36 - Don't Get All Steamed Up!

Psalm 37:1–11 Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! 2 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. 9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. 10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. 11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

I hadn’t seen this before, and I must have been blind, because David goes out of his way to make sure that we do see it, repeating the caution 3 times in 8 verses! As I look now, the words I have highlighted above are lit up like flashing neon signs - “Fret not yourself.”

Okay - David clearly doesn’t think we should engage in this fretting thing! We had better find out what that means, so we can make sense of the other parts of this Psalm. The word translated as “fret” in all three places and it has to do with getting overheated with anger (burning or blazing). “Don’t get yourself all steamed up” we might translate the phrase, it seems.

One can’t help feeling that David is saying something here by way of personal testimony. He had most likely been in these situations and had been tempted to burn with rage but in retrospect it was unhelpful and now he is passing that along to us. So now let’s look at these 11 verses in more detail to find the cause of his temptation and why he realizes now that it was unhelpful to react in blazing fury.

We find that the problem is one we have considered before when we were meditating on Ecclesiastes - it is evildoers (v 1) who prosper in their wrongdoing (v 7). Those who do all kinds of wicked things against righteous people (v12, 14, 32) and seem to do well as a result.

One of my favorite movies is called “Jean de Florette.” It’s a French classic in which two complete villains inflict all kinds of evil on a young family. The movie ends with the bad guys victorious and the family devastated. It’s hard to describe the sense of indignation that you have when the ending credits roll! There is a sequel you definitely need to watch if you watch the first movie - called “Manon des Sources.” David has experienced that righteous indignation, but he counsels us against it because it tends to evil in us (whether thoughts, words or deeds).

David has learned a different approach and he spells it out as the Psalm progresses:

Trust in the Lord and do good (v 3); Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (v 4 - note though, that if we delight in the Lord, all our desires will be righteous, selfless and good, so this is not a ticket to greed and selfishness!); Commit your way to the Lord and trust in Him (v 5); Be still before Him and wait patiently for Him (v 7); Refrain from anger and forsake wrath (v 8); Turn away from evil and do good (v 27); Wait for the Lord and keep His way (v 34); Watch what happens to the righteous and the future God gives the man of peace (v 37)

How is it that David is able to recommend this way of dealing with the problem? He tells us firstly the fate of the wicked:

They will soon fade like grass (v 2); God will cut them off (v 9); they will be no more (v 10); The Lord laughs at them - He knows that their day of reckoning is coming (v 13); They will be destroyed - even their own weapons will slay them (v 15); Their arms will be broken (v 17); They will perish (v 20)

Second, David lifts the veil on God’s dealings with the righteous:

He will act to vindicate the righteous and see that justice is done (v 6); They will inherit the land and delight in abundant peace (v 11); their heritage will remain forever - they will not be put to shame and will be provided for in hard times (v 18-19); He will establish their steps, delight in them and uphold them (v 23-24); He will never forsake them (v 25); He helps them and delivers them from the wicked (v 40).

David makes his case well! Revenge is a dish that is best served cold, we are tempted to say when we see the wicked getting away with their crimes. But God says:

Romans 12:19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Our anger always brings with it the possibility of crossing the line and sinning ourselves. God’s wrath is always perfectly measured and suited to the offence. He will bring justice to pass.

In closing, note how many times in this Psalm David looks forward to “the inheritance,” “the heritage” or “the land”. Jesus Himself takes verse 11 and works it into His wonderful beatitudes at the sermon on the mount. Believers can take the long view that David recommends here. We know we have a wonderful inheritance in heaven. We know that our time here is short and that troubles are light and momentary compared with what God has prepared for us. We also know what awaits those who will not turn from their sin and trust Jesus to save them. That is how we can follow Jesus’s injunction to love our enemies and pray for them. It will not go well for them on the Last Day if they appear before God and their sins are still clinging to them!

