by Pastor Rich Carlson

I like that! God delights in me (and in you)! Psalm 18 is full of fascinating ideas that stopped me in my tracks this morning. It starts out with a seven-fold descriptor of God as David tries to portray all that God has been to him on his earthly journey: my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. my shield, the horn of my salvation, my Stronghold.

I had to stop there for a moment and meditate on the goodness of God and all that He has done for me, and I realized again of the value of reflecting on my Savior. I can too often take Him for granted and forget all that He is in my life. Or I can get distracted and dwell on the trouble I face in life, most of which is the consequence of my own choices, and "blame" God. But even in this latter scenario, David says, in verse 6, that when he would cry out to God He would hear his voice "even before the cry got to Him!"

"He reached down from on high and took hold of me drew me out of deep waters, rescued me, brought me into spacious places, because He delights in me!" Wow, what a God!

Then it got a little muddy. God may delight in me, but "He dealt with me: according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands, because I have kept His ways, because I have not done evil, because all his laws are before me, because I have not turned away from His decrees, because I have been blameless before Him, because I have kept myself from sin." (vs 20-24) That's what David said. And I know too much about the life of David to believe it! He wasn't any of those things.

It's a good thing I have learned not to stop reading when I am troubled in Scripture. I kept reading and arrived at verses 32-36 just in time to save me from pride and keep me from missing another beautiful message from God.

It is God who: arms me with strength, makes my way perfect, enables me to stand, trains my hands, gives me His shield of victory, sustains me with His victorious right hand, stoops down to make me great, broadens the path beneath my feet.

There it is again. A recurring theme in Scripture: God is worthy of all my praise, because He loves me and delights in me. I am viewed in His eyes even as being great, but that's because He has made me great! The chapter ends: "Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O Lord; I will sing praises to your name."

I pray that today you will discover or rediscover a little more clearly the value God places in you, and that you and I will realize that He makes us great when we learn to praise Him, trust Him, give Him the credit, and then praise Him again.

Have a great day allowing God to delight in you.

Rich Carlson is the campus chaplain at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. God is Faithful is adapted from the daily email devotionals Rich writes for the Union College family.