Devotion: "Yet You are Holy..."

Psalm 22 is a prophecy of the crucifixion of Christ.  There are several verses that parallel the words of Christ at His crucifixion or that describe what happened.

Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.

Written hundreds of years before Christ's death, this is just one small piece that shows us the trustworthiness of God's Word.

In the past weeks I identify only in a fraction with the following verses:

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.

After weeks of waking in the middle of the night to be up for a couple of hours due to sleeplessness, I began to feel like what verse two says.  I pray for good sleep in the day time, but it's as if He did not answer and I found no rest at night.

But I especially like verse three.  That word, "yet" says a lot.  "Yet you are holy...".  There is a temptation when you lose your sleep for days on end or when you have unrelenting health issues to begin to think that God is unfair, that He is not being righteous in allowing these things to happen.

When we are in these circumstances that we don't understand, when we feel that God is not listening or being unfair to us somehow, we must come to terms with His righteousness and holiness in spite of what we feel and see.  "Yet you are holy...". 

In His holiness, He is sovereign and he has a special purpose and plan for everything He allows to come into our lives.  We do not see how all the tangled threads of our lives will come together to make anything beautiful, but He sees the pattern He is weaving in our lives.  It is through these times that He seeks to sanctify us and change us more into the image of His Son. "Yet you are holy...".