Bible League: Living His Word For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous;With favor You will surround him as with a shield. David says that the Lord will bless the righteous. Who are the righteous? Are they those who walk in sinless perfection? If so, then in Psalm 14:2-3 David tells us that there really aren't any, for "There is none who does good, No, not one." Indeed, David himself would not qualify, because he had some major sin in his life. According to the Apostle Paul, David's actual point of view is that the righteous are those "whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered" (Romans 4:6-7). Our verse for today tells us that the righteous, those forgiven by God, are blessed. What are the blessings of the righteous? The Bible mentions so many of them that they can't all be listed here. The sons of Korah, however, sum them all up by saying in Psalm 84:11 that, "No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly." The righteous, in other words, are blessed with whatever it is they need. Our verse for today mentions one particular blessing that the righteous receive. They will be surrounded with favor as with a shield. Just as a shield surrounds the one who holds it up and protects him from harm on the battlefield, so the Lord will surround the righteous with favor so that they will be protected from harm in life. If a person has the favor of the Lord, then good things happen to that person despite the circumstances. Here's just one example from the Bible: Although Noah lived at the time of the Great Flood, he found favor with God. For him, the favor of God meant that he and his family were spared from the devastation of the flood (Genesis 6:8). The righteous receive favor like Noah not because they walk in sinless perfection, but because they have sought forgiveness for their sins. The Lord does not look upon the self-righteous with favor, but those who are "humble and contrite in spirit" (Isaiah 66:2). Today, come before the Lord with a humble and contrite spirit and ask for the same thing the Psalmist asked for: "I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise" (Psalm 119:58). Bible in a Year Old Testament Reading2 Chronicles 10, 11, 12 2 Chronicles 10 -- Israelites Rebel against Rehoboam NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 2 Chronicles 11 -- Rehoboam's Reign over Judah; Rehoboam's Family NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 2 Chronicles 12 -- Rehoboam Punished, Shishak Plunders Judah NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading John 13:18-38 John 13 -- Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet, Predicts His Betrayal and Peter's Denial NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.Insight It's easier to do what's right when we gain recognition and praise. To be sure our motives are not selfish, we should do our good deeds quietly or in secret, with no thought of reward. Jesus says we should check our motives in three areas: generosity (Matt 6:4), prayer (Matt 6:6), and fasting (Matt 6:18). Those acts should not be self-centered, but God-centered, done not to make us look good but to make God look good. The reward God promises is not material, and it is never given to those who seek it. Challenge Doing something only for ourselves is not a loving sacrifice. With your next good deed, ask, “Would I still do this if no one would ever know I did it?” Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Philippians 2:8 He humbled himself.Jesus is the great teacher of lowliness of heart. We need daily to learn of him. See the Master taking a towel and washing his disciples' feet! Follower of Christ, wilt thou not humble thyself? See him as the Servant of servants, and surely thou canst not be proud! Is not this sentence the compendium of his biography, "He humbled himself"? Was he not on earth always stripping off first one robe of honor and then another, till, naked, he was fastened to the cross, and there did he not empty out his inmost self, pouring out his life-blood, giving up for all of us, till they laid him penniless in a borrowed grave? How low was our dear Redeemer brought! How then can we be proud? Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed; see the thorn-crown; mark his scourged shoulders, still gushing with encrimsoned rills; see hands and feet given up to the rough iron, and his whole self to mockery and scorn; see the bitterness, and the pangs, and the throes of inward grief, showing themselves in his outward frame; hear the thrilling shriek, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And if you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it: if you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you do not know him. You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's only begotten. Think of that, and as Jesus stooped for you, bow yourself in lowliness at his feet. A sense of Christ's amazing love to us has a greater tendency to humble us than even a consciousness of our own guilt. May the Lord bring us in contemplation to Calvary, then our position will no longer be that of the pompous man of pride, but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much because much has been forgiven him. Pride cannot live beneath the cross. Let us sit there and learn our lesson, and then rise and carry it into practice. Daily Light on the Daily Path Genesis 17:1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. • Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, • I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Genesis 5:24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. 2 Peter 3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. John 17:1,15,23 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, • "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. • I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. 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