Month: November 2017

183. Crown with Love

Psalm 103:4b

Who crowneth thee with lovingkingness and tender mercies;

 One of the benefits from the Lord not to forget is the crowning with love and mercy. After all the promises God blesses me with He crowns me with committed love and tender mercy. This crown enables me to enjoy all the forgiveness, healing and redemption He has already given. We know that there is already laid up for us the crown of life, and now we know that we are also given a crown of love.

The gift of a beautiful crown is like a reward for a deserving participant, except that in my case Grace earned the reward for me. I did not earn it on my own but I do deserve it: Jesus’ life and death earned the reward and He gave His life and death to me. By faith I have a righteous life and innocent death; therefore I deserve the reward, a crown of love. The promise is a reward of grace. After rewarding me with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus He tops it off with love and mercy.

A Crown is also a symbol of a King: a coronation bestows on a person the right to rule. We who have been saved have been made kings and priests; we rule with Christ in the heavenly places; but it should be noted well that the ruling and governing is done by love and mercy not by force and power. A Christian is a lord of all and a servant of all. A king is given authority for the purpose of serving and protecting the people. Christians have been given authority for the purpose of serving and protecting their fellow men.

182. Redeem Life

Psalm 103:4a

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;

 “Redeem” technically means to “buy back,” which means, to pay a ransom for someone or something that was stolen from your ownership. Biblically, redeem means to pay the ransom for my soul, which was originally created and owned by God but was stolen by Sin, Death, and the Devil. The three enemies owned and controlled me until Jesus purchased me with His own blood; He paid the price of my life with His own life. “It is finished” means “the debt is paid in full.” God owned me once, lost me, and then bought me back.

The kidnapping analogy breaks down, however, in this way: Satan did not illegally kidnap us because he legally owned me and had a right to my life, because of my sin. My sin relinquished the right to my life and gave Sin and Satan the legal right to my life. Sin owns me and controls and can do to me whatever it wants legally, because my sin gives Satan legal right. The Redemption of Christ by the cross legally takes me out from under Satan’s authority and places me under God’s authority (The Kingdom of God has come). Simply put, Satan, Sin, and Death have no right to my life any longer.

When things go south and troubles are giving me a bad day I can simply declare: “I have been redeemed! Satan, you must depart from me!” The promise is: God redeems my life from destruction. My spiritual enemies are bent on my destruction, but I have been violently ripped away from their control and set free to enjoy life. When we “see” what we have been redeemed from (destruction) we have a better sense of the great benefit of the wonderful promise of redemption.

181. Heal diseases

 Psalm 103:3b

Who healeth all thy diseases.

 Is this an unconditional promise from God to me that He will heal all my diseases, or is it conditional on something else? There are no conditions involved so it would be unconditional. We must not add any conditions to a promise where God did not place any, for example: you must pray better; you must have more faith; you must stop sinning; you must do enough good works. All of these conditions for healing are nothing more than excuses for the promise of God’s Word, that is, the fault must be in human sin and failure rather than in God’s power and promise.

But is it a promise or a statement of fact? When I am healed of a disease it is God who healed me: this is true, but it must have something of a promise attached to the remembrance of His benefits (v. 2). It must be a promise and it must be real, even though universally every human being who ever lived is a walking denial of the promise: “God did not heal all my diseases.” So everyone can say.

Reconcile experience and truth this way: God will heal you of all your diseases in His time or in eternity. Disease is a direct result of Sin and of Adam’s Fall; Sin is the only cause of death; disease is a portion of Death coming early and often intruding into a healthy and long life. Christ redeemed us from death by His violent Resurrection and defeated it forever; in this way Christ also redeemed us and healed us from disease, of which Death is the cause. John 11:25: “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” We are dying and we will die; yet we shall live. In the same way, we are sick and we will contract disease, yet we shall be healed.

