What has God’s strong arm accomplished for you? Eternal salvation. Praise Him!
Who is at God’s right hand interceding on your behalf? Jesus Christ. Praise Him!
How is God at work in your life this moment? Daily sanctification. Praise Him!
When will you behold the face of God, faith becoming sight? In earthly death. Praise Him!
Where is the Holy Spirit? In my heart forevermore. Praise Him!
Not by our merit, but of His great mercy.
Even if God were to strip away every temporal blessing He has given you and me, like Job, we would still have the Lord. The Lord is my Shepherd, He is all I’ll ever need.
The Lord “watches over the way of His saints.” -Proverbs 2:8
I love Christmas hymns. They speak of what God has done for us through Jesus’ birth and perfect atonement. It was all part of God’s plan from the beginning. This means that chaotic world events, personal sorrows, and sin has not caught God off guard. He is still at work. A friend shared with me her favorite Christmas hymn a few years ago and it was one I wasn’t familiar with. ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’ is now one of my favorites too. Part of it goes, “And in despair I bowed my head, ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said, ‘For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.’ Then rang the bells more loud and deep, ‘God is not dead, nor does He sleep, the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.'”
These words are true because every Christian worships a Living Hope. This is our greatest joy because Jesus Christ is our greatest Gift. There is forgiveness, access to the Father and comfort for every believer. This is a beautiful hymn, full of longing but certain hope. Jesus came in grace. He is coming again. Now we see through a glass darkly, as if we are only half-awake, but one day God’s children will enjoy His Presence and Peace forever when we see Christ face to face. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Sin and death will be no more. Praise God!
“I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commands.” -Psalm 119:176
The psalmist is honest before the Lord. It is deeply personal. There is no hiding from Him who sees and knows all things. When we rightly understand the tender mercies of our Heavenly Father, there is no need to run and hide like our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden. Even when we sin, we have a great Mediator to go before us. Our Great Shepherd will always leave the ninety-nine sheep in the safe pasture to go look for the one that wandered away.
David (likely the psalmist), prays to be sought by Jehovah Yahweh, the Keeper of his soul. He knows God’s commands are not only life giving but life saving, which is why he is determined to remember them and live accordingly with God’s help. Our lives in God’s hands are very much like a sonnet. There are boundaries constructed around the perimeter. We must be diligent to acknowledge the set structure He has given us and submit to His authority. Yet the colorful freedom within the sonnet is our liberty. To live, create, work, play and enjoy His many blessings is our joy and His delight! This is the beauty of man’s will working inside God’s will. To stray outside the cadence would be to our peril. The Lord knows this, loving His sheep too much to let us wander off the path, bleating aimlessly. Our Lord Jesus suffered in the place of each redeemed sinner so that you and I never experience one day apart from Him, the Savior and King.
As this psalm closes, it is good to pray like the psalmist does- “Seek Your servant”. Every Christian has a position before the Lord, as a justified, sanctified believer. Those hidden in Christ are adopted into God’s family, given a heavenly inheritance without end. This is because of Jesus. Faith in Jesus Christ transforms depraved sinners into redeemed ones. The grace of God has reached down and taken hold of every born again image bearer. He will not let His beloved go but intends for His mercy and love to follow you all the days of your life. This is the Christian’s greatest blessing because the goodness of God does not end when we die. It is only the beginning of our blessed eternity with the One who has always loved us first and best of all. God is faithful to pursue His children, and lead them all the way into His Kingdom, our Forever Home.
Grace upon grace,
April
Growing deeper: Psalm 23; Isaiah 53; Luke 15:1-7; Hebrews 7:24-28; 1 Peter 2:24-25
“Let me live that I may praise You, and may Your laws sustain me.” -Psalm 119:175
It isn’t just physical life the psalmist seeks after, but to drink deeper from the Wellspring of Life. God is the sustenance for every believer, strengthening us according to His good Word. He provides common grace to all people, supplying each breath, allowing good things even for the wicked to enjoy, albeit temporal. But the psalmist has spiritual eyes, a divine hunger to experience fellowship with the Holy God that is fresh and richly satisfying. Give me life is his cry.
More of God flows into more love of Him, more gratitude over our blessings, an awareness of His ocean of mercy, delighting in His beauty all around. The goodness of God is not found merely in what He gives us, but also in how He keeps us. He holds our salvation securely, with every believer’s name permanently written in the Book of Life. God restrains sin in the world and in us. The world is chaotic but consider how much worse it could be. The Lord in lovingkindness has given His laws to protect us from harm, so we do not destroy ourselves in sin. The surest way to ruin our lives and witness is to not live within the secure boundaries God provides. King David certainly understood this principle, as his sins toward Bathsheba and Uriah carried grave consequences which lasted the rest of his life.
