Month: September 2017

101. Blessed and Delivered

 Psalm 41:1

Blessed is he that considereth the poor:

The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.

 This a conditional promise: if you consider the poor, then you will be blessed and the Lord will deliver you in time of trouble. Good and blessed consequences result from activity that doesn’t seem to be related to the result. Cause and effect are not usually seen in the spiritual realm, so we must take God’s Word for it. A blessed life is a direct result of considering the poor.

“Considering the poor” includes thinking and planning ways to take care of the poor, teaching to fish, finding a job, securing shelter, and just giving to organizations. God loves the poor and wants to take care of them; His usual method of caring for the poor involves using His children’ generosity as instruments. When God finds a channel (a generous person) He blesses him with more money so that he has more to share and give to the poor. The person who considers the poor is blessed in the financial sphere along with every other aspect of living. The more he gives away the more he receives so that he can give more away. And “being a channel’ is itself a blessing.

One of the blessings experienced is deliverance in time of trouble. The generous person can expect the Lord to deliver him in any trouble. Trouble comes from Sin and Evil, but God forgives Sin and delivers from Evil. Expect trouble, but even more, expect deliverance.

100. Thinks of me

 Psalm 40:17

But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me:

Thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

 The Lord promises to take thought for me, which implies protection in the form of help and deliverance when He sees what I need. Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, is not some far off God who is too big and too busy to notice me. Not only does He notice me; He also thinks about me all the time, curious about what I am going to do and decide. Not only does He think upon me; He also comes to help and deliver when He sees I am in trouble and need.

I may be poor and needy, but I have a rich and powerful God who is watching out for me, protecting and delivering me. I may be like a sheep among wolves, but I have a Good Shepherd who is thinking upon me and ready to deliver whenever I need help. I may be weak in front of my problems, but I have a God who is bigger and wiser than my problems and brings solutions speedily.

 Just to be aware that when I turn to Jesus He is already looking at me gives great comfort and security to my soul. I know any moment, any time, any place, that I happen to think about my Lord and my God He is already paying attention, thinking, and ready to help and protect and deliver. He is there ahead of me: reassuring!

99. He Hears

 Psalm 38:15

For in thee, O Lord, do I hope:

Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

 This seems to be an unconditional promise for all people that wait and hope in God, the condition being that they have prayed (otherwise they wouldn’t wait in hope). The promise is that the Lord hears, that is, He will answer their prayers.

There are many promises in the Bible that God will hear prayers and many encouragements to pray. We pray because of God’s command and promise. Our prayers to God are part of our faith response to hearing the Gospel. After we hear the Gospel of God’s Love we are prompted to pray to such a wonderful God. He promises to answer and we are further encouraged to pray.

The emphasis in this verse’s promise is laid on the word “hope,” and in some translations, “wait.” The Hebrew can mean either word, and each translation gives a clue to the meaning of the other. We wait with assurance because the hope is a certainty (not a wish); we hope with certainty because we wait with confidence (don’t give up no matter how long).

God promises to answer; that settles it. Now we wait in hope.

98. Deliver and Save

 Psalm 37:40

And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them:

He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.

 The Lord promises to deliver and save the righteous (the believers) upon the condition that they trust in Him. “Trust” is a basic conditional factor for deliverance and salvation: if you trust in me, then you will be delivered. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16).

Eternal salvation from sin and death and eternal deliverance from Evil and the Evil One is certainly included in the promise, but the context of the Psalm emphasizes deliverance from the wicked on earth in present time, “the wicked” signifying Sin and Evil all around us in the world generally and also evil entering and acting through some individual people in the world. The Sin and Evil in wicked people in a wicked world seek to kill and destroy. The promise of the Lord is that He will deliver us from the death and destruction caused by the Evil and Wickedness that surrounds us in the world and by the Sin and Wickedness that dwells in our flesh.

The Wicked we will always have with us, in and around us, intending us harm, but also with us, in and around us, is the Lord with His promises of deliverance from Evil; He is there to save us. We who believe in Jesus Christ for eternal salvation after death have the same promises of salvation from sin, death, and the devil during this life before death. Salvation is not only a future hope but also a present reality. We who are saved eternally are given access to present salvation through prayer: “Deliver us from evil,” once again, today.

97. Salvation and Strength

 Psalm 37:39

But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord:

He is their strength in the time of trouble.

