Month: December 2017

194. Heritage of Heathen

 Psalm 111:6

He hath shewed his people the power of his works,

That he may give them the heritage of the heathen.

 The Promise given here is that the people of God, the believers in Christ, the Church will receive the heritage that the unbelievers had lost. Unbelievers presently enjoy an inheritance on the earth but it is temporary and fading. No matter how much of this world’s goods, lands, money, and power any person has he will one day give it all up to be destroyed and the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord.

Then the believers will be given an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” The poor shall inherit the earth: the believer may have nothing at all in this life on earth, but his inheritance in heaven is unbelievably rich; the heathen may have much during this life on earth, but he will lose it all and the children of God will enjoy the heritage of the Lord forever.

This promise touches on the Great Reversal, which occupies so much of the Bible. The people of God must therefore be patient and wait for the promises to work out in time and in eternity. Faith and Hope makes the future promise a present reality, and by faith we live in the spiritual kingdom of God which is eternal in the heavenly places. By faith we are as rich as can be.

193. Mindful of Covenant

 Psalm 111:5

He hath given meat unto them that fear him:

He will ever be mindful of his covenant.

 The Lord has bound Himself to fulfill hundreds of promises inherent in the covenant He has made with His people. Covenant promises are littered throughout the pages of the Bible (the Old Covenant and the New Covenant [OT and NT]). (This blog is dedicated to ferreting out and explicating all the promises in the Psalms. Think about how many more promises are given in the NT.) A Covenant is more than a solemn pledge or legal contract between two parties; the two persons binding themselves to the covenant are also bound together in a mutual relationship of unconditional love and faithful commitment. A true covenant is not forced or coerced, but both parties voluntarily enter into a reverend commitment to each other and to the covenant relationship. Love for the other compels each party to make and keep the promises.

A Two-Way, or Bilateral, Covenant binds both parties to abide by the stipulations; if one side breaks the Covenant Agreement (Ten Commandments) the other side is no longer obligated to keep its promises; God doesn’t have to be our God and save us any longer. The Mosaic Covenant begun in Exodus 20 has been broken millions of times by the people; but God still loves the people so He sent His Son to become a human (live on that side of the covenant) and keep the Covenant Stipulations (The Law) for us, in our place. Now God is obligated to keep His promises for believers in Christ.

A One-Way, or Unilateral, Covenant binds one party to keep the stipulations of the covenant regardless of the response of the second party. The Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants are Unilateral, that is, God makes the covenant and promises to keep His promises whether the second party (Abraham, David, you and me) keeps his or not.

On the one hand, Grace has been earned by Christ and given to us in order that we believers may hold God accountable to keep His promises. On the other hand, God unilaterally takes matters into His own hands and works all things out for good according to His many promises as written in the Covenant (the Bible).

Here the Promise is that the Lord will always be mindful of His Covenant; every promise of the Covenant will constantly be on His mind and remembrance to bring them about in our lives and our eternity.

192. Save from condemnation

 Psalm 109:31

For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor,

To save him from those that condemn his soul.

 Once again, we believers in Christ are the poor, to whom Jesus promised the kingdom of God. The sinner is poor, humble, lowly, weak, needy, and empty in the spiritual world; he may or may not be outwardly poor in the world but inwardly he is poor indeed and in dire need of help and salvation. God loves and saves the poor, those who admit they are poor in spirit and burdened by sin and guilt.

God promises He will stand at the right hand of the poor; He will come alongside to help, guide, and fight for us. He stands with us in order to save us from those that condemn the soul. The Enemy Satan condemns the soul using the Law without the Gospel and using the conscience to accuse. The Lord saves us from Satan who condemns and accuses. He saves by the Gospel: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).

Our spiritual enemies are trying to heap guilt upon guilt, shame and despair, anxiety and depression by condemning the soul. Our Lord steps in and stands by my side to save me. Then with further Gospel words He lifts our burdens, takes our cares, and replaces them with lightness, joy and peace. All these promises are ours and His salvation is effectively activated through the Gospel spoken to the soul.

191. Tread down Enemies

 Psalm 108:13

Through God we shall do valiantly:

For he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

 God promises He will crush and utterly defeat our enemies; that sin, death, and the devil will be trodden under foot like the crushing of the head of the Serpent; that we shall do valiantly, that is, we will fight courageously and win the victory. The Victory Promise begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. In between Genesis and Revelation 20 battle skirmishes may swing back and forth but in the end we have the absolute guarantee of absolute victory over all spiritual enemies forever. The crushing triumph was finished at the cross and sealed at the tomb for us to implement and extend through the preaching of the Gospel until the Day when Victory is wrapped up and worked out forever.

