#DailyDevotion Do You Know The LORD? Do You Call Upon His Name?
Psalm 14 4Don’t all these who do wrong know, don’t these who devour my people know that if anyone eats the bread the LORD gives 5without calling on Him, panic will overtake them, because God is among righteous people?
Most translations have verse 5 starting with panic and the sentence of fourteen ending with Him. I think those other translations are perhaps more correct. So what does this mean? Well continuing the theme from the previous verses we have the foolish atheist. Then we have all people. Now it seems we have a group of people who do wrong who devour the LORD’s people as people eat bread who do not call upon the LORD. They are like those who eat and do not give thanks to God. It is likely these are the rich and powerful in Israel who oppress their fellow Israelites, the widows, the poor, the orphan and the foreigners who reside there. Since they do not recognize the LORD as God nor perhaps any other god but their stomachs and do not fear the LORD, they do as they please and devour these people who are the apple of the LORD’s eye.
Eventually, the LORD will have panic overtake them. God is among His righteous people, those who call on him. You might remember those who do wrong in verse two do not seek after God. Now they do not call upon Him to provide for them and to give Him thanks. They depend on their ability to make others suffer to provide for themselves. The LORD will have none of it in His own time. At the right time He will throw them into a panic. You put your trust in the LORD and let Him arrange these things.
6You would make the poor man disappointed in his planning. But the LORD is his Refuge.
Again the wicked, those who do not know the LORD (though they should as Israelites) seek to disappoint the poor man in his planning. They take advantage of the poor. They may make big promises of a great return but it is a scam. The poor then should make the LORD his Refuge. Unlike the previous refuges in the psalms this is not a high place but a covered place, like something that protects you from the rain. One can sense David remembering the cloud that covered the Israelites in the wilderness and protected them from the other elements. We look to our LORD Jesus Christ to protect us, to be our Refuge from all the evil that wants to rain down upon us. Usually he does. There are times though as a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he will allow the evil to touch us to show the world who our trust is, to bring those who witness our faith to repentance and faith themselves.
7If only Someone would come from Zion to save Israel. When the LORD restores His people, Jacob will be delighted and Israel will be glad.
Someone has come from Zion to save Israel, the One who is Ya Saves, Yashua, i.e. Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Outside the gates of Zion he saved Israel by shedding his blood and giving his life for a ransom. We look forward to the day when we see this salvation with our own eyes as Jesus restores his people, those who put their faith in him, and trusted him, who sought him and called upon him during their lives in this age. Then the fool, the wicked, the ignorant will see the generation who trusted in the LORD Jesus Christ exalted while they are cast down.
Heavenly Father, grant that we may always put our trust in you and in your Son Jesus Christ, that you would be our refuge at all times, so we may seek you, call upon you and rest in you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.