If you'd like to watch, click on Pastor Squatch Musings!

“As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not have a man cut off from the throne of Israel.’”

1 Kings 9:4–5, LSB

The call to Solomon was not to walk perfectly, but to walk faithfully with God. David failed in walking the moral path but succeeded in walking the faithful path. David wasn’t excused from his sins, but he was forgiven. We, too, are called to walk the faithful path. Unlike David, Solomon failed to maintain his faithfulness and sought after other gods later in his life. Where the greatest failure lies is that we, too, can lose focus and fail. Will it be morally as we fall into sinful behavior, or will it be faithfully as we build altars to other idols in our lives? All sin has some idolatrous aspects, but not all sin leads us to devotion to the idol that leads us there. When David was called out or made aware of his sin, he repented. Solomon was led deeper into sin and allowed for the building of altars. Let us remain faithful and walk with integrity in our lives, seeking never to build altars to false gods, but seeking the face of our Lord in every aspect of our lives and letting go of those things that attempt to ensnare us. In this, we may know our Lord’s peace.

Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.