It’s good in these days also to pause and see things from an eternal perspective. We don’t need to get ourselves steamed up about things that we cannot control, when we know God has the situation in perfect control - be patient and wait for Him to act!

35 - Remember Your Creator!

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

Solomon, “The Preacher,” is drawing to a conclusion in this remarkable book where, as we have seen in earlier meditations, he finds that a life lived “under the sun” (i.e. not lived for God but where God is forgotten, as though He didn’t exist) is meaningless. There is nothing truly new - everything that happens has essentially happened before (see number 24). We know that something is wrong in this world and we know that we were made for better things (we have eternity in our hearts) but we cannot see a way to get to that better place - indeed it is impossible for those who remain “under the sun” to get there (see number 26). We also know that we are going to die and we have a sense of injustice that good people and bad people all suffer the same fate, often without any apparent consequences for the way they lived. Indeed, from an “under the sun” perspective, there are no appropriate consequences and it really doesn’t matter what we do with our lives (see number 32).

Over all this gloomy analysis of the state of man and the purpose of his existence, Solomon places a banner on which are the words, “Everything Under the Sun is Pointless, Meaningless, Purposeless.” And he is right, isn’t he? Our lives here make no sense at all, they amount to nothing. They have no destiny except death, if we forget God and live “under the sun.”  If we ignore the sense of eternity that is in our hearts, and tune out the voice of God proclaiming His eternal power and divine nature to us through the things He has made, and the testimony He has left us in the Bible, what are we left with? Pointlessness.

It is only as we live in the light of God’s existence that we come to see that:

• He made us for a reason, but we turned our backs on His purposes for us;
• He is in the business of making something totally new in a place (under the sun)  where there is nothing new;
• He is putting to rights the mess that we made of His perfect creation, so that all the evils introduced because of our rebellion will be eliminated;
• He is just and none of the wickedness committed on the earth will be overlooked by Him. No-one will feel that justice has not been done by the time He has finished His judgment;
• He has even overcome death by sending Jesus to the cross to die as a substitute for those who will trust Him to save them;
• we can therefore experience and enjoy God and the eternity He has placed within us can find its fulfillment in Him.

So in Chapter 12:1 (shown above), Solomon urges us to remember God - to come out from our “under the sun” thinking and to realize that only through a relationship with Him (in which we are accepted on the merits of Christ and Him alone) can life truly have meaning, purpose and an eternal destiny full of joy and blessing.

There is a popular form of meditation  today called “Mindfulness,” in which we are taught to enter a state of active, open attention to the present. This state encompasses observing one’s thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad. I bring it up because the word Solomon uses here for “remember” also means “be mindful of”. As we have seen, though, Solomon declares that the present, if not lived for God, is meaningless and has no purpose. Instead, he wants us to think about eternal things - to pay attention to the eternity that God has placed in our hearts. He wants us to understand that the things we think and do are good or bad, and that they will come into judgment. So then, we must indeed be mindful, but mindful of God, if we want to get out from “under the sun!”

Solomon points out again that death is certainly coming for each of us. He uses several word pictures from verses 2 to 8 to impress on us that this is the case. We are headed to an “eternal home,” and it is critical to make sure that this is heaven and not hell. So he presses us to act on the teaching that he has given (to remember God), and the sooner, the better. Until we do, our lives will be just a pointless vapor that is here and then gone, and which no-one will remember. Evil days will come to us all, says Solomon, when it may not be possible to seek God for this change. Don’t wait until you are too set in your ways to humble yourself and ask Him for salvation. Don’t put it off until a more convenient time, because you will never have a more convenient time than now!

There is a real sense of lostness in a life that is made for relationship with God, but where it doesn’t exist because of sin. That is the inevitable conclusion of Solomon’s reasoning but it doesn’t have to be the inevitable end to the story of our lives.

So be mindful of your Creator while you may! Turn from your sins and cast yourself on Jesus and His finished work at the cross to save you and to give you life that is truly life!

34 - Lots of Good Works!

