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"The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; he repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not turned from my God to wickedness. Indeed, I let all his ordinances guide me and have not disregarded his statutes. I was blameless toward him and kept myself from my iniquity. So the Lord repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight."
(Psalm 18:20-24, NLT)
When I think about these verses, my first reaction is, "Wow!" I am amazed for two reasons: first, I think it is incredible that David could boldly say and write this, and second, it was preserved and put into the Bible for us to read thousands of years later! For that to happen, that means that what David was writing is true! Now, we know that David was not perfect; in fact, his greatest mistakes are recorded in scripture! But we see in this test of Saul and his enemies trying to kill David that what he wrote about the situation and how he handled the situation was true:
- David kept the ways of the Lord
- David did not turn from God to wickedness
- David let the ordinances of God guide him
- David did not disregard God's statutes
- David's conduct was blameless
These are great examples for what it means to follow after Jesus with all you have, even in the midst of hard circumstances! David knew what God said, obeyed it, and tried his very best to have his conduct and efforts align with what God wanted. If you are not careful, you could quickly get into a mentality of works-based righteousness and fall into the trap of "hard work = righteousness." I do not believe that David is encouraging that. I believe David is giving God glory and credit for saving him and delivering him, and he is recounting what his involvement in the situation was.
I think this is what we as followers of Jesus should strive for in hard times! That we kept the ways of the Lord, we didn't turn from God to wickedness, that we let the ordinances of God guide us, that we did not disregard God's statutes and that we could say our conduct was blameless. David is recounting spiritual victories in retrospect of looking at a spiritually hard season. He is declaring God's goodness and faithfulness, and by God's grace, David is able to say that his effort in this challenging time was pleasing to God!
Let David's bold words be a challenge for all of us to accept when we go through hard times: keep the ways of the Lord, do not turn to wickedness, let the ordinances of God guide you, do not disregard God's statues, and keep your conduct blameless (Psalm 18:20-24).
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