Psalm 17: Satisfied With God’s Likeness

September 1, 2008

In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, the kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.

I don’t have much time this morning–because I’m attending for the first time a weekly Monday morning prayer meeting in the Campus Center–but before I go, let me tell you why I’m attending it triumphantly. Psalm 17.

This is one of those Psalms in which we absolutely know that the prophetic spirit of Christ was upon David, because the prayer uttered here, the avowal of spotlessness and worthiness of the love of God, could belong to no one else–or could it? It occurred to me, as I read it, that it belongs to me.

I’m not actually claiming perfection. I’m claiming salvation. This morning a particular eternal verity seems uniquely real: the spotless aspect acquired by Jesus Christ in the eyes of God, by his active obedience, has really become mine. The boldness of my prayers should be proportional to my awareness of the fact that Christ is the one actually presenting them to his Father.