May 2, 2021
Have you ever felt like the running never stops and no matter how early you get started, you never seem to get caught up? Perhaps you are running hard to stay ahead, but when you look over your shoulder there it is right behind you: Trouble. Doubt. Your job. Your debts. Your health. Your enemies are right behind you and it seems that you can’t put any distance between them and safety. King David understood what it was like to be chased. He was chased by King Saul. He was chased by the Philistines. He was even chased by his own son. In fact, David had to hotfoot it out of the capitol city in order to prevent his son Absalom from assassinating him (and you thought your kids were a handful). Just in case you think I am making all this up, you can read all about it in the last few chapters of II Samuel. David wrote about being on the run when he was captured by the Philistines in Psalm 56. Verses 1 and 2 read, “Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; Fighting all day he oppresses me. My enemies would hound me all day. For there are many who fight against me, O Most High.” In essence, David told God that he was tired of running. No matter how hard or how fast he ran, he never seemed to be able to distance himself from the ones pursuing him. I have never been chased by bad guys before, and as far as I know, no one is out to kill me. However, I do know what feels like to be chased by “enemies”. I’ll bet you do too. We need the same thing that David asked God to give him in verse one. Did you see it? Look how David starts this Psalm. “Be merciful to me, O God.” God’s mercy. Mercy means not getting what we deserve. David understood that as King and Military leader, he did not deserve God’s mercy. He asked anyway. The last thing we deserve when we are on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of life is God’s mercy, but guess what? As God’s child, mercy is exactly what He gives us. David ends another, more well-known Psalm with these words: “Surely goodness and MERCY shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.” Ask for God’s mercy and keep on running child, you’re nearly home!
Be blessed and be a blessing . . . Brother Andy