The healing promised by God is Spiritual and it is Eternal; and sometimes, in His inscrutable wisdom, He chooses to make a physical healing; the physical, miraculous, sudden temporal healings are designed to draw us to pay attention to God’s Word, which promises us spiritual and eternal healing completely and absolutely. Jesus healed over thirty people in His ministry and every one got sick again and died again. Jesus’ healing of disease is a sign of His power over death and disease and His guarantee that one day, in the general resurrection, death and disease will be no more. The promise will come true.

In other words, this is not a promise that every present disease you have today will be miraculously healed. That does not mean you should not pray for immediate healing; it only means we do not have a promise of transient, temporary healing by sudden and miraculous means. However, in the midst of sickness and death we do have the promise and absolute guarantee of disease and death being healed forever.

“He healeth all my diseases” can be paraphrased “He overcomes death.”

“.

180. Forgive Sins

 Psalm 103:3a

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;

 Forgiveness is the foundation and starting point for all God’s promises, blessings and benefits toward us. When our sins are forgiven God can justly declare us righteous, bring us into His presence, His family, His kingdom, His heaven, protect and provide for us, and answer our prayers. If our sin was not forgiven life could not be lived and hundreds of promises would not be enjoyed. If our sin were not forgiven we would never know God or His Love, for our sins separate us from God. If we regard sin in our heart God cannot hear our prayers. Without forgiveness we could only live in death and misery, condemnation and punishment, despair and isolated abandonment.

But there is forgiveness with God. He forgives all our iniquities. God can rightly, justly, totally, and for all time forgive all sin because Jesus suffered and died as the complete punishment for all sins of all people for all time. Jesus died for the sins of all the people who lived before He entered history. Thus David could say, “He forgives all.” We were personally forgiven once for all time when we were baptized, but we daily and weekly need the refreshing reminder of forgiveness through repentance and faith, through hearing the Gospel, confession and absolution, and partaking of Holy Communion.

Forgiveness from God is also basic to our daily relationships with family, friends, neighbors and other people. Because God has richly forgiven me now I can readily and heartily forgive those who hurt or offend me. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Forgiveness of one another smooths the rough edges of relationships at all levels, but it is especially necessary within the marriage relationship. Without mutual forgiveness a marriage will not stand firm, nor be fruitful, useful and productive. No two or three or larger groups of sinners can live long together without hurting and offending one another. If offenses are not removed daily, relationships will suffer. We can and will forgive one another and keep relationships healthy because God has first forgiven us everything. Because God has forgiven us so much we can forgive others much or little, as necessary. Thank God for the powerful and wonderful promise of Forgiveness.

179. Regard Prayer

 Psalm 102:17

He will regard the prayer of the destitute,

And not despise their prayer.

 If you are destitute, then the Lord will regard your prayer. This does not mean you have to make yourself destitute before God regards your prayer, for He hears the prayer of everyone who comes to Him, but it is better when you regard yourself as destitute, empty, helpless, poor and needy because this is what you are. When you see yourself as destitute you are simply being honest. You approach Almighty God with the attitude of being nothing, having nothing, being a beggar; you approach God bringing nothing in your hands but clinging to the cross.

I am already destitute and beggarly and I have no power to change or affect my situation by myself. I, the sinner, am completely at the mercy of God, which is where God wants me to be. When you sense your poverty and feel your emptiness then you take hold of this promise: the Lord will pay attention to my prayer and He will not despise your prayer; He will not ignore you.

Even if the Lord does not give me the answer I think I want, I can rest assured He will receive my request, think it over and come up with the right response. When I sense my need and turn to the Lord the worst fear I have is that He will ignore me, my prayer doesn’t reach past the ceiling, and the heavens on which I am knocking are bronze. This is worse than God’s giving me an answer I don’t want to hear. As long as I know He regards my prayer I am satisfied. He does more than “not ignore:” He receives me; He hears me, He knows my need; He cares about it; He looks favorably on my request; He comes up with and designs the best response possible.

If I do not believe this promise I probably do not pray; if I am not destitute I may not feel the need to pray; if I think I should be taking care of the problem myself I probably won’t pray for help. If I do not pray my life will surely be lacking the fullness and abundance my gracious Lord wants for me. But if I do believe this promise, “He will regard the prayer of the destitute,” I will pray. I am empty; God is full. I am poor; God is rich. I am a beggar; God is a donor. I am a sinner; God loves sinners.