Just like King David, Israel, and all sinners, we learn the hard way the cycle of sin, conviction, repentance, and restoration. There is forgiveness when we turn from God’s ways, momentarily not finding them enough. But what sweet blessing for the one who stays firmly planted in God’s garden, drawing sustenance from His vineyard. This is what life abundant in Jesus Christ looks like. He who abides in God’s laws is the one who truly lives and will indeed inherit everlasting life. Christ’s righteousness covers the redeemed sinner and the Spirit enables this new life to walk in holiness, freedom from the enslavement of sin. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise God for His wondrous love, measureless grace and boundless mercy!
“I long for Your salvation, O LORD, and Your law is my delight.” -Psalm 119:174
The psalmist longs for the completion of his salvation. When he wrote this psalm (likely King David), he saw only a shadow of the promise, a foretaste of the Great Messiah who was to come. He knew the promises but longed for God to fulfill them soon. But what is “soon” to the One outside of Time? To the Keeper of Time? We know on this side of the cross that Jesus Christ is the Messiah who has come and will come again. Only He fulfilled the Law, keeping it perfectly. Yet we follow God’s laws (commands) today as we wait for Jesus to come again once and for all. This is the Age of Grace as we learn the holy ways of our Lord. Like a child learning to ride a bike, first with training wheels, this is our training ground.
Charles Spurgeon says believers develop a “holy hunger” for God the more we are satisfied in Him. The Christian’s appetite is whetted for what is good, beautiful and true. Redeemed sinners have received their salvation in part, meaning in Christ we are forgiven and no longer condemned. But one day, our faith will be made sight as the whole of our salvation is consummated in Glory at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-9). Jesus is throwing a big party and you who are adopted into His family are invited. While we wait in the interim of the already and not yet, the Christian’s purpose today is to love the Lord above all else, love our neighbor and glorify God by keeping His commandments. We are called to walk worthy. Do you love God’s Word which contain His law? Do you delight in them? Walk in His ways even when your faith is small or weary. The Lord is faithful to transform our disciplined duty into delight for those He has called to Himself.
Grace upon grace,
April
Growing deeper: Matthew 5:17-19; 2 Peter 3:8-18; Revelation 22
“May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts.” -Psalm 119:173
After two verses of responding in praise to God, the psalmist turns his attention back to a plea for God’s mighty hand to intervene. Is there any better prayer than asking for God’s help? His request does not presume upon God with entitlement. He is not our genie and should never be approached with selfish motives. But Christians are His dear children. We come to Him in childlike, dependent faith. We are to serve Him, not the other way around. And yet, the wonder of it is God’s delight to bless His children. The Lord has given the psalmist a desire to follow His ways. Therefore, God will be faithful to help him walk in obedience. The grace of God enables earthly, weary saints in the power of the Holy Spirit.
From his commentary The Golden Alphabet, Charles Spurgeon observes from this verse: “If grace has given us the heart with which to will, it will also give us the hand with which to perform.” God does not call us to tasks we cannot accomplish. If they seem too great, we have His ear to cry for help in our time of need and He will strengthen and sustain. A parent of a young child does not demand they do a task beyond their intellectual or physical ability. The parent knows the child’s limits and sets responsibilities accordingly. In the same way, our loving Heavenly Father knows our frame and asks we rely on His strength, not our own. He has never commanded us to do something so ludicrous, like create the stars and throw them up in the sky. He calls us to trust in the One who made the stars and placed each one by name in the heavens.
It is right that we tremble before an Awesome Powerful God. Yet the pathway to His Throne is covered with the blood of Jesus. Those who belong to God in Christ are never more secure, loved, helped and heard by our Gracious King. Because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross, we may go to Him with confidence. The Lord has promised to help the believer on their pilgrim journey and God always keeps His promises. Only saints choose the way of God, longing to run the race with endurance and finish well. God’s people love His holy precepts because they love a Holy, Holy, Holy God!
“May my tongue sing of Your Word, for all Your commands are righteous.” -Psalm 119:172
The heart response of every Christian should be to speak, shout, and sing of the Lord’s lavish love! The spoken word is a great blessing and responsibility given to man. With our tongues we have the power to bless or curse, speak truth or a lie. Not only do we worship King Jesus with songs of praise, but He also commands us to go and tell others about Him. He is righteousness itself. He is Truth. Walking in obedience to God’s commands requires faithful lips, whether we are singing to our Redeemer or speaking of Him with others.
The Sunday School material for my son’s class had a quote recently which said, “Life is full of everyday choices to either make Jesus known or remain silent.” The treasure which we have found in God’s Word is not to be kept to ourselves. Is our joy for Jesus contagious? Can we but help speak of Him when others are around us? Matthew Henry exalts this verse in his commentary saying,
“The more we see of the righteousness of God’s commandments the more industrious we should be to bring others acquainted with them, that they may be ruled by them. We should always make the word of God the governor of our discourse, so as never to transgress it by sinful speaking or sinful silence; and we should often make it the subject-matter of our discourse, that it may feed many and minister grace to the hearers.”
Dear Christian, you are God’s ambassador. Represent Him well with the voice He gave you.
redeemed in grace 