Today’s Reading: Introit for the 16th Sunday after Trinity (Psalm 86:1, 7, 12-13; antiphon: vs.3, 5)
Daily Lectionary: Nehemiah 1:1-2:10; 1 Timothy 1:1-20

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. (Psalm 86:12)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. When you imagine that the words of the psalms come out of Christ’s mouth, you might hear the words in a different way. For instance, Psalm 86:1 becomes a reminder that our God in the flesh identifies with all who are poor and needy in this world, even as in Luke 7 He will sympathize with the grieving widow at Nain and His compassion will restore her son to life. (But more about that tomorrow.) The King of the universe and Son of David could have chosen to be born in a palace. Instead He was born to a poor newlywed couple in a lowly manger. As an adult, He would say, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” (Luke 9:58).

Why did He suffer through being poor and needy? For you. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Yet He knew His suffering would be only temporary. Even though insolent men rose up against Jesus to end His life, as David wrote prophetically of Christ in Psalm 86:14, the Son was confident that He will glorify God the Father’s name forever. And because the dead cannot praise the Lord (so it would be impossible for Him to do that forever if death ended Him), the Son of God went into Good Friday trusting that God would deliver His “soul from the depths of Sheol” (Psalm 86:13), raising Him from the dead on the Third Day.

God has baptismally put you into Christ, and so He puts these same words into your mouth. He who gave David the confidence to know that he would glorify God forever in the resurrection even after David died now puts that confidence into you. On that great Day, you will no longer suffer the weakness of divided loyalties as you do now when your sin messes up your faith. The Lord will raise you, body and soul, to be perfect and whole. And then you shall mean it when you say, “I give thanks to you, O Lord, my God, with my whole heart.” In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Thou hast died for my transgression, All my sins on Thee were laid; Thou hast won for me salvation, On the cross my debt was paid. From the grave I shall arise And shall meet Thee in the skies. Death itself is transitory; I shall lift my head in glory. (“Thanks to Thee, O Christ, Victorious” LSB 548, st.2)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch