They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God their Savior.
- Psalm 24:5

Yesterday, we looked at verses about our struggle to cleanse our hands and our hearts. We trust God and ask him for forgiveness, healing and freedom. And God comes to us to make us clean.

God is a generous God. When he cleanses us and welcomes us into his presence, he also showers us with blessing and vindication.

We expect blessing for the Lord. We ask him to bless our food if we remember to pray before meals. We ask him to bless athletic competitions and political events. When we think of God’s benevolent kindness, we picture him blessing people, places and things.

And, yet, we still are tempted to seek out blessing from people, places and things, looking to them to bless us and ignoring what God offers us. The good life we want can only come to us from the Lord’s generous hand. Though this is a hard truth to live out, it’s not one that’s unusual to believe.

But vindication is another matter. “Vindication” sounds like “vindictive.” How many worship songs do you know that call out to the Lord for vindication or thank him for giving you vindication? We don’t often associate vindication with Jesus.

“Vindication!” is the cry of the wronged, the oppressed, and the powerless. Those who long for vindication rarely have the power to gain it for themselves. They may try, but they fail.

David’s word about vindication here is an important one for us to keep in mind. God our Savior will vindicate us; therefore, we can patiently endure hard times. God our Savior will vindicate those who are his and are wronged; therefore, we need not fear that slander and insults will have the final word. God our Savior will vindicate the oppressed; therefore, we would be wise to eschew the role of the oppressor.

God has blessing and vindication to give in abundance.

Don’t be so busy trying to find blessing on your own that you miss the ways the Lord is actively blessing you today. Don’t be so busy seeking vindication on your own that you miss the ways that God our Savior is at work to vindicate you.