16 June

There is always a temptation to make ‘other things’ more important than your relationship with God. Devotion to ‘other gods’ was one of the key temptations and weaknesses of God’s people in the Old Testament. This psalm reminds us of who God is and why it would be foolish to oppose God by going after other gods.

The Greek word for ‘peace’ takes on the meaning of the Hebrew word ‘shalom’. It means far more than an absence of hostility. It means ‘completeness’, ‘soundness’, ‘well-being’, ‘every kind of blessing and good’. It means harmony and concord between people. It means spiritual well-being, living under the favour of God.

Neither David, nor Solomon, nor any other king of Israel, was able to keep God’s decrees and commands perfectly. It is only Jesus, the final Davidic King, who is the fully obedient, eternal, anointed King. He is the one who does ‘walk faithfully before [God]... with all [his] heart and soul’ (v.4).

The book of Kings is, as Eugene Peterson puts it, ‘a relentless exposition of failure’. Yet God continues to work out his sovereign purposes – often silently and hidden. God’s sovereignty is never cancelled out even by deeply sin-flawed leaders (‘kings’). This means that you can trust his sovereignty in your life, your church and your culture.

1 Kings 1:1-2:12New International Version (NIV)

 2 When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.

2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observewhat the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go 4 and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’