“A stitch in time”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, January 16, 2025
Psalm 18: 20-50 (Forward, p. 79) (CEV p. 563)
In the past, we have occasionally used the expression, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’, to speak of interventions that are both timely and effective. That certainly can be said about God’s intervention in the future King David’s life when he was sorely harassed and pursued by King Saul. Often David was in very perilous straits indeed, and God came through just when it was needed. It is quite apparent that David trusts and has come to depend upon God.
That said, we might well wonder about some of his other claims, some of the grounds that David suggests as to why God has done this for him:
“Because I do what is right” (verse 20a, 24a).
“Because I am innocent” (verse 20b).
“I do what you want and never turn to do evil” (verse 21).
“I keep your laws in mind and never look away from your teachings
(verse 22).
“I obey you completely and guard against sin” (verse 23).
“You have rewarded me for being innocent according to your
standards” (verse 24).
I think that David is mistaken or sadly deluded and hiding the truth from himself. I don’t think that anyone, other than Christ Himself, could ever honestly and truthfully make those claims. David has, in no way, earned or merited God’s goodness nor His defence and help. He is mistaken about this. But then, in his final verse, he gets it right. “Your faithful love for David and for his descendants will never end” (verse 50.). That’s the secret: God’s never-failing, never-ending love for us!
Forward notes: “The Lord lives! Blessed is my Rock. Exalted is the God of my salvation” (verse 46).
“My brother-in-law Bob was a man with a big personality. He used to burst into song with these words whenever the opportunity arose, which was often! I hear his booming voice each time I read this verse.
“I think of King David writing this psalm as a thanksgiving for victory over his enemies. It’s a song of praise for delivery from harm, but it’s also a song of salvation. David felt entangled in sin and death, surrounded by violence and chaos, but then he says God lifted him out of that life and gently set him down in a broad place, delivered and free. Salvation, according to David, is this experience of finding oneself unexpectedly rescued by God from certain doom.
“After a remarkable encounter with God, Bob’s life was similarly transformed. Bob found himself surprised by grace when God reached down and rescued him from addiction and infidelity. In this broad place, Bob became a pastor, his life a song of praise for the God of his salvation. He shared it loudly and clearly with everyone he met.”
Moving Forward: “Do you feel like David, entangled in sin or chaos? God is there; salvation is yours for the asking.”