Titus 3:1–8 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

A friend of mine was telling me about a situation he was in where he needed to get some meds for his wife. They had to be administered by injection. His insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost if the clinic that could administer them purchased them, but would cover the price at a different location which couldn’t perform the injections. The first site couldn’t inject meds that were bought at the second site and transported there. His head was spinning with the inherent contradictions that seemed to be built into the “system”.

This passage on the face of it contains a similar convolution. Paul is telling Titus things he should pass on to the churches in Crete. In verse 1. Titus needs to remind them to be ready for every good work. In verse 8, Titus is to insist on Paul’s sayings, so that the believers “may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” In verse 14, Paul again says “And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.”

So 3 times in 14 verses, Paul is emphatic that good works must be done in the churches. We have to come to the conclusion that this is important! It was important in Crete, certainly, because the people there had a bad reputation, as Paul mentions in Chapter 1:12-13 - One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith…” So Paul didn’t want these regional characteristics of the people (especially in this instance, the laziness) to carry over and be present in the church, and his emphasis on good works in this last chapter may stem in part from that. The word translated “devote” in verse 8 and verse 14 has to do with striving, maintaining, even giving priority to. And whether we share the traits of the Cretans to the same of a lesser degree, it is clear that true churches are to be known for their emphasis on good works, and that these are to be done in such a way that the church is distinct from those outside.

So far, so good - but where does the apparent contradiction come in? It enters because of the confusion many people have about the place of good works in the life of a believer. It’s possible to read just the verses I have commented on above and assume that churches should get busy performing good works because salvation is earned by them. How many people sincerely (if perhaps secretly or even subconsciously) believe that God will look at their lives at the end and score their good works against their sins? Provided there are more good works than sins, they believe, He will let them into heaven. To them, Paul’s emphasis here would make perfect sense.

But I skipped over verses 2-7 of the chapter in my comments above. Paul wants the church to be ready for every good work and to model sincere godly behavior (verse 1-2) because that will contrast dramatically with how outsiders still live, and with how they themselves used to live before they became believers - in slavery to passions and pleasures and filled with malice, envy and hatred (verses 3). And then Paul says how it was that they moved from that old way of life to the new way he had outlined in v 1-2. Some people might expect Paul to say, “You decided to get serious about doing lots of good works,” and that now he is giving them a pep talk so they keep it up. But he doesn’t. In fact, he flat out contradicts that whole idea: “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” (v 5).

Good works (works done in righteousness) play absolutely no role in meriting salvation for true Christians! It is all down to the “goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior” (v 4) and is done “ according to his own mercy” (v 5). The words here say that salvation is totally because God is kind, philanthropic and compassionate towards us (takes pity on us). Quite a surprising statement, isn’t it? So all the good works I can do cannot be counted towards my salvation. In fact, the Bible says that my sin has made me filthy to God. Worse, it has killed me spiritually and I am dead to Him. I cannot do a good work that has spiritual merit, no matter how hard I try. Even if I do anything that I might think is good, it carries the foul stench of my sin with it and can’t please God.

So if I am going to be saved, and if I am going to be able to do good works that please God, He has to save me and He has to enable me. That is what Paul talks about in v 5-7. In His way of salvation, God washes us clean from our sin. This happens as He makes us alive by His Spirit (regenerates us). God can do this because Christ died on the cross to make an end of sin and death for those who trust Him, and to be their Savior. When God does this to us, He declares us to be “not guilty” (justifies us) and opens the doors to heaven for us to enter and possess as our inheritance!

And when God does all this to us inwardly, a sure and certain outward sign follows - as Paul says in v 8, those who have believed may be careful to devote themselves to good works! We are not saved by our good works, but saved so that we can do good works!

Are you washed, regenerated, justified, made heir to heaven? You can be - but not by good works!

33 - Fear Him, You Saints!

Psalm 34:9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!

It’s hard to know where to begin a meditation when Psalm 34 is the topic! There is so much wonderful truth for us here, and especially for a day like this.

