The Pilgrim Path---Psalm 17 (5--17--20)

Take out your Bible and read Psalm 17. These thoughts may help you grasp the drift of David's prayer. His foes were real, so his appeals to God had to be genuine. He reminds us of what is most significant for both time and eternity.

James Boice entitled the piece, "The Prayer of a Righteous Man"

Spurgeon entitles the Psalm, "An Appeal to Heaven"

Jeremiah Burroughs has a focus upon, "God to judge for the righteous..."

Tim Keller simply put it, " A CLEAR CONSCIENCE"

---v. 1---Crying to you LORD: hear my cause! Please free me from deceitful people...

---v. 2---Come: I'm consecrated to you LORD! Let my vindication arise. David is not claiming he is perfect---he is simply saying he is not a corrupt leader. He is serving with God's glory in mind.

---v. 3---Consider my ways LORD: in testing me---you'll not find "any" charges enemies make are legitimate. Oh, to always live in such a way---help us LORD...

---v. 4---Current cultural paths contradict God: "LORD, you know---I've avoided walking this way"

---v.5---Continuing in your ways---that is my aim LORD...that is my objective, no matter what...

---v. 6---Confident: Whenever I speak---LORD, you hear and respond. This is the "way" ---it has always been...The man "After-God's-Heart"----praying on...

---v. 7---Conveying and Connecting: You LORD, have your Covenant Love touch us in "real' ways---because we belong to you! We are your Chosen Ones...

---v. 8---Cherish Us LORD: Let Us know "in" the present--- that we are the "apple" of Your Eye---that we are Under The Cover of Your Heavenly Wings!

---v. 9---Compass us about---O LORD---with your protection: so we know our enemies cannot "do us violence"---as they would so love to do...What a human prayer. And we may talk to our Father this way.

---v. 10---Closed hearts: this is what we expect of the wicked! No pity. Arrogant speech (which is why we are so glad we have The God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ to appeal to).

---v. 11---Catching the righteous. Planning their demise. Casting God's own to the ground. All this does is make for "fervency" in the prayers of King David...

---v. 12---Cat-like: Lion-like lurking in ambush. Eager to tear God's own. Yet, the LORD is not asleep or unaware...

---v. 13---Come On LORD! Confront him please! ---you can never say that David didn't get emotionally involved in the Psalter---he believes his life is on the line! "Arise LORD!---pull out your Sword---hurry up!"

---v. 14---Conceited Worldly Wise Souls: Their portion is "only" in this world. The psalm has built to this: King David's aggravating enemies live for this world---and this world "is" their sole reward...Tragic, but true for many. David is gripped by this reality.

Spurgeon: "They were fat housekeepers, and yet leave no lean wills. Living and dying they lacked for nothing but grace, and alas! that lack spoils everything. They had a fair portion within the little circle of time, but eternity entered not into their calculations. They were penny wise, but pound foolish; they remembered the present, and forgot the future; they fought for the shell and forgot the kernel."

From Ezekiel Hopkins: "What wicked men possess of this world is all that ever they can hope for: why should we grudge them filled bags, or swelling titles! it is their whole portion; they now receive their good things...Whereas thou, O Christian, who possesses nothing, art heir-apparent of heaven, co-heir with Jesus Christ, who is heir of all things, and hast an infinite mass of riches laid up for thee; so great and infinite, that all the stars of heaven are too few to account it by..."

---v. 15---Crown and Consummation: The LORD'S own people will "awake" with Him. They will be satisfied. My----what an amazing Holy Spirit testimony. Because of Jesus Christ the LORD---you will know everlasting beauty in a World of Love (Jonathan Edwards). Gospel glories will envelop you: First John 3: 2, 3; Second Corinthians 3: 18.

"Thank you, Lord, for the confidence your resurrection gives me that in the end all wrongs will be made right. Thank you for allowing me to rest in the assurance of my future resurrection and of living with you forever. Knowing this heals all wounds. Amen." Tim Keller

"God hath made many fair flowers, but the fairest of them all is heaven, and the flower of all flowers is Christ." Samuel Rutherford

By the sea of crystal, saints in glory stand,

Myriads in number, drawn from every land.

Robed in white apparel, washed in Jesus' blood,

They now reign in heaven with the Lamb of God.

William Kuipers (1933)

Grace and Peace in Jesus Our LORD, Pastor Jason