Day 198
Psalm 31:1
"In thee, 0 Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness."
The psalmist David expressed his confidence in God and his dependency on His righteousness for deliverance. He could hope in God, because God is righteous. He does whatever He says He will do.
Sometimes, we may not have done all we should have done. We come and sincerely confess our wrong to God, and He forgives us, because He is faithful. Then, when we look to Him for deliverance, we receive it because He is righteous, not because we have done so well. Even when we have done what we should have done and cooperated with God's plan, we cannot depend on our own righteousness to deliver us. Doing right is simply what we ought to do. In all our efforts, though, we still fall short along the way. However, our obedience does count because God said it does. We still give God all the glory for whatever we accomplish, because even our ability to do what is right comes from Him.
Let us do our best to live uprightly. After we have done what we can do and God shows up as our refuge, our strength or whatever we need, let us humbly admit that His righteousness caused our need to be met.
I will do what is right out of my gratitude to God for His goodness toward me. When I experience His power displayed on my behalf, I will thank Him for His righteousness.