DAILY DEVOTIONAL – December 15, 2020
“Not To Us (Advent 2020)”
Prayer: Heavenly Father, if not for Your gracious will to save us, we would be lost and condemned forever. Thank You for sending us Your Son, Jesus. We cling to Him with all that we are and all that we have. Amen.
Devotion – “Not to Us”
As we continue in our Advent and Christmas devotional series looking at some of the writings of Martin Luther, we turn to Psalm 115:1 which says:
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Most scholars date Psalm 115 to being written just after Israel had been taken into exile; an unimaginably dark and difficult time of suffering. Sometimes emotional and spiritual pain can be more intense than physical, and we see that in verse 2 of Psalm 115, when the psalmist laments, “Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’” In other words, the Psalmist is lamenting as perhaps we have done at times when we see this world and the powers of this world rejoice over every instance they are able to remove the influence of God from their midst. In increasing measure we see people celebrating atrocities like abortion, encouraging hatred, destroying the helpless for greed and gain, encouraging violence, and cursing anyone who believes in absolute truth and morals. We look up to heaven and ask God, “Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’” “Why don’t You stop this God?”
Yet before the lament of verse 2, the psalmist proclaims loudly his faith and hope in God’s faithfulness and love. “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” In other words, the psalmist knew Israel had sinned and deserved the punishment and discipline they were receiving. God had delivered them many times before, and they kept chasing after themselves and false idols. It would be useless to cry out to God to save them for their own sake. The psalmist knows, as we all do, we do not deserve mercy or forgiveness. However, the psalmists’ hope, and our hope, comes not from what we deserve, but instead from what God has promised because He is merciful, long-suffering, gracious and faithful to the promises He makes. God promised a Savior, and so the psalmist calls upon God’s faithfulness and steadfast love which, unlike human effort and faithfulness, never fails.
Listen to what Luther wrote about Psalm 115 in one of his lectures:
The season of Advent and Christmas are intended to remind us of God’s faithfulness and steadfast love, even as He is immeasurably patient with a sinful and wicked world; our own sinfulness and wickedness. Looking back to the manger and seeing God’s steadfast love gives us the hope and confidence to look to the future, regardless of what sufferings we may encounter in our exile here, knowing that God will save us and bring us with Him not because we have earned it, but because He has promised it. As Numbers 23:19 reminds us, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
Knowing, then, how certain it is that at any moment we will be called to stand before the glory of our Maker, Luther continues in his lecture on Psalm 115 and says, “God promised for the future advent “that we should lead righteous, sober, and godly lives in this present world, looking for the blessed hope” (Titus 2:12-13). For although we have led holy lives here, that is hardly a disposition and preparation for the future glory which shall be revealed in us…He bestows everything gratis and only on the basis of the promise of His mercy, although He wants us to be prepared for this as much as lies in us. The whole time of grace is the preparation for the future glory and the second advent. Therefore He orders us to watch, to be prepared, and wait for Him.”
Thanks for joining me for another time of devotion in God’s Word. Remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
