Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

As David's celebration song about God's forgiveness continues, he recognizes that confession is costly. He also acknowledges the fact that we have a window of opportunity that may, one day, close.

David's celebration of God's forgiveness takes a dark turn as he recalls his anguished past. He remembers—perhaps accompanied by a gloomy minor key—the days of misery he spent in the isolation of secret sin.

I once asked my sister, Luci, to name the emotion she considered the most powerful and enjoyable of all. She surprised me with her answer: relief. After thinking for a moment, I had to agree. Relief is everyone's favorite feeling!

Your conscience may be invisible but it is certainly not inactive! Who hasn't been kept awake by its pleadings? With incredible regularity, an unforgiven conscience can rob us of an appetite, steal our sleep, and drive us to distraction.

David's cry for help doesn't end with an account of God's sudden and miraculous provision. Instead, the songwriter committed to doing what comes least naturally to people in fear. He committed to doing nothing.

While David's first response to fear wasn't a panicked plea for help, he didn't live in denial. He merely chose to celebrate God's power and to recall His past triumphs. Eventually, however, David did ask the Lord for what he needed.

When fear has us in its icy grip, we quickly turn toward self-preservation. We hope to avoid loss, escape pain, or cheat death. Not David! His composition, preserved for us as Psalm 27, gives priority to eternal matters.

As David faced his fears and expressed them to God in Psalm 27, he began with worship, celebrating the power and faithfulness of his God. The key to the entire song is verse 1. It consists of two similar sentences.

One of the most paralyzing problems in all of life is fear. Our fears are directed in so many areas: fear of the unknown, fear of calamity, fear of sickness, disease, and death, fear of people, fear of losing our jobs, . . .

As David concludes his song about the grinding pain of unjust treatment and his chosen responses, he then commits to patience. Resolved: I will patiently stand and wait for relief.

David's prayer for protection while enduring mistreatment didn't merely ask God for help; the king's song included a commitment on his part. Resolved: I will be faithful in public worship.

King David knew the sting of unjust treatment as keenly as anyone in history. To keep mistreatment from undermining his relationship with God, he put some resolutions into a song.

As David endured unfair treatment despite his doing what was right, He cried out to God in the verses of Psalm 26. As we read his anguished lyrics, we will uncover some resolutions David made.

If I were asked to give a popular title to Psalm 26, it would be: "How to Do Right When You've Been Done Wrong." We have all been "done wrong," haven't we? Maybe that describes your circumstance right now.

As David brings his song of the sheep to a close, having reflected on the Lord's faithful care throughout his life, he then considers his future.

As David's song of the sheep concludes, he suddenly drops the analogy to consider his own experience of God, both as a simple man in need of a Savior and as a king in need of divine guidance.

Like many of the songs found in the Bible, Psalm 23 states its case in the first verse and simply verifies it in the remainder of the song. The key thought is this: Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall lack nothing!

I have observed that few inner battles are more fierce than the daily grind of uncertainty. No doubt you, too, have encountered one or more of its many faces as you have struggled with a career choice, new direction in life, . . .

David sums up his feelings in Psalm 19 with a brief prayer. In fact, these three lines are some of the most familiar in the entire book of Psalms.

As David considers the impact of God's written communication in the second section of Psalm 19, he's prompted to appraise the value of Scripture. He uses two illustrations for the purpose of comparison.