Unfinished

Psalm 57

I cry out to God Most High,

to God who will complete me.

He will send from heaven and save me…

God will send out his loyal love (Psalm 57:2,3).

David was hiding in a cave near the village of Adullam. Having played the fool in the Philistine camp he crept into a cold, dark hole in the ground to lament his shame (1 Samuel 22:1,2). 

We all make fools of ourselves now and then, each humiliation a reminder that vast parts of us are still unfinished. We are failed and flawed human beings and will be until God “completes us” (57:2, see also Philippians 1:6). 

But even as we decry our shame, as pleas for mercy tumble out of our mouths, God "sends out” a reminder of his loyal love (57:3). Though we are incomplete, all is well.  

Somewhere I read that Puritan women wore aprons that had two pockets: one contained a slip of paper inscribed with Luther's confession: “I am dust and ashes and full of sin”; the other with this assurance: “I am the apple of God’s eye” (Psalm 17:8).

Such is the paradox of grace.

David Roper

1.20.20