Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Hard Work vs. God's Grace | The Writings | Psalm 21

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

What do you credit your success in life to? Did your hard work and struggle get you to where you are today? Do all good things really come from God? In today;s episode, Keith explores Psalm 21 and finds that you are nothing without God's grace. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 21

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I love asking questions. I'm sure my friends get annoyed by how many questions that I ask, but I think you can learn a lot from a good question. You can learn about a person's values or their worldview, what they like and don't like. You can learn about their past and how it affected them.

So in my opinion, a good question is a lot more valuable than a good answer. I recently came across a question that has become one of my favorites. In fact, if someone I know personally is listening to this, they probably already know what that question is because I've probably already asked them. It goes like this, when you think about your professional or educational success, what percentage do you think is due to your hard work and good choices, and what percentage is due to luck? Well, how would you answer that question?

I've heard some people say that it's as much as 90% hard work, while others have said it's as much as 90% luck. Most people are somewhere closer to the middle. To be honest, I don't think there's a clear right answer, which is part of why I love the question. I'm more interested in how people got to their answer than what their actual answer is. But what happens if we change that question? And instead of saying luck, we say God's grace. So what percentage of your success in life is due to your own hard work and good choices, and what percent is due to God's grace?

Well, that changes things, doesn't it? Today we're looking at Psalm 21, which was a prayer written by King David, and I think it's going to help give us some insight in how we should answer that question. But in order to understand Psalm 21, we have to understand a little bit about Psalm 20. That's because many scholars believe that Psalm 21 is purposely put right after Psalm 20 because the two prayers of David are connected. The prayer in Psalm 20 takes place before a great battle that Israel was preparing to fight. The prayer in Psalm 21 takes place right after Israel had won that battle.

So in Psalm 20, David's prayer is for deliverance. And Psalm 21 shows us that David's prayer was answered. So after David's hard-fought victory, who does he give Christ? credit to. This is what he says in Psalm 21. The king rejoices in your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories you give. You have granted him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. You came to greet him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked you for a life and you gave it to him. Length of days forever and ever. Through the victories you gave, his glory is great. You have bestowed on him splendor.

and majesty, surely you have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence. For the king trusts in the Lord, through the unfailing love of the most high, he will not be shaken. So how do you think David wouldn't answer our question? What percentage of his victory was because of his hard work, and what percentage was because of God? In Psalm 21, David's answer seems to be 0% David and 100% God. And notice in verse, 1, David says, God gave him victory. And then in verse 3, it says God came to meet him and greeted him with rich blessings. And in verse 5, it says that his own personal glory and majesty is king is only because of what God has done in his life. Now let's stop and think for a second about

who is writing this. This is King David. This is that boy who grew up as a shepherd. He wasn't the best looking. He wasn't the tallest. He wasn't even the strongest among his own brothers, much less wider Israel. This is the David that fought a lion and a bear. This is the David that faced off against Goliath with only a slingshot when all the other warriors were too scared to do so. This is the David who won battle after battle for Israel and rose in his status and position in the kingdom. This is the David that spent a lot of his life on the run from Crazy King Saul, but persevered through all the adversity and eventually earned his rightful spot as king of Israel. If anyone had the right to claim their success was a result of their own hard work and good choices, it's David. He has the classic

underdog story. Before there was the American dream, David lived the Israelite dream. Even though we see David pick himself up by his bootstraps, David said it was God who lifted him up. Even though we see David's effort and hard work, David said it was God who was truly at work in his life. life. Even though David planned wisely, David saw that God's plan is the one that really mattered. What about you? Are you comfortable with giving credit to God? How often do you thank God for the good things in your life, for your successes and achievements? If something goes well for you, is your first instinct to think him? Maybe you're like me and you find yourself saying a lot more Psalm 20 prayers than Psalm 21 prayers. I'm quick to ask God for help, which is, of course, a good thing.

But I'm slow to thank him when he does. Usually I want the credit. Usually I tell the story in a way so that I get the glory from my successes. I want other people to see me as the hard worker, someone who earned everything good in my life. But when I thank God, when I take time to give him credit. I admit to my own prideful heart that I am dependent on him. See, the Bible has a hard truth for people like me and you. It's all about God's grace. Everything good in your life comes from God. It's 100% God and 0% you. But then you might be asking, if it's 100% God, does that mean I shouldn't work hard? Does that mean I don't have to think and plan for the future? Does that mean I should just sit back and as people say, let go and let God?

Is that how Israel won the battle? Do you think they defeated their enemies by laying down and doing nothing? Of course not. They planned their attack. They strategized. They trained. They prayed. And God used their hard work as the means by which he brought them victory.

The Bible doesn't teach us to let go and let God. It teaches us to work hard because of God. God has shown us his love for us. God has promised to deliver us, so we are set free to work hard for his glory and for his purposes, knowing that his good plan will prosper in the end. In other words, because it's 100% God, we give 100% of ourselves to God. Now, as we were reading Psalm 21, you might have noticed that it's not just a description of King David, but it's a description of a king that is greater than David,

a king who would be 100% dependent on God, a king who would fight the true, battle against sin and death, a king who didn't come to be served, but to serve others. Psalm 21 is about King David, but it's also about King Jesus. And just like David, King Jesus gave all the credit to the Father. Yes, Jesus was 100% God, but he was also 100% man, which means that during his ministry on Earth, he depended on the Father for his daily bread. He depended on the Spirit when he was tempted in the wilderness and when he was performing miracles. and even in his death he depended upon the Father's vindication and the Spirit's power to raise him from the dead. Jesus was the perfect human.

He did not come for his own glory, but for the glory and praise of His Father in heaven. And now as followers of Jesus, we have been granted a gift that we could have never earned ourselves. Paul says in Ephesians 2, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves. it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Paul says that our salvation, our hope, our future, our forgiveness was 0% us and 100% God. 100% God's gift. So how should that change how we live? Well, if our entire hope is rooted in the free gift of God's grace to us, that means

that Christians should be the first people to extend grace to others. When we look out into the world and see people struggling with sin and addiction and idolatry, we can look at them with empathy. We can have compassion on them. And because apart from God's grace, that's exactly where we'd be. It also means that Christians should be generous with whatever resources God has given them. If I think I've earned everything in my life, I might be hesitant to give it away to those in need. See, I'll have a tight grip on my possessions that I earned and that I deserved.

But if God has been radically generous to me and has given me every blessing of my life, then I will be open-handed with God's gifts. I will see all of my resources as his and not mine and be radically generous to the people around me. The last thing it changes about our life is found back in Ephesians 2. After Paul informs his readers that they have been saved by God's grace and grace alone, he says this in verse 10. He says, for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ.

Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Did you hear Paul's reasoning? Because we are saved by God's grace, we are called to good works. In other words, works don't save us, but they are evidence that we are saved. Christians should be the hardest workers. We don't work hard out of a sense of trying to earn our significance. We work hard because our significance has been given to us by Jesus, and his kingdom is on the move in and through our work. So live today knowing that your work is being used by the God who loves you and works all things out together for your good. And ultimately, when we sit before God's throne, our only hope will be 100% Jesus and 0% us.