People Perspective

We will have to live in heaven before we can avoid people who stun us with their unsavory behavior and words. We can just hope they don’t aim their venom at us. But sometimes it happens, as it did with David.

What I like about David is that he didn’t behave emotionally when he faced people problems. He always took it to God. He made it a spiritual matter. He used the oppression as an opportunity to reflect on God. That is an inkling I’d like to exercise, how about you?

Let’s look at how David looked at God and people.

Ps. 119:125 I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.	Why should we expect God to help us to understand and know His testimonies (stories of how He works in people’s lives)? In this verse, it’s because we are God’s servant. I will serve God better if I understand how He works with people. For example, Prov. 21:1, he turns the hearts of kings. Knowing that reveals how to pray for people. Along the same line, Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.  Pro 20:24  Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way? Lord, give me understanding in how to apply that in my prayers for people.
(126)  It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.	There’s urgency in this prayer of David’s, just like there is in my prayers when something needs to be done now. David is telling God it’s time to work! I love it. It’s a prayer of desperation, motivated by the realization that those around him were going against God. “Lord, you’ve got to do something!”
(127)  Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.	The realization of those who go against God should cause me to use the occasion to affirm my love for God’s commandments, and desire His ways more than anything else. Acknowledge the bad example of others by affirming a love for God’s desires.
(128)  Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.	Also in the realization of those who go against God, I should affirm to God I love and agree with his codes of wisdom and principles to live by and that I hate deception and fraud. Use others’ bad examples as a chance to draw closer to God and His ways and His truth.