Month: January 2018

245. Blessing and Life Forever

 Psalm 133:3

As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion:

For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.

 “The Lord commands the blessing” sounds even more convincing than “the Lord promises the blessing.” But it is a promise of eternal life for that is the blessing. It is in the anointing oil that the Lord promises life forevermore. The anointing oil used for the anointing of the High Priest Aaron is used as a simile for brothers dwelling in unity: it is a good and pleasant thing.

The physical, tangible anointing oil is the metaphor for the spiritual, invisible Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the anointing that drips upon a person who is set apart for a particular role, like High Priest (Jesus was filled with the Spirit to become our High Priest, bringing us to God in heaven). In and through the Holy Spirit the Lord commands (promises) the blessing, eternal life.

When a person is baptized and believes in Jesus the Holy Spirit enters and fills him: there (HS in us) God promises eternal life. HS is the eternal life of God united to our spirit, making us eternal. The eternal life we have is the life of God united to our life; eternal life lives now, today, and in the future, forever. The life of God by nature never ends, for God cannot die (unless he becomes a sinful human), and if I believe in Christ I also cannot die. This command and promise is guaranteed.

244. Provision and Bread

 Psalm 132:15

I will abundantly bless her provision:

I will satisfy her poor with bread.

 The “her” that will be blessed and satisfied is Zion; Zion is the metaphor for the invisible church made up of all believers in Christ. The invisible church exists in the hearts of believers; it is where God dwells on the earth. This Zion, this Church, these believers enjoy the unconditional promise of abundant blessing of provision and those in need will be satisfied with bread. Inasmuch as Zion is spiritual and invisible to the physical world, so also the provision and bread is spiritual. Jesus and the NT talk much of the abundant provision and satisfying bread that comes to believers in the Messiah in the Messianic Age. Jesus exhibits this fulfilled promise extravagantly and beyond a doubt in the feeding of the 5,000 and the turning of water into wine.

With the coming of the Messiah to earth and the invasion of the Kingdom of God into this world in the person of Jesus fertility, growth and abundance shall come with it. God provides everything that your soul needs for a rich life and a full enjoyment of God, and that’s a promise. We do not always use the eyes of faith to see the abundant spiritual provision. Listen to the Gospel and hear the Word by opening the eyes and ears of the heart to appropriate the promises that are clearly given.

243. Redeem

 Psalm 130:8

And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Redeem = buy back. Redeem means to buy a person back from a kidnapper or a slaveholder into the possession of the one who first owned him or unto a state of freedom from the slaver or kidnapper. It is a person purchased for a price and returned to his original state. When we apply this figure of speech to our own souls and our spiritual situation it is easy to see what is really going on.

God owns each of us by reason of original creation. When we sin Satan has a legal right to our life and may rightly exert absolute control as a slave master. Then the Son of God lives an innocent life as a human being and was unjustly put to death on account of sin (ours) thereby buying us back for God, the One to whom we now belong. Jesus redeemed us from Sin, Death and Devil and brought us back to God; now we are free from the control of anything outside of us. We freely choose to submit ourselves to God, the Eternal Father and Creator of all.

God promises to buy me (Israel) from all my sins (iniquities). Sin was my master; sin controlled me; sin brought me to rule of Death and to the power of the Devil; Sin deceived me and killed me; it is no longer I who do it, but Sin that dwells within me. Now that I am redeemed I am under new management. The promise of redemption has eternal significance, but even more, it actually changes me. I need changing.

242. Mercy and Redemption

 Psalm 130:7

Let Israel hope in the Lord:

For with the Lord there is mercy,

And with him is plenteous redemption.

 “There is forgiveness with Thee.” (v. 4). Also with the Lord there is mercy and plenteous redemption. All of this good news is with the Lord, and He promises it to us. He promises Himself, His own life, which includes mercy and redemption. Mercy and plenteous redemption is available to us and lavished upon us by grace. Freely we have received. We desperately need mercy, for our sins place us under God’s wrath; we desperately need redemption, for we are kidnapped and under the control of sin, death, and the devil.

Because there is mercy and redemption the people of God (Israel = Church) hope in the Lord; in fact, all the hopes and dreams of all the people have come true in the coming of the Son of God to the dwelling place of humans. Their hope is in the Lord: hope is the present reality of what is yet unseen. We look at the unseen, and hope for the unseen is present and real because of mercy and redemption. Mercy is needed and mercy is promised and so mercy is received. Because of mercy we can live. Redemption from slavery is also needed and with the Lord it is plenteously promised.

241. Forgiveness

 Psalm 130:4

But there is forgiveness with thee,

That thou mayest be feared.

 The promise of forgiveness is basic to our understanding of God and our relationship to Him. Because there is forgiveness with God He can be loved, trusted, believed, worshiped, adored, praised and thanked…and feared. This is one of those verses that help us understand the meaning of “fearing God.” Fear obviously does not mean here “be afraid, be cringing in fear of punishment and eternal judgment.” It is the forgiveness of the Lord that enables and encourages fear of God. This is an unexpected and impossible connection: something is amiss, and what is amiss is our common misunderstanding of fear.

When it comes to our faith and love relationship with the true and living God forgiveness is the basis of it; it is also the cause. We sinners would not be able to repent and believe unless we had some assurance ahead of time that there would be forgiveness with God. I can only admit guilt and confess sin if I can expect some beneficial result to ensue.

God begins and ends everything; He initiates and finishes our life and our eternal relationship with Him. Forgiveness is the beginning: “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” [Romans 2:4]. Next, God grants repentance and faith; this is, in turn, forgiveness and salvation, returning us again to God who started us.