 It is the salvation of the sinner that makes him righteous. This salvation is of the Lord, that is, it is the Lord’s doing and not ours at all; salvation belongs to the Lord and He does it all. The Lord promises those whom He has saved and made righteous that He will save them again from the enemy when salvation is needed next time.

The first time He saved us it was a time of trouble, the last time He saved us it was a time of trouble, and the next time He saves us it will be in a time of trouble. He is our strength, or stronghold, in the time of trouble. When we were baptized He saved us from the time of trouble, which was original sin, which brings us much trouble and grief. “The time of trouble” is any time that the enemies (sin, death, devil) taunt and frighten, tempt to sin and attempt to destroy because of sin, or bring pain and sorrow. The “trouble” is this: the pain and misery of sin can escalate and get so terrible that we are tempted to ignore God and forget Him, or we even come into so much despair that we are ready to give up on God and on life and let ourselves go to death and the devil. This severe “time of trouble” may begin with some very innocent seeming sin like lust or anger or a lie; any sin, no matter how small, can be a time of trouble. The Lord promises to be our strength and salvation in the “time of trouble.” He will bring us into his presence inside the strong fort where we are safe and secure from the Evil One.

With God’s Salvation promise a time of present trouble turns into a time of joy and peace and blessing. This salvation turnaround can happen quickly or it may take a little time, but we can be sure it happens to the saved. We are so privileged we can ask for Salvation and Strength on a dime and receive it in any trouble. What a friend we have in Jesus!

96. Ordered Steps

 Psalm 37:23

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:

And he delighteth in his way.

 First, one must be a good man to enjoy this promise, but no one is good, not one; Jesus says, “No one is good except God alone. “ (Luke 18:19). The only good man upon earth must be the one in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, that is, Jesus of Nazareth. Only He could be a good man, and He is so kind and strong He shares that goodness with us and makes us who believe in Him “good men.” Now by faith I can say I am good, in Him. Therefore, I can claim this promise: the Lord orders my steps.

God has a good plan for the lives of all His children; their steps are ordered by the Lord, meaning there is order, purpose and point to the steps we take and to the direction we go. Life is not random, empty or pointless. There is a purpose and an order. God makes order out of chaos; God makes something out of nothing. When we admit we are nothing, when we admit that our lives are in utter chaos and when we admit that we are not “good men,” then we are repenting and turning to Christ in faith; repentance and faith is worked in us by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel.

Once that conversion, the turning from self to God, is complete the Holy Spirit proceeds to order the steps and make sense of life. We do not always see the sense or the way the Lord is ordering our steps while we are on the way putting one foot in front of the other. But there are times that we can see God’s ordering when we look back over the path we have traveled. But whether we see it or not the promise is still valid and there is order to the steps we take.

But there is yet more to this promise: the Lord is delighted in the way we are walking. God is not only ordering the way we walk; He also enjoys watching us walk in His Way. The Lord God, our Father, is very interested in what happens to us, where we go, the decisions we make and how our life is turning out; and He enjoys us. Like a father takes great delight in watching his children be successful in something they have been working on or practicing together; a father enjoys seeing his children enjoying happy lives; so does God our heavenly Father. He takes special delight in seeing that our way turned out to be blessed. We give God pleasure when we walk His way, and it makes us feel good, too.

95. Knows the days

 Psalm 37:18

The Lord knoweth the days of the upright:

And their inheritance shall be forever.

 The upright are the believers in Christ: the righteous, His people, the children of God, the saints, those who keep covenant with God. The upright are the beneficiaries of many promises of the Lord throughout the Psalms; it would behoove one to become one of the “upright,” through faith in Jesus.

The Lord “knows the days:” He knows how many there will be; He knows the good days and bad days and why they are the way they are; He knows how to grant good days and make bad days better; He is involved in everyday life. He knows the days because He always loves us and cares about us and He is always there. God’s presence with us at all times, day and night, is a constant and an instant comfort and strength for us. It is not only that the Lord is with us, that His presence surrounds us, that He knows, but it is also that He is doing something all the time working out all things together for good. This cannot often be seen, but it can always be believed because the Lord promised.

The second part of this promise is a “forever inheritance.” The upright are the heirs of God and have received the inheritance of whatever belongs to God, like His very own Life which He shares with us, and His Kingdom which He gives to us. And we have the promise that we will never lose that promised inheritance; death does not separate us from the inheritance but actually seals it to us. When God gives spiritual things to us they are eternal and can never be removed or lost. When God give physical blessings they always come with spiritual blessings; the physical are temporary while the spiritual are eternal. For example: God gives daily bread which is a temporary blessing and then passes away, but with the bread He gives us more of Himself when we receive it with thanksgiving, and that does not pass away. God grants, according to promise, an inheritance that is forever.

