Thought from today’s Bible reading from Psalm 17, 35, 54, 63.
“Willingly I will sacrifice to You; I will give thanks to Your name, O Lord, for it is good” (Psalm 54:6).
While God commands men to obey Him, He wants us to do so willingly, not under compulsion. In this psalm, David expressed his willing desire to offer sacrifices to the Lord.
Sacrifice is not something that many people want to do. Yet David did it willingly. Why? He briefly listed three reasons:
- God was his helper (Psalm 54:4). By drawing near to Him, we can also “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
- The Lord sustained his soul (Psalm 54:4). Jesus said that those who would follow Him would “find rest for [their] souls” (Matthew 11:29).
- God would punish his enemies (Psalm 54:5). Paul offered comfort to the brethren suffering in Thessalonica saying, “It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you” (2 Thessalonians 1:6).
God is worthy of all of our praise and the best of our service. Let us willingly sacrifice our lives to Him (Romans 12:1) as Jesus willingly sacrificed His life for us (John 10:17-18).
Tomorrow’s reading: 1 Samuel 28-31; Psalm 18
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
