Psalm 138:1-3:  Boldness by Forgiveness

¹ I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to you.

² I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For you have magnified Your word above all Your name.

³ In the day when I cried out, You answered me, And made me bold with strength in my soul.

Have you ever struggled with something in our life? Perhaps what you have struggled with is a secret sin, pride, envy of others. Perhaps you knew this, but when we allow these things into our heart and continue to let them remain, they become like a god to us. We serve them, feed them worship them and pay tribute to them, until ultimately they rule us.

David comes along in Psalm 138 and says, I will praise You (The Most High God) with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to you. The gods referred to in the text are the false gods that each of us cherish and keep tucked away in our heart. But, David is singing praises before these gods and these praises will be directed toward God, the Most High God.

What is happening here? I will worship toward Your holy temple, and Praise Your name For your lovingkindness and Your truth; For you have magnified Your word above all Your name.

Verse three gives us the answer where David says: “In the day that I cried out.” David saw his need of God and he prayed, he cried out to God, and God heard his prayer. And because God is faithful He answered the prayer of David by forgiving his sins and strengthening David so he could put away these other gods of pride, envy, jealousy and any other sin that was found in his heart.

God answered David and made Him bold with strength in his soul. He became even more knowledge about God and in turn God is glorified by the witness of a change in David’s life.

Is this power only available to David or others? Am I excluded from this promise and my sins keep me from God hearing my prayer.

God will always answer the prayer for forgiveness and strength that is offered humbly and with sincerity. As he strengthened David he will do the same for you. Then we to will worship God looking toward his holy temple in heaven and we to will praise God’s name and God’s name will be magnified throughout all the earth.

As we enter this Easter Weekend, may we always remember that God paid the ultimate price by giving of His Son. The Son, Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price by giving unselfishly of himself to become one like us, suffer like us, and ultimately die the death you and I should have died, that we might ultimately gain what we do not deserve, eternal life and the chance to live with God forever.

So let us pray to God, asking for forgiveness and that God will remove from us all false gods and then let us praise God for his everlasting love and for his promise to forgiving all who humbly come before him seeking forgiveness.