Today’s devotion comes from Psalm 89:38-52. Due to the length of this devotion and importance on focusing on the LORD and His work even when there seems to be no hope, we will pause a few days to meditate on today’s devotion. The next devotion, God willing, will be on Tuesday, October 20, 2026.
“38 But You have cast off and rejected,
You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.
39 You have spurned the covenant of Your servant;
You have profaned his crown in the dust.
40 You have broken down all his walls;
You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
41 All who pass along the way plunder him;
He has become a reproach to his neighbors.
42 You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries;
You have made all his enemies rejoice.
43 You also turn back the edge of his sword
And have not made him stand in battle.
44 You have made his splendor to cease
And cast his throne to the ground.
45 You have shortened the days of his youth;
You have covered him with shame. Selah.
46 How long, O LORD?
Will You hide Yourself forever?
Will Your wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember what my span of life is;
For what vanity You have created all the sons of men!
48 What man can live and not see death?
Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.
49 Where are Your former lovingkindnesses, O Lord,
Which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?
50 Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants;
How I bear in my bosom the reproach of all the many peoples,
51 With which Your enemies have reproached, O LORD,
With which they have reproached the footsteps of Your anointed.
52 Blessed be the LORD forever!
Amen and Amen.“
Psalm 89:38-52.
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It is difficult to read today’s Scripture above alone, Psalm 89:38-52, there seems to be no hope, without peeking ahead to the following Scripture, Psalm chapter 80.
Although Psalm chapter 80 continues the theme of the shortness of life and vanity of life in today’s Scripture, there is the hope in Psalm 90:13-14 that the LORD will be sorry for His servants and satisfy them with His lovingkindness and there is the following concluding pleas in the final two verses of Psalm chapter 80, Psalm 90:16-17, that the LORD will show His work to His servants and confirm the work of their hands.
“9 For all our days have declined in Your fury;
We have finished our years like a sigh.
10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.
11 Who understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
13 Do return, O LORD; how long will it be?
And be sorry for Your servants.
14 O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,
And the years we have seen evil.
16 Let Your work appear to Your servants
And Your majesty to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And confirm for us the work of our hands;
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.” Psalm 90:9-17.
Considering both of these Scriptures, Psalm 89:38-52 and Psalm chapter 80, we can see the hope in today’s Scripture, in Psalm 89:52. Our hope is in the LORD and blessing Him even when we do not see any hope in our own situation.
“Blessed be the LORD forever!
Amen and Amen.” Verse 52.
In addition to the Psalmist in today’s Scripture, Job also had such a hope even though his situation also seemed hopeless.
“Though He slay me,
I will hope in Him.
Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.” Job 13:15.
Reformed Doctrine accurately summarizes Scripture and teaches that salvation is a work of God alone, by grace alone, and that God provides all the points of salvation from beginning to end: from the beginning of “Unconditional Election” through “Limited Atonement” through “Irresistible Grace” to the end of “Preservation of the Saints”, the “U”, “L”, “I”, and “P” of “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Reformed Doctrine of Salvation. This true doctrine of salvation is more fully taught in the Reformed creed Canons of Dordt.
“For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Romans 9:15-16. In other words, salvation does not depend on our works, nor even as little as our will. God saves whom He wants.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:4-9.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. …” Ephesians 1:3-8.
