Send Forth...

“Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter [the enemies]; shoot your arrows and rout them.” (Psalm 144:5-7)

“You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.” (Psalm 43:2-4)

“Later the Lord chose seventy-two other followers and sent them out two by two to every town and village where he was about to go.” (Luke 10:1)

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

In the Scriptures, we find the concept of “sending forth” in several different contexts. For example, Psalm 144 calls for God to “send forth” His power to vindicate and protect from enemies. In Psalm 43, David cries from his heart for God to “send forth” His light and truth to guide. Luke 10:1 and Matthew 10:16 remind us that God “sends forth” His very life in and through us—deploying His followers with a message of salvation and hope for our neighbors and for the nations. No matter who you are—a business leader, a pastor, a stay-home mom, a student, a grandpa, or any point in between—the Lord is faithful to “send forth” in all of these ways, in His perfect timing. If ever we are prone to doubt our place in the world or in His plans, let’s remember that we have been “sent forth” with a unique, specific purpose in the bigger picture of advancing the kingdom of God.

“David applies to God as his never-failing hope. Let us pray earnestly, that the Lord would send forth the truth of his word, and the light of his Spirit, to guide us into the way of holiness, peace, and salvation. The desire of the Christian, like that of the prophet in distress, is to be saved from sin as well as sorrow; to be taught in the way of righteousness by the light of heavenly wisdom, shining in Jesus Christ, and to be led by this light and truth to the New Jerusalem.” (Matthew Henry, commenting on Psalm 43)

O God, thank you that when we cry out to you, whether in distress like David was, or simply in need of wisdom and guidance, that you are faithful to “send forth” all that we need. We accept your call and commission, O Lord, to be “sent forth” carrying your life to the lost and hurting in our community this week. Amen.