"Your right hand"

So yesterday I wrote a post that began by lifting up the surprising virtue of modern technology when reading my Bible.  An app on my phone occasionally brings things to my attention that I might have easily missed when reading from a print Bible.

And today…my surprise was found in the virtue of reading from print as I read Psalm 17, where verse 7 says,

"Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand."

Your right hand? Really?  Didn't I just read "your right hand" somewhere else?

I most certainly had read "your right hand."  It was in the Psalm I read only a minute or two earlier, Psalm 16, in the left-hand column of the same page holding Psalm 17, where verse 11 says:

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures for evermore."

I spent a little time with my eyes going back and forth between the verses, thinking about how the same place where we can find certain refuge is the very same place we can receive God's blessings.  The right hand of God.  And then I went for a run.

While I was running I continued to think about this idea of refuge and blessing being found in the same place, and then I began to think of a particular friend of mine.

An adversary is "a person, group, or force that opposes or attacks; opponent; enemy; foe," and my friend has a struggle with one.  From my point-of-view, my friend desperately needs deliverance from his adversary.  From my point-of-view it also appears that my friend has a love/hate relationship with his adversary. 

The idea from Psalm 16 of enjoying pleasures for evermore sounds very appealing, particularly to our human nature, but it is hard to enjoy a pleasure from the hand of God when we are not seeking for Him to provide a safe place for us to enjoy His gifts.

I don’t get enough opportunities to personally encourage my friend in the struggle with his adversary.  But the Lord God gives me unlimited opportunities to lift my friend up in prayer.  And so while running I prayed that God's right hand would rescue my friend from his adversary, so that my friend could truly enjoy the abundant blessings God has already poured out in his life. 

May you find refuge, and blessing, at the right hand of the Lord God. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.