“Fear of God” = faith without doubt, love without insincerity, hope without disappointment. After God grants forgiveness and its resultant fear we are bold to pray and expect answers, but, more than that, we are bold to claim all the promises that are conditioned upon the fear of the Lord, most recently seen in Psalm 128. If we know we are forgiven, then we know we fear God, and then we know we possess and enjoy the promises given to God-fearers. But first, and last, we believe in the promise of forgiveness with thee.

240. Descendants

 Psalm 128:6

Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children,

and peace upon Israel.

 Another promise for the one who fears God is the promise that he will see his children’s children. This means more than just living long enough; it also means the grandchildren will remain faithful to the Lord and a part of the eternal people of God. When successive generations remain in the kingdom there is peace for all the people of God throughout the world.

We who live in the present generations (three or four may be on the earth at any given time) are often a part of the invisible church because of the faithfulness and prayers of our fathers and previous generations. So the succeeding generations to ours will be a part of the eternal kingdom. Because of this promise we are bold to pray for our descendants for 3 or 4 generations.

239. Church blessed and a blessing

 Psalm 128:5

The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion:

And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

 Zion is the invisible church of God on the earth, the place of the presence of God. For the one who fears the Lord the blessing of God comes out of the church; for in the church the Gospel is preached, and it is through the Gospel that the blessing comes. Because it preaches the Gospel the church is a blessing, and the Lord blesses people who hear and who fear.

Jerusalem is taken as the visible church of God on the earth as it is the geographical location of the invisible church, the people in whom the Spirit of God dwells. When those believers gather together in Jesus’ name to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments they become the geographically local and visible presence of God. For the one who fears the Lord, that one will see the good of the local church. The good of the church is a promise of God; the God-fearer prays for the peace and for the good of the local church and he will see it in his lifetime; he will bless the church and the church will bless him.

The local church is not at all a boring place when the exciting Gospel is preached and heard. If the church believes and preaches morality, human love and goodness, and helpful guides to living, then it is boring and useless. But the Gospel is the most exciting, soul-stirring power in the universe; that cannot be boring. “Seeing the good of Jerusalem” is blessing the visible church, through which the invisible church blesses us. This good Jerusalem preaches the Gospel clearly and powerfully.

238. Wife and Children

 Psalm 128:3

Thy wife shall be as a frujtful vine by the sides of thine house:

Thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

 The family is the specific, practical blessing those who fear the Lord will enjoy. The close to home, close to the heart blessedness for the God-fearer is the family, his wife and children. This promise ought to be motivation and incentive enough for us to believe and live according to God’s Word. Pious and faithful spouse and children are powerful hopes and desires for most people. The idyllic scene of one’s own family peacefully enjoying each other and prospering around the dinner table is a picture that we want to see. The “fruitful vine and olive plants” cannot be taken for granted, but a pleasant and prosperous family functioning smoothly is not nearly as common as we might suppose. It is a gift of God that should be prayed for and received with thanks.

A functioning, prospering family is a conditional promise that the believer in Christ can claim and enjoy by maintaining a loving and trusting relationship with God by abiding in Christ. Faithful fathers and mothers do not neglect to pray for the healthy functioning and wellbeing of their families. Daily prayer in repentance and faith in the Gospel is the condition for the “family promise.”

237. Happy and Well

 Psalm 128:2

For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands:

Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

 Happiness and wellbeing is a further conditional promise for those who fear the Lord. You will be happy and it will be well with you. Happy and well are general promises that apply to all aspects of life. The English word “happy” actually is connected to “lucky.” “Hap” just means perhaps, it just so happens, what happens by chance; it is really an accident, thus, lucky. But it is not luck that happens to make one happy; it is God’s design and promise according the cause and effect of the rule of consequences. With it happiness didn’t “just happen,” it wasn’t “luck.” It was God. God makes good things happen by His blessing and as a consequence of behavior. God says, “Happy shalt thou be.” He blesses; He makes happy. Circumstances and lucky accidental happenings do not make one happy; God makes one happy regardless of surrounding circumstances.

It will also be well with you when you are walking in his ways. “Being well” also means generally, in every way imaginable. Look around, look within, and ask, “Is it well with me and my soul?” If so, thank God and give Him credit; thank God for His Law and Gospel. If not, repent of your own sin and guilt and receive the word of forgiveness in the Gospel; get back on the “be well” track.

“Eating the labor of your own hands” is an apt metaphor for freedom from slavery or tyranny, where someone else profits from the labor of your hands. Freedom is a promise that is always spiritually true, meaning freedom from the control of spiritual Enemies, sin and death and devil; though physical and political freedom may not come to all God-fearers, all believers will enjoy spiritual freedom.

236. Blessed

 Psalm 128:1, 4

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord;

That walketh in his ways.

Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed

That feareth the Lord.

 If you fear the Lord, then you will be blessed. This blessing is conditional. God blesses the one who fears the Lord; he who fears the Lord is blessed. So what does it mean to “fear the Lord,” to be a “God-fearing person?” Fear = love and trust. Fearing the Lord = loving Him so much we are afraid to offend Him. Fear God = draw near to God and everything good and shun and avoid Sin and everything evil. In practical terms, fearing God is simply obeying the Commandments. He “walks in his ways.”

 The God-fearer is simply a believer. He knows Jesus Christ has died for his sins to earn forgiveness; in addition Christ has earned for the believer a righteous life that stands before God with perfection. Jesus has walked in His ways for him. Therefore, in Christ the believer “fears the Lord,” that is, he does not want to sin and disobey God, but when he does he repents and receives forgiveness by the faith of Christ. As one that fears the Lord he can claim the promise of blessedness; he can say in full faith and assurance that he is blessed.