He (God) will tread down our enemies, but it also says that we shall do valiantly. So is it He or We? It really is clear: God does all the work, all the fighting, all the living, all the dying, all the resurrecting, all the ruling, all the everything. Clearly, we do nothing, we can’t do anything, we are nothing. So in what sense do we “do valiantly?” It feels like we are involved in doing something; even though someone else outside of me does all this salvation victory, completes it, wraps it up and gives it to me as a gift the Holy Spirit works it in me in such a way that I subjectively sense that I am doing valiantly; the union of Christ in me says, “I live by faith in the Son of God” in such a powerful way that distinguishing who is doing the activity is beyond my ability. I am not watching a movie; I am living it. The Union is so tight that when He is treading down the enemies it feels like my feet are doing it. Am I using Christ or is He using me to tread down the enemy? The truth: it is Christ. The experience: it is I. I may think and feel like I did something good, but in reality I know from the Word of God that Jesus did it all.

Nonetheless, I do valiantly when Christ treads down the enemies, as God promises.

190. Lifts the Poor

Psalm 107:41

Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction,

And maketh him families like a flock.

 Many are the promises for the poor throughout God’s Word. The humble will be exalted, the lowly will be lifted up, the hungry will be filled, the poor will have the kingdom of God, and here: He sets the poor on high from affliction. The poor may not have much but they do have promises, many promises from God. His Son became poor that we through his poverty may become rich.

Jesus did not give us money, but He did make us spiritually rich, incredibly rich with every spiritual blessing; and in doing so He set us on high far above all spiritual powers that are set against us. By faith we realize this is where we are: high. Ephesians 2:6-7: He “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

It is not hard to recognize my poverty and need, my helplessness and weakness. It is harder to recognize the place on high where He placed me; this is why I need to hear this promise of God and believe the Gospel of riches and elevated status in the spiritual realm. My spiritual life in the spiritual world is not poor but rich, not low but high, not weak but strong. Though I do not see nor feel the wealth and strength and standing that I enjoy I can believe it is real. It is very real, even more real than the short physical life I see. I enjoy a high and exalted position in Christ.

189. Rescue from Storm

 Psalm 107:28-30

Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,

and be bringeth them out of their distresses.

He maketh the storm a calm,

So that the waves thereof are still.

Then are they glad because they be quiet;

So he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

 The Lord promises to be a storm chaser and a calm maker. We have seen this miracle of Jesus on the boat with the disciples: “The winds and waves ceased and there was a calm.” (Luke 8:24). But it is the emotional storms and winds and waves of inner turmoil that very often need the Lord’s attention. We can believe He can bring us out of distresses and make the storm a calm. We have seen Him do it in the physical world and now we also believe He can do it in the inner world.

We get into trouble with our mind and emotions; we cry to the Lord; He brings us out of distresses; He makes the inner turmoil calm; we are glad; and then He brings us to the place of peace and calm where we want to be, safe and secure. He remembers our frame; He knows how weak we are; He is strong and knows the way out of troubles and distresses. Not only does He rescue us from evil and trouble, but He also places us in a safe haven where we can enjoy His presence worry free. Both sides of the coin, the rescue from the bad and the giving of the good, are represented in this wonderful promise.

188. Satisfies and Fills

 Psalm 107:9

For he satisfieth the longing soul,

And filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

 St. Augustine: “Our souls are restless until they rest in You.” “Inside each one of us is a God-shaped vacuum.” This promise speaks to the longing soul and the hungry soul. The human soul is empty because it knows something is missing; something that was meant to be filling us inside is not there. That something is God.

Every human is longing inside and hungry, but he searches in vain for something or someone to fill the empty hunger; he remains hungry until God finds him, preaches the Gospel to him, and he hears and believes: then God enters and fills. The believer can, every minute, all day, be satisfied and filled with goodness. However, no one experiences that because they drift away through inattention and the awareness is not kept alive. We need constant reminding, so we pause whenever possible for a brief “Gospel Meditation,” wherein we tell our self the Gospel once again. We can never hear it too much and it never gets old.

In this way our soul is filled with goodness; God, the Holy Spirit, is filling us with himself, but it feels to us like goodness (love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, mercy, grace and life). God is good, and when He is present He grants goodness. When Jesus came to earth and entered the womb of Mary, she sang: “He has filled the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9 is fulfilled in Christ’s conception and birth.

187. Everlasting Mercy

 Psalm 103:17, 18

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;

 To such as keep his covenant,

And to those that remember his commandments to do them.

Life is short; our time on earth is fleeting and soon gone, like grass that grows in the morning and is gone by afternoon, but the mercy of the Lord is from eternity past (without beginning) to eternity future (without end). The length and extent of Mercy overwhelms and dwarfs the short time span of our life. So we can be sure that the mercy of the Lord does all the time cover every single sin of our entire life. Of all the great things in God’s universe the Mercy of God is greater (the universe has a beginning and an end, mercy not so much).

