The Lord our Master

Meditation on Psalm 16:2a

“I say to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord.’”

The author of this Psalm, David, declares that God is his Lord or his Master. 

The closest parallel we have in our society of the words ‘Lord’ or ‘master’ and ‘servant’ is ‘employer’ and ‘employee.’  The employer hires an employee based on her skills, aptitude and experience.  She will work for an agreed wage.  If she is a good employee, she will most likely earn a raise or a promotion.   If she is not, she may face discipline or termination. 

Though similar in some ways, the relationship between ‘master’ and ‘servant’ was different in the ancient days.  A master or lord owned the servant or slave.  The servant was the master’s property.  A good master would provide for his servant’s basic needs of food, shelter and protection.  We get a glimpse of this in Psalm 123:2, which says, “As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God till he shows us mercy.”  This verse pictures the eyes of slaves seeking out their master to receive something from his hands. 

Yet the master fully expects the servant will obey him, work and perform his designated tasks.  We are not exempt as servants of the Lord.  Of this we have numerous examples in the New Testament: Jesus likens his return to servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet.  Those he finds watching are blessed (Luke 12:35-40).  In the parable of the talents, the master entrusted his servants with wealth and expected them to put it to work (Matthew 25:14-30).  Jesus our Lord asks us, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).  Paul instructs the slaves in Ephesus to ‘serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people’ (Ephesians 6:7) and those in Colossae to ‘work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters…It is the Lord Christ you are serving’ (Colossians 4:23-24).  Peter instructs his readers to ‘set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts’ (1 Peter 3:15).

God as our Lord, our Master, will provide for all of our needs.  However, we have a duty turned delight to serve, obey and love him.  This leads to a second and very beautiful truth that the rest of the verse declares.  But this will be the topic of another 'raindrop' in a few days...