178. Destroy the Wicked

 Psalm 101:8

I will early destroy all the wicked of the land;

That I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.

 The promise to destroy and cut off all the wicked sounds negative, judgmental and harsh, but for the believer it is actually a positive, saving and life-giving promise. It is a warning and a threat if you are on the wrong side of God, but it is a blessing and a promise if you are a part of the kingdom (the true Church).

The church of believers in Christ, both as groups of believers and as individuals, are often tempted, threatened, harassed, attacked, mocked, injured, and sometimes killed by the wicked unbelievers who are used as instruments of the Devil. The promise is that the faithful will not long (“early”) have to endure the wicked for they will be destroyed and cut off.

It is not always persecutions that threaten us but just evildoers doing evil. During times of ill treatment and unjust accusations the believer can take heart in the promise that this time will not last long for “I will early destroy all the wicked in the land.”

Ultimately, all people are wicked until forgiven through the blood of Christ; all unbelievers will be separated from the believers, as goats from sheep. “The land” and “the city of the Lord” is the Kingdom of God, the Church, and the sinner who refuses to accept the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life from Jesus Christ will be banned, separated, cut off from the invisible kingdom on earth and the visible and eternal kingdom of heaven. To the sheep on the right: “Come…inherit the kingdom prepared for you….” (Matthew 25:34); to the goats on the left: “Depart from me…into the eternal fire prepared….” (Matthew 25:41). Thus they will be destroyed and cut off.

The promise comes into effect before the “great white throne” judgment: evil is destroyed and cut off from the believer throughout his life. This kind of temporal deliverance from evil may not come when we would like, but the promise encourages us to be patient and faithful, for it will come about “early” according to God’s reckoning.

177. Preserve and Deliver

 Psalm 97:10

Ye that love the Lord, hate evil:

He preserveth the souls of his saints;

He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

 The Lord promises to preserve the souls of the saints, His redeemed people. The promise directly applies to the soul, not explicitly to the body although the soul can refer to the whole person. It is the inner life that is protected and guarded by the Lord. He will not allow your mind, will and emotions to crack and crumble and become fragmented. When the saint begins to feel a cracking in the soul he needs to remember and reclaim this promise that he will not be lost or broken.

We could, of course, take ourselves out from under the preservation and protection of the Lord by ignoring Him and purposefully turning to the evil way. The enemies of the soul (sin, death, devil) cannot take us away from God’s preserving presence, but they could theoretically tempt us to willingly leave His protection. Here then the second promise of this verse comes into play: He will deliver his saints out of the hand of the wicked. We cannot stop the temptations to sin and to ignore God from entering the soul, but the promise is that He will deliver us from the control (hand) of the enemies that would try to destroy us. The Lord will “lead us out of temptation” and “deliver us from evil.” The soul’s enemies will definitely try to distort our mind and its thinking and believing, bend our will, and mess with our emotions, but try as they might we have the promise of preservation and deliverance by God.

Therefore, we are enabled by grace to love the Lord and hate evil. To truly love God with all your heart is to agree with Him about his feelings toward sin: He hates it. And I hate it also; I avoid it and fight it; I confess it in me; I bring it all to the Lord and let Jesus absorb it all on the cross. Then, I enjoy His blessing and protection.

176. Comes to Judge

 Psalm 96:13 & 98:9

For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth:

He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.

 The prophecy of the Second Coming of Christ, when Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead, is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled at the Last Day. This prophecy is also a promise to the righteous believer for his good and for his comfort. Judgment is a two-fold good news promise: 1) He will judge and condemn eternally all evil and all enemies once and forever; this means we are free to live life fully and are eternally safe; 2) He will judge those who are made righteous by the blood of Christ and determine that they are eternally qualified to live with God in righteousness, innocence and blessedness forever.

