Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 106 verses 4 through 8:
4 Remember me, O Lord, with the favor you have for your people,
and visit me with your saving help;
5 That I may see the prosperity of your elect
and be glad with the gladness of your people,
that I may glory with your inheritance.
6 We have sinned as our forebears did;
we have done wrong and dealt wickedly.
7 In Egypt they did not consider your marvelous works,
nor remember the abundance of your love;
they defied the Most High at the Red Sea.
8 But he saved them for his Name's sake,
to make his power known.
We do not deserve salvation. We did not earn it. God doesn’t owe it to us. God doesn’t owe us anything. We’ve each and everyone of us been too rebellious to stand before God and argue our case on our own merits. This is true for us as individuals and also true for us collectively as a nation. No single person or nation is entirely righteous — no not one.
So salvation comes as grace. It comes because we have been chosen for salvation. It comes because of God’s righteousness and not our own. We are saved by grace. We are saved by God.
The Israelites were faithless and rebelled against God. They saw the waters ahead and their hearts failed them. They could not see this so-called Promised Land. They could not imagine a land of freedom. In fear they wished to turn back. They didn’t like Pharaoh, but they had more faith in him than they did in the LORD. They cursed Moses for telling them of the LORD.
That could have been the end of the story. That could have been the end of the Exodus. But God rescued them. God delivered them. Even when they were faithless, God was faithful. God saved them. For God’s own Name’s sake God saved them.
God save us. Though we too have rebelled. Though we too are faithless. Though we too would rather choose a Pharaoh. God save us in spite of ourselves. God save for the sake of own mercy. God save us for the sake of your own name. God save us because you are good even when we are not.
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