Psalm 86 - Abounding in love

Read: Psalm 86 vs 1-17

Different people come to know the Lord at different moments in their lives, and against the background of different life experiences and stories. While some people come to personal faith in adult years others grow up learning, and accepting, the ways of the Lord from a young age. Timothy is a New Testament example of this. In 2 Timothy 1:5 the Apostle Paul gives thanks for the sincere faith of his grandmother Lois, and the faith of his mother Eunice, a faith that know lived in him. 

The Bible doesn’t tell us what King David’s mother was called. However in Psalm 86 David references his mum as someone who ‘served the LORD’. He is thankful for her. It is one of the foundational commands of the Christian life to honour our parents, to honour them in life and to honour their memory (Exodus 20:12). We owe more to our mothers than we can probably ever imagine and it is right to be thankful for them. An old photo (such as the one I've attached to this post) rightly makes us smile.

I think it would have been hard for David to pinpoint a moment when he entered the life of faith (Psalm 22:10). However though he has grown up trusting in God he is finding in this Psalm that new moments and new challenges in life call for renewed trust and renewed commitment to God. He calls for God to hear and answer in his situation of present need (vs 1). He asks that his life will be guarded (vs 2), and that God will give to him a joy that perhaps for now seems absent (vs 4). David knows that God is ‘forgiving and good, abounding in love’ and he knows that God answers the prayers of those who call to him, but here and now David asks that God will give David a new, personal experience of these things, all over again.

Relying on God’s faithfulness, seeking an ‘undivided heart’ is a lifetime’s journey. His love meets us each new day, a great love (vs 13), a compassionate and gracious love (vs 15). God has helped David in the past (vs 17) and David has no reason to doubt that this will continue to be his testimony as life moves on (vs 17).

Prayer: Father thank You for the person who carried me and brought me into this world, my mother. Whether today we honour the memory of a mother now gone, or someone who is still with us, we thank you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.