Generosity (Abide Devotion for September 28, 2016)

Psalm 112

¹ Praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.

² Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.

³ Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.

⁴ Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.

⁵ Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.

⁶ Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever.

⁷ They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

⁸ Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.

⁹ They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor.

¹⁰ The wicked will see and be vexed, they will gnash their teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing. ^[1]

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What struck me in this psalm is the connection between generosity and fearing the Lord.  This psalm recounts the blessings of those who fear the Lord and delight in Him.  Three times their generosity is lifted up as one of the marks of their lives.  They are blessed with wealth, the psalm says, but apparently so they can be generous and “scatter their gifts to the poor.”

Obviously my mind gravitated toward these themes in part because we just recently completed our brief worship series on generosity.  We were reminded in that series that we are called to generosity, not as an add-on to Christian character, but rather in imitation of our saving God.  We are generous because He is generous.  And so when we are acting in generosity, we are acting like God, and proclaiming His grace through our deeds.

So my prayer today is that the Lord’s generosity to me would be reflected in generosity through me.  I pray that I might grow in generosity what I say and do.

What is the Word leading you to pray about today?

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^[1] The New International Version. (2011). (Ps 112:1–10). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.