The promise is comforting for us today because no matter how bleak and hopeless it looks, no matter how troublesome and painful life is, no matter how depressed and dreary we may feel, the judge is coming to judge the world with righteousness; perfect and lasting justice will be achieved; everything wrong will be put to rights; anything missing will be fully restored; anything out of place will be set in order. The same God who saved us from the judgment of perishing and perdition is the very God who will be our judge.

The promise could not be more comforting, joyful and hopeful. The future is secure and happy, and the future is something to look forward to, for it is one million times better than the present. Judgment Day is great good news, and we can’t wait. While we wait with anticipatory excitement every day is filled with the Promise of Judgment. Faith in the Promise overcomes all.

175. Defense and Refuge

 Psalm 94:22-23

But the Lord is my defense;

And my God is the rock of my refuge.

And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity,

and shall cut them off in their own wickedness,

Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.

 God promises several times that He will be my stronghold and refuge, and as such He promises to defend and protect me. I need the Lord my God to be my Defense against my evil spiritual enemies; Psalm 94:21: “They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.” If sin, death, and the devil could have had their way and carried out their will my physical and spiritual life would have been taken long ago. But the Lord is my Defense. God’s will is Life; their will is Death: “Thy will be done on earth.”

Sin, Evil and Wickedness is far more deadly than we can even imagine. If we could actually see the ugliness and deathliness of Sin we would most likely not sin. But we don’t see it; we are deceived by its deceptively lovely temptations; the end thereof is death, and death is not at all pretty. It seems that Sin and Death win throughout life and at the end of it, but the appearances to physical sight are false; faith sees death being destroyed and life (my life) emerging victorious not only at the end but also each day of this earthly life until the end of it.

Eyesight sees darkness, loss, evil, and death all around; faith vision sees light, victory, goodness, and life all around and over it all. We get faith vision from the Word of God, which tells the truth of the things we do not see, for the things that are unseen are eternal. We believe the Word instead of our sense experience; “walking by faith” is living by the Word of God; truth is in place of deception. What we see when we believe is this promise: “Our God shall cut them off,” or another translation reads, “Our God will wipe them out.”

God is our Defense and He will wipe out everything that is against us. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ has accomplished this for us. John 20:29: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” In the face of bold and bald Sin and Death we see and we confess that our God will wipe them out. When you are safe and secure within the Stronghold and Refuge that is your God you can be bold enough to say to sin, death, and the devil, “Jesus, my overcomer, won, and you will be wiped out.

174. Comforts delight

 Psalm 94:19

In the multitude of my thoughts within me

Thy comforts delight my soul.

 The comforts of the Lord will delight my soul; that’s a promise. The Word of God does many things: one of those functions is to comfort. But the promise is for more than comfort: the comforts are actual words or things, entities, which delight. The comforts may take many forms and may be spoken many different ways, but in some way the comforts will be related to the Gospel. It is the Gospel that delights my soul; my mind, will and emotions are delighted when I hear the comfort that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Delight = cheer up, elate, lift the spirits, instill joy, bring a smile to the face, make one feel better. Hearing the comforting message of the Gospel certainly does all of that: it is the shining of light in a dark place, it is the establishing of hope in place of despair, it is the setting free from the chains of sin, it is making peace where there was turmoil, it is bringing life into the midst of death. The Gospel delights the soul.

There are a multitude of thoughts within me: this becomes especially troublesome when many thoughts intrude at the same time. It has been estimated that the average person will think 100,000 separate thoughts in one day. Out of the multitude of thoughts most will be random, some good, some bad, some positive, some negative; but, every once in a while, a comforting thought will come across my awareness, however fleeting, and it will bring delight. One Gospel word out of thousands of thoughts within delights my soul.

These “comforts” can be consciously increased if we choose to do so; I can remember, speak and hear in my conscious thought a Gospel message; when I think that thought on purpose it will delight my mind, will and emotions. For example, say to yourself: “Jesus loves me.” That is a comfort that delights. The Gospel does not bore, so repeat it over and over. His comforts delight my soul.