiative to create the world. He took the initiative to create humankind. He took the initiative to correct the world through the flood. He took the initiative to call out Noah to save humanity from the flood. He took the initiative to call out Abraham to create a people to share the good news of God's love to the world. He took the initiative to make David king of Israel. Most importantly, however, is that God took the initiative to reach into people’s lives and to save them individually from their sin.

David admits that the only reason he loved God is because God loved him first. Sadly, this is the human condition; if God did not take the initiative and the relationship was left to human beings, there would be no relationship with God. Blessedly, however, God did take the initiative. He did come to be in our lives, and we should be eternally grateful for that.

We Also See David’s Need:

It is true that David was a man after God's own heart. We also know that God specifically chose David to be King over Israel and to put an anointing on his life. While both of these things are true the fact is that David was also human, which means he was also a sinner.

As David lived his life, he made many mistakes. We know he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and we know he conspired to murder Bathsheba’s husband and to cover it up. We also know that David disobeyed God and conducted a census of Israel in violation of God's direct guidance. We know that in Psalm 40 David had described himself as stuck in a miry pit. David's problem and his need are apparent: like all of us he had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There can be no argument that David was the greatest king of Israel. He certainly was the greatest warrior in Israel, and he expanded Israel to its greatest extent both geographically as well as geo-politically. But even David was a frail and limited human being. If David knew that he could not lift himself out of the miry clay even with all his accomplishments what do you think that implies for us normal ordinary everyday human beings?

I think we need to realize that if David with his anointing from God, with his calling from God, with all his human attributes, could not live a sinless an righteous life without God's help none of us can do that either.

Next, We See God’s Solution:

When God surveyed David's life, he could have done several things. He could have walked away and turned his back on David and let nature take its course. He could have coddled David and appeased him to try to gain his love and affection. He could have destroyed David, and started over again in the same way he obliterated the world and started over at the time of Noah's flood.

He did none of those things.

Instead what He did was He reached into David's life and He saved David from his sin.

When David repented and turned to God. God forgave him and by God's grace, He restored David to a position of fellowship with God. He knew David could not do anything on his own to satisfy His level of perfect righteousness and so He took the initiative he reached into David's life and when David repented God forgave him.

That same salvation is available to us today. When we repent and take on our lives the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, then God will forgive us, and He will restore us to fellowship in the same way. But even better than with David, God will send to us the Holy Spirit to live in our lives so that we will abide in his presence spiritually all the time. This is an even greater anointing then David experienced, and it is one that will help us to love God even more fully than David ever could.

When we allow Jesus to save us, and when the Holy Spirit inhabits our lives, we are all blessed in an even greater way than David was! What wonderful prospects those are!

Finally, We See David’s Response:

My pastor is fond of a saying that goes, “A half truth is a whole lie.” If we were to leave our discussion of these verses at the salvation granted by God to David, we would not be giving the whole story. We must recognize David's response to the grace given to him by God.

Just like God had several options in dealing with David's sin, David also had several options when it came to deal with his position of living in God's grace. He could have failed to recognize the power of God's grace and kept on trying to live a perfect life to earn salvation through works. I have known more than one person who felt like God could never forgive them because of the awful things they had done in their lives. To them I would say if God could forgive David by his grace then God can forgive anyone. Therefore, it would be a fruitless thing for David to try to earn salvation by works when that salvation had already been granted by God's grace.

David could have accepted God’s salvation and, realizing that it was given by God's grace, he could have kept on sinning. Paul talks about this in Romans and he and David reject that course of action. Both realized that once we have received God's grace the proper course of action is not to continue to sin wantonly and in fact Paul rebukes that thought quite strongly. In Romans Chapter 6 Paul wrote:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

David gives a good description of that new life. It is a life that loves God emotionally, attitudinally, an in action. it is a life that publicly gives testimony to the saving grace and love of God the father. It's a life of good works not for salvation, but because of salvation.

Conclusion:

As I conclude today's comments I think I can say with confidence that both David and Paul would agree with the saying which goes, “We are not saved by good works but we are saved for good works.“

We all should realize the impossibility of being able to do anything that would please God in our own power and in our own might. however, once we've received our salvation by grace through Christ, we should make sure our lives honor the gift of God that we have received and which cost our Lord so dearly.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt