Joel M Bradshaw

5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.
6The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.–Psalm 117

This quotation highlights two attitudes that are essential for the Christian. Most recently, two of the people I have journeyed with have made decisions to publicly follow Jesus. At their baptisms they admitted their sin, trusted Jesus alone for their salvation, and committed their lives to follow him as disciples.

What brought each of them to this point? They felt humbled and broken by life. They saw God entering into their messy situations and through his Word, the Bible, providing purpose and hope. Let’s take the attributes from our psalm in order. They understood the grace of God, which through faith, gave them salvation, which they didn’t deserve. You can’t deserve grace. They recognized God is righteous and they understood that only righteous Jesus could serve as their substitute on the cross. They understood that God is merciful. That because of the sacrifice of Jesus, God didn’t give them what their sins deserved. He instead gave that wrath on the cross to Jesus.

God did an amazing work in their lives as he drew each of them to Himself and I am honored to have journeyed alongside them. Their tears of joy as the church celebrated with each of them were genuine and came from a grateful, humble place.

Both of my friends perfectly illustrated the attitudes in today’s psalm. God preserves the simple. This word can have a more negative meaning.

“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? (Proverbs 1:22)

The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. (Proverbs 27:12)

But it can also have a positive, humble quality.

The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130)

The opposite of this is pridefulness, arrogance, the know-it-all. I have had seasons where this was me. God brings the prideful person low. He certainly used things in my life to grow humility in me. To teach me to fully depend upon him and to trust him daily. He brought me from a loftier place to a simple place. A simple trust in God. God works in the ones who have no other hope but Him. I was messy, broken, and humbled. God preserved me. He now uses me to journey with the messy, broken, and humbled. There’s a wonderful beauty in how God works.

God gives salvation to the ones brought low. I see these attitudes in Jesus famous Beatitude list. Matthew 5…

3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

The poor in spirit has no hope but God. In context here, mourners can very well mean the ones mourning their own sinfulness. God saves the one in a humble, low place.

Salvation requires that you need saving. Need. This isn’t a ‘you do your part an God does his kind’ of thing. You have no other hope but God. You don’t deserve his grace. You can only plead for mercy. The requisite attitude is humility. The perspective is simplicity before God. Ready to be taught and led.

If this is not your story, then repentance is in your future. It was for me. God used my time of brokenness and simplicity in ways I will never forget. I still cry tears of grateful joy. I will sing of the goodness of God!–JMB