None of Us is Righteous before You

My heart is heavy as I went to my old friend's funeral yesterday. He was a believer that lost his way. My age. My heart is so heavy for his family. I am looking for some comfort today from my God. I am hoping these Psalms will speak to me.

Reflect:
1. No one living is righteous before God.
2. Your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.
3. This Psalm reminds me of someone being swallowed up by depression. None of us is righteous before God. Sometimes, God, you are hard to find. "Do not bring your servant into judgment." I pray you met Kev at the gates of heaven, Lord, and brought him back to his first love.
4. We are, to God, a breath. A fleeting shadow.
5. Nothing can snatch us, God, from your hands... not even our own rebellion. No one is righteous before you.
6. His blessing is upon his people. Amen.

Lord, I lift up to you today the Kevin's family. I pray for their comfort... their assurance, that Kevin is with you in a better place. This life is hard, God. We make it harder sometimes by our own choices, but I pray for your mercy upon us. for your mercy upon that family. I pray for peace for them in the midst of this sudden chaos. I pray for your love to surround them today to strengthen them. Amen.

Psalm 143-144 (Today’s New International Version, ©2005)

Psalm 143
A psalm of David.
1 LORD, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.
2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,
for no one living is righteous before you.
3 The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
like those long dead.
4 So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed.
5 I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
6 I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.[a]

7 Answer me quickly, LORD;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
9 Rescue me from my enemies, LORD,
for I hide myself in you.
10 Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.

11 For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life;
in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.
12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;
destroy all my foes,
for I am your servant.

Psalm 144
Of David.
1 Praise be to the LORD my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
2 He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples[b] under me.

3 LORD, what are human beings that you care for them,
mere mortals that you think of them?
4 They are like a breath;
their days are like a fleeting shadow.

5 Part your heavens, LORD, and come down;
touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
6 Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy;
shoot your arrows and rout them.
7 Reach down your hand from on high;
deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters,
from the hands of foreigners
8 whose mouths are full of lies,
whose right hands are deceitful.

9 I will sing a new song to you, my God;
on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,
10 to the One who gives victory to kings,
who delivers his servant David.

From the deadly sword 11 deliver me;
rescue me from the hands of foreigners
whose mouths are full of lies,
whose right hands are deceitful.

12 Then our sons in their youth
will be like well-nurtured plants,
and our daughters will be like pillars
carved to adorn a palace.
13 Our barns will be filled
with every kind of provision.
Our sheep will increase by thousands,
by tens of thousands in our fields;
14 our oxen will draw heavy loads.[c]
There will be no breaching of walls,
no going into captivity,
no cry of distress in our streets.
15 Blessed is the people of whom this is true;
blessed is the people whose God is the LORD.