David is rejoicing as he writes this Psalm. He had been delivered from captivity in the Philistine city of Gath (where Goliath had come from) by feigning madness. Much of the Psalm is advice to others, springing from David’s desire that they should know the goodness of God as he has come to know it. The key element of his counsel is contained in verse 9 (see above) - fear the Lord. This idea is central to this Psalm, and the key to much joy and peace in Christian living, as we shall see.

So what does David mean here by “fear the Lord?” We all know that this is to do with reverence and not cringing fear, right? Well, yes, reverence is certainly associated with the idea, and cringing fear hardly seems to fit a context where David is telling us how blessed are those who adopt this posture before God! But we are too ready today to set the awesome and dreadful majesty of God on one side, and to downplay what reverence should mean in relation to Him. We want to bring Him down to our level, to deal with Him as our cosmic “buddy”. But the Hebrew word here carries these meanings: being afraid, frightened, standing in awe, revering, etc.. This is the infinite, the Almighty, the Eternal, the Omnipotent, Omniscient God, and we are His sinful creatures, and this should bear upon how we approach Him!

To fear God, then, implies that we honor, revere and respect Him because of Who He is. He must take first place in our priorities and affections. We must own His right to rule over us as King, and to command us.  We are to do this  simply in view of Who God is, but David brings another, beautiful aspect of His character into view to help us take His advice. In addition to all his awesome and majestic glory, God is good (v 8) - indeed, He defines goodness and sets the standard for it! In an earlier meditation, I mentioned Aslan (the lion who represents Christ in C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series) and how he is described in one place as being “not safe, but good”. So it is with God. How could such an awesome and incomprehensible God as this ever be safe? But praise God, He is good!!
And those who truly fear the Lord in the way David describes here discover that, in the goodness of God, all the other blessings in this Psalm become theirs:

• They will seek Him and be delivered from all their fears (v 4); saved from all their troubles (v 6)
• Their faces will glow with joy, they will never be put to shame (v 5)
• The angel of the Lord (possibly Christ Himself, or else a host of heavenly beings) will set up a protective boundary around them, and deliver them (v 7)
• They will know no lack (v 9)
• He will be near them when brokenhearted, He will save them when crushed in spirit (v 18)
• They will be delivered from all their afflictions (v 19)
• They will be kept safe (v 20)
• They will be redeemed and not come under God's condemnation (v 22)

This is quite literally the best news we could hear right now! We need this God to be ours, with all the blessings that He bestows, but we are especially conscious of that need at the moment, as we realize how mortal we are and how uncertain life is. We should want to hear David’s advice on fearing the Lord more now than at any time before in our lives! But how can we come to this place of fearing the Lord? Who may taste and see His goodness?

David anticipates the question in  v 11-14, where he offers to teach us the fear of the Lord and to understand what it looks like. Note in v 11 and 12 that this is addressed to children and adults - none is excluded from coming to Him! And in v12 he indicates that he is telling us the way to life - indeed, to abundant life. We need to have wholesome and true speech (v 13).  This, of course, only comes from a heart that has been cleansed from sin. We can only have a clean heart when we follow David’s additional instruction - to turn from evil and do good, to seek peace and pursue it (v 14). By His power, He enables us to turn from our sin and to Him, trusting the Savior He sent to save us from the condemnation we deserve. We seek peace with Him, which is available through the sacrifice of Himself that Jesus made on the cross.

And He will give it - indeed, He has promised to do so! All the blessings mentioned above will be ours in this life because this matchless and all-powerful, but good, God will pledge Himself to us!  We will have nothing left to fear! And there will be no condemnation for us on the Last Day - no Second Death to fear, but only an entrance into eternal glory and bliss! That is why one hymn, based on this Psalm, says this:

Fear him, ye saints, and you will then

have nothing else to fear;

make you his service your delight,

your wants shall be his care.

32 - We’re All Going to Die!

Ecclesiastes 9:1–6 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. 

We are back with Solomon and his review of what it’s like “under the sun.” We saw before that this is the world-view of someone who has no hope and is without God in the world (Eph 2:11-12). In this section of his book, Solomon looks at the world and considers people who are righteous and wicked, good and evil, religious and irreligious, at those who make pledges and those who will not bind themselves. All of these types and conditions of people, he realizes, suffer the same fate regardless of how they live and what they do with their lives - they all die.

From an “under the sun” point of view, he says, even the wise and righteous do not know what is in store for them, but they do know that death is the end. The dead know nothing, they have no more reward and their memory is forgotten. Their love, hate and envy are all gone and they will never again return to exist “under the sun.” Clearly, in this situation, being alive is better than being dead. Thus it is better to be a living, lowly creature like a dog than a dead “king of the beasts” like the lion, because at least while you are alive you may hope and dream, even though you still know that one day you will die.

So, Solomon reasons, it matters little whether you live a good life or a bad life, a righteous life or a wicked life. (But it is more likely “under the sun” that, as those whose hearts are “full of evil and contain “madness,” it is wickedness that we will be drawn to, and not good.) Either way, the evil of death will cut off our activities, whether they are good or bad.

Something inside us pushes back against this analysis of the world, doesn’t it? In the life lived “under the sun,” those who strive to be a blessing to others die. Likewise, those who are the most horrific examples of the human race, torturing, abusing and misusing others, die. Whatever they did and whatever reward there was for their way of life dies with them. No-one will remember them. “Gone, but not forgotten” is a common epitaph on a tombstone, but I remember clearing away the overgrowth to read that inscription on a forgotten grave. It just doesn’t matter how people live “under the sun” - there are no consequences either way.

“No!” we cry in protest, “This isn’t right!” We know in our hearts that a very important piece of the puzzle is missing here. It does matter how we live! Otherwise, as Solomon has shown us again and again, there is absolutely no point, no real meaning to our lives, and we know deep down that this is a lie! There is justice and it really does matter how we live. Above all, it matters that we have the evil and madness that is in our hearts taken away, and have our spiritual eyes opened so that our world view can be set right.

In Psalm 73, the writer experienced a similar problem. He saw the righteous suffer and the wicked having a great time here on earth. He tells us in all honesty that he nearly lost his faith because of it. There were no consequences (apparently) for wrongdoing and the efforts of those who tried to live to please God often brought more difficulties, so what was the point? He was looking at life with an “under the sun” lens. Then he drew near to the Lord and looked again from God’s eternal perspective:

Psalm 73:16–20 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. 18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

There are eternal consequences for how we live here and what we do with our lives! If we turn our backs on God and pretend to ourselves that He doesn’t see or doesn’t care what we do, we will discover (possibly in this life but certainly when we die) that we have made a huge mistake. We will be “rewarded” for the things we have done in our lives - and the result will be eternal destruction. On the other hand, those of us who turn away from our sin and turn to God, trusting Jesus to take away the evil and madness in our hearts, will be rewarded with an eternity of bliss when we leave this world. Here, we won’t be spared the trials and difficulties, the pain and the grief that affect all the living. But these will seem light and momentary compared with the glory that lies ahead, and God will be near us through them all!

We are all going to die. It may not be from coronavirus but it is a certainty. Are we ready? Our “gut” tells us that there is more to life than the things we can see and hear, touch, taste and smell. There is an unseen, spiritual realm. There is a God, a heaven and a hell. It does matter how we live here and above all, whether we turn from sin and put all our trust in Jesus to save us and bring us to heaven!

31 - Just and Justifier!

Psalm 32:1–2 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Psalm 32 is a wonderful song of comfort and assurance from David, in which he describes his movement from a state of agonizing conviction of sin (v 3-4) to a place of confession, forgiveness and peace. It describes the condition of every true child of God, but if we delve down into it a little, it also contains an apparent conundrum, which is what I want to spend a few moments thinking about today, because of the majesty and the glory of the central truth that is highlighted here. See how David describes his condition in these first 2 verses:

• His transgression is forgiven. The word for “forgiven” seems often to be translated in terms of bearing, carrying, taking away. We might say that his evildoing or rebellion (breach in relationship) is “borne away”, I think.
• His sin is covered - his “missing the mark” of God’s standards is concealed, hidden.
• The Lord counts no iniquity against him: God does not credit any guilt to his account.
• In his spirit there is no deceit: there is no deception in his heart. Related words to the one translated “deceit” seem to speak of looseness or treachery - which was there before but now is gone.

So his rebellion and breach in relationship with God has been carried away, his falling short of God’s standards is covered over, God charges him with no guilt and his spirit is subject to God through and through. His new condition is one where sins of commission and omission are erased, where the guilt and the power of sin are broken! No wonder that David twice describes this man (himself) as “blessed,” or “happy!”

But here is the conundrum: God is just. It isn’t simply that this is how He conducts Himself. Rather, He is the defining standard for justice. It is Who He is, through and through. This One is the Judge of all the earth, to Whom Abraham appealed that He must do what is just (Genesis 18:25). Righteousness and justice are the foundations of His throne (Ps 89:14). His eyes are too pure to look on sin (Hab 1:13). He will not hear the prayers of those who cherish iniquity in their hearts (Ps 66:18). He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16) and before Him, the angels cover their faces and declare His holiness (Isaiah 6:1-4). Heaven is not pure to Him and He charges even the angels with error (Job 15:15). We could go on amassing Scriptures that underscore the same truth - God cannot deal with sin except according to His holiness and His justice - if He lowered His standards for a moment, then He would have changed (but He cannot change) and He would have revealed Himself to us misleadingly in the Bible. Therefore, He could not then be the God of the Bible.

And yet, here is David talking with joy about the bearing away and covering over of his rebellion, sins, guilt and treachery. How can this be? We’re delighted that such a change seems possible for a sinner, but where is the justice of God in all this?

The very words that describe the change that took place in David hint at the answer to the problem, but let’s get Paul’s take on this situation, because clearly this conundrum was one that concerned a few people in his day too, and he wrote about it in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 3:21–26 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

To put David’s words another way, he is saying in Psalm 32 that he has been justified - declared to be just - by God. For this to happen, he needed his sins to be taken away and a covering of righteousness to be spread over him. “Well,” says Paul here, “that is what the Gospel does! It gives us a covering of right-standing (justification) before God. It wipes out our sin and guilt and rebellion and treachery!” “We are all sinners,” he says, “we have all missed the mark in relation to God’s standards, but we may all be justified - legally declared to be not guilty!”. How can this be done? Paul explains that it is through the redemption (purchasing back to God) that Christ performed. God offered Jesus at the cross as a sacrifice that deflects His wrath from the sinner (a propitiation). He spent His righteous anger that should have fallen on guilty sinners like David (and like us) on His own Son instead. Jesus was credited with our sins and God punished Him instead of us - He endured hell on the cross for His people. Now we can be credited with the covering of His right-standing before God!

How can we enter into this state of forgiveness that David and Paul speak of? Paul tells us that it is by faith - by trusting Christ and Him alone to rescue us - and surrendering to His Lordship.

And so there was never a conundrum at all for God - just glorious but costly Divine genius! God is just - our sins received their full punishment. But because of what Christ did, God can be gracious and loving to us and declare us to be righteous if we have put our trust in Jesus to save us.

What David says above about himself, then, is also true of us as believers. His sins and guilt (and ours too) are borne away - Christ carried them on the cross (He bore our sins in His own body on the tree - 1 Peter 2:24). His rebellion (and ours) is ended and the treachery of his heart (and ours) is gone - he is truly blessed, and so are we!

Do you know this same blessedness? You can know it now, by confessing your sins as David did and trusting in the work of Christ at the cross to save you!

