Psalm 24:5-6 He will receive blessing from the LORD
and vindication from God his Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

You don’t have to read very many of David’s Psalms to understand that he had a very special understanding and appreciation for the Lord. That’s all the more remarkable when you realize that the only Scriptures he had were the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses), possibly Joshua, and maybe Job. The Psalms David wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit greatly expanded mankind’s grasp of the God of Jacob. The importance of that fact can be seen when you compare the religious practices of the cultures that surrounded Israel in those days. In that context, David’s understanding and faith were nothing short of miraculous. Here he has briefly given credit to the Creator and then described the sort of person acceptable to such a God. Then, in these two verses he describes the benefits of being such a person, and states that these benefits aren’t limited to the few, but are for all who will seek God’s face. That’s pretty remarkable, when you come right down to it. There’s a difference in translation between the NIV and the Japanese in verse 5 that makes me want to check the Hebrew. The NIV says, “receive vindication,” and the Japanese says, “receive righteousness.” The Japanese term for “righteousness” has strong overtones of “justice,” so that is probably the connection, but even so, it seems like an interesting echo of the statement in Genesis 15:6 that God credited Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness. David knew God by personal experience, and all generations since have benefited from what he recorded of that.

I too have experienced God from my youth, and I too have stumbled in my obedience to Him. Because of the completed Canon of Scripture there isn’t the need to record my experience of God that there was for David, but it doesn’t hurt that I do so. It goes without saying that current technology would have been totally unimaginable to David, but that certainly doesn’t make it wrong to make use of computers and the Internet. Of course I am not to limit my sharing of my experience of God to an Internet blog; my sermons as well as my personal interactions with individuals are to be expressions of my fellowship with my Lord. When Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and You will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth,” (Acts 1:8) He was including everything from casual conversations to sermons to acts of kindness to publishing on the Internet. I am to make use of every avenue He opens up to me, so that through my witness, as many as possible may come to know Him.

Father, thank You once again for the privilege of being Your agent. Thank You for being able to bless the lady we went to see yesterday in the hospital. It was an encouragement to me when she told us she came to Christ because of the love she saw in Cathy and me. May we indeed be Your witnesses on every level, so that more and more may come to know You as she did, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!