94. Upholds

 Psalm 37: 17, 24

For the arms of the wicked shall be broken:

But the Lord upholdeth the righteous.

 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down:

For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.

 The two kinds of people in the world from the Bible’s point of view are the righteous and the wicked, or, the believers and the unbelievers. The believers are the ones who are given great and precious promises. Here the promise is that the Lord will hold them up. He will break the strength of the unbeliever, but He will uphold the strength of the believer; he will not be broken. The believer will stumble and fall, even defeated, but he will not stay down and defeated, for the Lord will hold him up with his hand. The strength and power of God Himself will stand him upright and hold him upright.

It is to be expected that we as followers of Christ will stumble and fall from time to time, but the Lord will be there to pick us up and hold us up. In fact, the righteous may fall seven times a day, but they keep getting back up. When the believer falls into sin he does not stay there: he repents, turns to Jesus, receives forgiveness, gets up, gets back on the Way and keeps going upright and strong. This is the promise: even when we stumble and fall, get weak and fail, the Lord will be there to hold us up and set us going again.

The unbeliever, however, does not know how to get up again and may stay down for a long time. But even in times of trouble and in down times my Lord is there to uphold me with his hand.

109. God and Guide

 Psalm 48:14

For this God is our God forever and ever:

He will be our guide even unto death.

 God promises that He will be our God forever; He promises that He will be our Guide all the way though life on earth. Our God and our Guide: these two promises are really big. God will safely guide us through this life until we safely and happily reach the goal, which is to be with Him forever after we die. Getting through this life safely and well unto death is not inconsequential or to be taken for granted. This life holds so many dangers, toils, snares, pitfalls, traps and obstacles that being guided securely through and around them all is no mean feat; it requires a promise of God for us to know that every step we take is guided by His Wisdom to bring us into the Promised Land of the Kingdom of God. We realize we are not safe until we die, so we need a guide through life: praise God we have one.

God’s Covenant Promise is: “I will be your God….” The word “God” implies eternity. This promise to be “our God forever and ever” states eternity explicitly. This God is our God yesterday, today, and forever, and through it all He is the same. Our eternity is secure; God is eternal, and because He is our God so are we also eternal. God is a God of the living; He is our God forever; we will live forever; and that’s a Promise.

93. Inherit the Earth

 Psalm 37:9, 22, 29, 34

For evildoers shall be cut off:

But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

 For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth;

And they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.

 The righteous shall inherit the land,

and dwell therein for ever.

 Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land:

When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

 This promise is a little hard to believe until we understand the spiritual, eternal and New Testament meaning of “Land.” “Inherit the land (earth)” is an oft-repeated promise climaxed with Jesus’ promise in Matthew 5: 5: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

The same Hebrew word can mean either earth or land depending on context; and the same word is used for “the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, the land of Canaan.” The “land” promise goes back to the original promise given to Abraham in Genesis 12, the promise that begins the salvation history of the Bible. Following the thread of the land promise through the Bible it comes out in the New Testament as the “Kingdom of God,” which is presently spiritual in the hearts of believers and ultimately eternal in heaven.

Inheriting the earth or the land in the first place meant occupying the land of Canaan in the Conquest of Joshua. It never means the whole physical world globe, but it does mean the invisible Promised Land or Kingdom where God rules over the hearts and lives of His People, spiritually now and physically forever after the Last Day in the new heaven and new earth. In that final sense we “inherit the earth.”

Who inherits? “Whosoever believeth in me.” But according to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “The Meek.” According to Psalm 37: “Those who wait upon the Lord;” “Those who are blessed of him;” “The righteous:” and “Those who keep his way.” To summarize these conditions for inheriting the earth: it is those who believe in Jesus Christ that meet the criteria for receiving the promised inheritance. “The meek” are those who are humble, open and teachable enough to receive Jesus and believe His Gospel.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof,” and, just like the Promised Land, the Lord gives it to us to live in and enjoy. We are living in the spiritual Kingdom of God and enjoying the blessings thereof, but we still need to enter in and “possess the land” (kingdom) that the Lord has given to us. So we pray: “Thy kingdom come.”