LENT – WEEK 2 – SATURDAY

LESSON: PSALM 33:13-22

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. Psalm 55:22

That God nourishes the whole world by means of bread, and not only through the Word without bread, has its special reason. God is concealing His work under this procedure in order to exercise our faith.

In the case of the children of Israel also, He issued orders for them to arm themselves and fight, but He did not want them to gain the victory through their sword and their own deeds. He Himself wanted to defeat their enemies and gain the victory under their sword and through their deeds. Here He could also have said, “The warrior does not gain the victory through his own sword alone, but through every word which proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

David also says, “Not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me” (Psalm 44:6). “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man” (Psalm 147:10).

He still makes use of man and horse, sword and bow, but He fights and He accomplishes everything without the power and might of the man and the horse. The latter are merely curtains and coverings for His might and power. This is proved by the fact that He has often acted, and still often acts daily, without man and horse where necessity demands it and where there is no possibility of a temptation of Himself being involved.

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PRAYER: Lord God, heavenly Father, our stay and support in all our needs, grant us such an understanding of your Word and trust in its teachings that we always accept all its consolations in firm assurance, in and through Christ our Lord. Amen.