This is an amazing promise: His righteousness extends to succeeding generations. This gospel promise of righteousness prophesies, predicts, foreshadows and promises the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, that all who believe in Jesus are declared righteous before God for Christ’s sake, thus giving them access to heaven and to God and to eternal life.

The amazing part of the promise is that it extends to our grandchildren, with this proviso: it is for those who keep his covenant and do his commandments, which means believing in Jesus. The promise of mercy and righteousness is conditional: if you believe in Christ, then the mercy and righteousness of God covers and fills you, and your children.

Fearing the Lord, keeping His covenant, and remembering His commandments is all part of the same package of faith in Christ. When we have heard and believed the Gospel of Christ we have through that very message been given mercy and righteousness; after we have believed we live our daily lives hearing and repeating to our heart and conscience the words of God’s mercy and His gift of righteousness. Preach that gospel to yourself, your children and grandchildren.

 

186. Not Anger

 Psalm 103:9

He will not always chide:

Neither will be keep his anger forever.

 A part of the classic description of the essential character of the Lord (Exodus 34:6) is that He is “slow to anger.” Yes, God will get angry, because His holiness and justice is offended; that kind of perfection demands just punishment or it could no longer be called holy and perfect; sin and rebellion must be punished; sin and its punishment event involves anger, disappointment and frustration. But God is also perfect love and so He does not want to punish us or to stir up His wrath upon Sin; therefore it will take quite a lot to rile Him up.

God is extremely longsuffering and patient, that is, He is willing to wait a very long time and suffer insults and mockeries from sinners over and over again. It may be slow but in time He will get angry and His holiness will explode in wrath and judgment, as we have witnessed in the Flood and in Sodom, among other events, where He waited for the people to repent but they did not. Lesson: repent now; don’t make God wait long.

The further good news and soothing promise is that He will not always chide or keep his anger forever (He desires to save us before the End comes). The Holy Spirit in us does become grieved over our sins and He does chide as a warning about the path we are heading down; but He will not always chide, for either He finally stops warning and lets us go our own way to destruction or He turns us around through repentance and faith and sets us back on the path of life.

In addition, He promises not to keep his anger forever. First of all, this means that God himself has solved the dilemma within himself of demanding punishment of sin but not desiring to punish the sinner: He sent His own Son to suffer the wrath of God and take on Himself the unjust punishment of our sin (die for us) so that in Christ God the Father could satisfy Justice (sin must be punished or the universe would collapse) and please Love (sin is therefore legally forgiven and the sinner is saved). God spends, even exhausts, his righteous anger and wrath upon Jesus Christ on the Cross; “He will not keep his anger forever.” The Lord’s anger upon me, the sinner, is completely dissipated and taken up by Jesus Christ on Calvary. Presto! Change-O! God is not angry with me any longer: He does not keep his anger forever.

But make no mistake: God does finally become angry, genuinely angry, with me and my sin, every day; the sin is real, the anger is real, the punishment is real; but even “more real,” if that’s possible, is the forgiveness, compassion, love and mercy of God on account of Jesus Christ. Go into that secret place with God and confess your real sin and hear Him speak His real forgiveness to you. He stops chiding; He takes you in His arms; He hugs you and loves you. That’s a promise.

185. Executes righteousness

Psalm 103:6

The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

 All of us are oppressed by spiritual enemies: Sin, Death, Devil unjustly accuse, tempt, seduce, threaten us on a regular basis. We ask, “How Long, O Lord?” We complain often about unjust treatment from many sources. We will be spiritually oppressed in an unjust manner until the end of time and it will not let up; but, take heart, for the promise here is that the Lord executes righteousness and judgment in favor of the oppressed and against the oppressors. Just wait, be patient, and trust the Lord for everything will be set to rights in time. No injustice or oppression will go unnoticed or unpunished. God is keeping a record and He will make sure it comes out even in the end on Justice Day. Rewards and punishments will be just and total.

Judgment means everyone getting what he or she deserves justly and rightly. Christ has earned the rewards of grace, given grace to believers, and so they deserve the gracious rewards. The judgment will show it. Each sinner has earned the punishments of sin, and unbelievers deserve the just punishments. The Final Judgment will show this eternally and clearly, and no one in heaven or earth or under the earth will ever again complain about injustice (“it’s not fair”) or argue with God. God’s Final White Throne Judgment executes righteous judgment and there is no appeal.

We will say, “We have been redeemed,” and no one will challenge that verdict. God is merciful and just and it all comes together in Jesus Christ.