Daily Devotionals

Daily Devotionals

Daily Devotional: Psalms 34:1-7

Ps 34:1-7

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. (ESV)

Gal 6:14

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (ESV)

How do you compare to God? Compare his power and strength to your own and then compare your wisdom to his, and next try your holiness compared to his absolute holiness, and are we described as being love? His ways are so much higher than our ways that it cannot be compared at all. He is so much above us that we are not even on the same league and cannot use the same scales!

So, where does our boasting come from then? We boast of our accomplishments, or we boast of our intelligence, or we boast of our looks, and nothing could be more futile than these. That is, unless we boast of our righteousness. We only have a flawed righteousness that has been made whole by what Jesus did for us and not what we have done ourselves. Only by his grace are we righteous.

The gospel (good news) without grace at the center is no gospel at all. His grace is actually the good news of the message of salvation. Without it we are lost and lost forever. The only way to be saved other than by grace is by keeping the law, the word of God, good enough that we have earned our salvation. That is bad news because it will not happen for any of us. We all have sinned against God!

When we look down on others and judge them because they are not as good as we see ourselves, are we not actually boasting of our goodness? Have we not made our understanding the standard for salvation? We should be convinced that we are right and stand on it but remember that Paul said that each one of us will stand before God, and he is able to make us all stand. And that is his grace.

O Lord God, thank you for not judging me according to what I deserve or what I have earned on my own! On my very best day, I fall so far short of you and your righteousness, and I know that I have nothing for which to boast other than Jesus Christ and him crucified for me. Thank you for your grace. Help me never use it as an excuse to sin but to use it to motivate me to try harder each day to be just like Jesus in my attitude, in all I do and all I say. I humbly pray in his name.

Robert