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10/4 Reading Portions: 1 Kings 7; Ephesians 4; Ezekiel 37; Psalms 87-88
Psalm 88:2
Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry!
ILLUMINATION
As perfect Man, Jesus did not need man to testify about himself because Jesus “knew what was in man” (John 2:25). How did He know? He knew what mankind was like since He was intimate with the only source in history which painted an honest portrait of man— the holy Scriptures. Today’s verse is one of those verses which the Lord Jesus read to understand the sinner’s aloof and distant relationship to God. As sinless and holy Man, Jesus wouldn’t have had this experience. Christ’s relationship with the heavenly Father was an intimate communion, the depth of which you and I could never fully know. Jesus grasped man’s separation from God by the illumination of the Holy Spirit and the power of God’s statutes and commandments, which enlightened His eyes (Psa 19:8). Because He knew this aspect of man’s fallen condition, as well as many others we’re not covering in this devotion, the zeal and passion of the Lord for the souls of men abounds with a depth of love we could never fathom (Matt 23:37).
When the Holy Spirit illuminates Scripture to us so as to see our Lord Christ exalted in its pages and magnified in our lives, we are humbled in His presence. We recognize that, although we have been saved by God’s grace, it is only by grace our prayers may be offered with a penitent hush and a bowed head. Moreover, we can only make the request for our Father to incline His ear to our cry because Christ gave Himself for us— for the wrath of God He endured, for the death He suffered, for the blood He shed. Even more, when the Holy Spirit illuminates today’s Scripture verse to the eyes of our hearts, we must first offer prayers of praise and thanksgiving because, were it not for God’s abounding grace in Christ, we would only receive what we most assuredly deserve— eternal condemnation.
Heav’nly Father, my pray’r I lift
To Thee, so please receive
This humble plea, this contrite cry,
I ask through Christ, whom I believe.
