"The School of Brokenness: Few people enter it. Even fewer finish." (Pastor Martha)
Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen any of these." Then he said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" Jesse said, "There is yet the youngest; he is tending the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send for him; for we will not sit down to eat until he is here." (First Samuel 16:10-11)
During this past Sunday's sermon, Pastor Martha made an observation concerning King David: Like Joseph, David wasn't well-liked by his brothers.
We see a pattern in the book of First Samuel. In chapter 16, we read that David's father did not even bother to call him from tending the sheep ; the prophet Samuel had to insist that David be called. In the seventeenth chapter, we have record of the salutation of Eliab, David's brother: "Why did you come here? With whom did you leave the sheep? I know you are here to do evil..." (see First Samuel 17:17-28)
Psalm 51 is not just the recorded plea of a man who God reprimanded for doing wrong. It is the plea of a man who knows, intimately, what it means to be left out of the equation. It is the plea of a man who remembers what it was like to be tagged as a person with impure motives. It is the heartfelt cry of a man who understands that he deserves to be left out, but whose heart longs to be kept in the company of God's people. It is the prayer of a man who has logged time in the school of brokenness.
Are you there? Be encouraged today. God has not changed. He still hears the petition of the broken.
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