Psalm 107-110

June 30

Psalm 107-110

"Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless. With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies." (Psalm 108:12-13, NIV)

When you read this verse, perhaps you think of someone you do not like, or perhaps you think of a nation that has a tense relationship with your home country. But the real enemy of a Christian is the devil, sin, and death. Peter reminds us to be on guard against the devil.  "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8, NIV) But as we can see the devil only has as much power as we allow him to have. He cannot make us do anything, if we keep our eyes and hearts focused on Jesus, the devil can only tempt us.

The devil’s goal is to turn us away from Jesus; to get us to focus on anything else but Jesus. He knows our weaknesses and exploits them. But the devil is really powerless. He gets leverage when we let down our guard and he gets us to rebel against God. In other words sin is the real enemy; the devil is the one who tempts us to sin. The consequence of sin is death, not just physical death, but spiritual death, separation from God. Paul wrote; "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—" (Romans 5:12, NIV)  All sin so all die.

Jesus came to defeat sin, death, and the devil. He came to bring life and wholeness. Paul wrote to the Corinthians; "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." (1 Corinthians 15:25-26, NIV) Then he continued; "“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:55-58, NIV)

As the psalmist wrote so many years before, God came to the aid of humanity against our enemy. Jesus came and won the victory on the cross. He trampled down our enemy. The devil has no power, sin has been paid for and cleansed from the hearts of those who receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and death was defeated when Jesus came from the grave. There will be a day when He returns and the living and the dead will be united with Christ and the devil, sin and death will be expunged from the world. In the mean time we are called to give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord.