Ps 54 · 1 Cor 10

Devotion 1 of 2: Ps 54

Sometimes the Bible teaches us to love our enemies and to overcome evil with good! But at other times it speaks, not of turning the other cheek, but of punishment and repaying our enemies for their evil (v.5)! This psalm is an expression of the latter for we see David crying out to God to cut off his enemies (v.5b).
In our life also, there will be times when we should forgive those who wrong us, but at other times, we should pray to God to teach that person a lesson so that he stops his evil. That would be similar to what Paul did in telling the Corinthian Church to hand the man who committed immoral acts with his father’s wife over to Satan so that he would suffer in the flesh but would repent and return to God so his spirit could be saved (1 Cor 5:1-5).

Devotion 2 of 2: 1 Cor 10

V.1-11 describe Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and journey through the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. This journey was the most important in human history, for it prophesied the restoration of the church!
Paul says in v.1 that we should not be ignorant of the many important lessons from that journey! And in v.11, he says that this journey was recorded in the Scriptures specifically for the church upon whom the end of the ages has come!
So how does this journey prophesy the restoration of the church and what spiritual truths can we learn from it? Well, the journey had 3 steps: Deliverance from Egypt, journey through the wilderness and return to the Promised Land. These 3 steps prophesy the Protestant Reformation of 1517, the Azusa Street Revival of 1906, and the complete restoration of the church in 20??!

Why can we say that? Because the Protestant Reformation was a deliverance from the absolute control of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, similar to Israel’s deliverance from the absolute authority of Pharaoh and his Egyptian Empire.
And the Azusa St. Revival restored the truth of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, symbolic of Israel’s journey in the wilderness being accompanied by the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. These represented the Holy Spirit infilling, protecting and guiding the church!
Finally, the LDR will be the fulfillment of God’s promise to restore the church into the glorious church it was called to be, similar to Israel being restored to the Promised Land to eventually become the glorious Kingdom of Israel under King David, which it was called to be!