30 - Gospel Carelessness?

Psalm 31:14–16 But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! 16 Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!

I settled on these three verses for a meditation today. There is a lot here that is profitable for us to think about. But I think what attracted me to them most was the sense of peace and rest they contain. David has been recounting in the Psalm so far his need of God in the midst of those who are trying to trap him (v 4). So he is in a state of external conflict and difficulty but internal things are no better for him. He is experiencing affliction and  distress of soul (v 7). He is in a state of grief and sorrow,  conscious of iniquity, with so much weeping and sighing that he feels weak (v 9-10). His friends have deserted him as those around plot to take his life (v 11-13). [Note in passing that much of this anticipates what happens to Jesus - and v 5 even contains words He spoke from the cross.] So all is turmoil within and without for David here.

And then we get to verses 14-16 and it is like a long, loud sigh of relief! It is certainly a turning point in the Psalm - the tone becomes positive and joyful from v 17 onward. What is it that makes all the difference for David? His re-exercising trust - or faith - in the Lord!

I did a quick word study on the Hebrew word translated “trust” here. It talks about being confident in something or someone, about feeling safe. And then, in one of my older reference books, it included the meaning of being “careless”, which I think we have seen before in these devotions. The compiler of this work was not suggesting that the word means taking no care for ourselves, for our safety and well-being or that of others. Rather, he is talking about a state in which a person is not beset with cares and concerns. I started to think what examples there might be in the Bible of people who were in that condition.

One example would be Potiphar, the captain of Pharoah’s guard, when Joseph became the overseer of his house.

Genesis 39:5–6 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

Potiphar was “careless” with Joseph in charge. He didn’t concern himself with anything except what to eat!

David knew something of this at other times in his life, as well:

Psalm 131:1–3 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

He is in a state where he is not concerning himself with things that are beyond his power to change or his ability to comprehend. His soul is calmed and quieted like a weaned child - no longer fretting for its mother’s milk but enjoying solid food and knowing contentment.

So in Psalm 31, David is brought to this state where he leaves all his anxieties with the Lord - casting all his cares upon Him, because he knows that God cares for him (1 Pet 5:6-7). He owns that God is his God (v 14) and that his times are in the Lord’s hands (v 15). He asks now to be blessed with God’s smile (an echo of the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26, which is a blessing of peace in the Lord’s Name) and to be saved according to His steadfast love.

There is a beautiful spirit of resignation here. Not the world’s fatalism that says, “what will be, will be” but rather a certainty of and a depending upon the goodness of God. There is a “letting go” of anxieties and burdens that David shouldn’t be bearing, and a trusting that in His steadfast love for David, God would do what is the very best for Him at all times.

In our current circumstances, anxiety stalks around us at every turn. The TV news and the papers spell out Domesday scenarios and seek to work us up into a fretful state of distress. What will become of us? When will it end? Will things ever get back to normal? Will we or loved ones suffer job loss? Will there be enough food in the stores? Will we or our loved ones catch the virus? And on, and on and on.

What shall we do? Let’s take a deep breath, like David did. Let’s leave the big stuff to God, Who is full of steadfast love for His children. We can be like Potiphar in a way, with God as the Manager of His household, to which we belong as His children, we really don’t need to concern ourselves with very much at all. Jesus says that we shouldn’t even worry about what we will eat (so we have less to be concerned about than Potiphar!) We can be like a baby that has a stomach filled with solid food and has (in the right way) “not a care in the world.” This God, the God of David, is our God, too. Our times are in His hands, just as David’s were. We have all His promises, we have His smile eternally on us through Christ and thus we may know His peace!

“God reigns over the nations, He sits on his holy throne” (Psalm 47:8). Jesus is the One through Whom God created all things, and “He upholds the universe by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:1-3). And He loves us with everlasting, steadfast love! We can (and indeed, we should, in the right sense) gladly resign ourselves entirely to Him and be “careless” - let Him worry about the coronavirus, over which He also is Lord!