Saturday, October 7, 2017, 4:09 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Praise Be Told.” Speak, Lord, your
words to my heart. I read Psalm 63
(ESV).
His Power and Glory (vv. 1-4)
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of
Judah.
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul
thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry
and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding
your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will
praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name
I will lift up my hands.
Our God, the One and Only True
God, creator of the universe and all mankind – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is
the only God whom we are to worship and to whom we are to give our praise. He
is the one who made us, who knows all about us, and who created us for a purpose,
which is to give glory to HIM by our lives. We are to seek after him earnestly,
with all our hearts, and desire him above all else, and want to know and to do
his will.
As most all of us should
realize, we were not born saints, but sinners. By nature, we have a propensity
to sin against God and to do what displeases him. And, we have all come up
short of attaining God’s divine approval. Also, we can’t save ourselves. There
is nothing we can do to earn or to deserve our own salvation. We will never be
good enough, in our own merit, to be rewarded with God’s heaven. So, what hope
do we have?
Well, that is why God the
Father sent his Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners.
God the Son took on human flesh, was born as a baby to a human mother, with God
as his Father, and grew up to be a man. He suffered like we suffer, and he was
tempted in like manner as we are also tempted, yet without sin. He healed the
sick and afflicted, raised the dead, cast out demons, comforted the sorrowful,
fed the hungry, confronted sin in sinful human beings, and preached repentance
for forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God. And, because of this he was
hated by many.
So, his enemies plotted and
carried out his death on a cross. But, it was the will of God that Jesus should
suffer and die for our sins, for when he died our sins died with him and were
buried with him, and when he was resurrected from the dead, he rose victorious
over sin, hell, Satan and death, on our behalf. So, through faith in Him we
might be forgiven our sins, have the hope of eternal life with God, be
delivered out of slavery to sin, and be free to now walk in Christ’s
righteousness and holiness. For, when we were under the control of sin, we were
free from the control of righteousness (Ro. 6).
God, My Help
(vv. 5-8)
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth
will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate
on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the
shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
your right
hand upholds me.
Jesus Christ, God the Son, is
not only our Savior, but he is our helper, healer, friend, comforter,
counselor, teacher and guide. After he died and rose again, and he ascended
back to heaven, he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell the lives of those who
believed on him to be Lord and Savior of their lives. So, when we believe in
Jesus, and we die with him to sin, and we are resurrected with him to newness
of life in him, his Holy Spirit comes to live within us – God within us – to teach,
counsel, help, and comfort, etc. He guides us into all truth, speaks to us
through God’s written word (the Bible), and shows us the way we are to live to
give honor, glory and praise to God.
So, what should this look
like, in all practicality? I mean, if we truly have been crucified with Christ
in death to sin, and we have been resurrected with him to newness of life, to
be lived to his righteousness, and he is our helper, guide, healer, comforter,
teacher and friend, what difference should that make in our lives? How should
we be changed from how we were before we met Christ as Savior? How should we
live differently than we did before?
Well, we should desire our
Lord above all else, he should be first place in our lives, we should want to
do what pleases him, and we should not be looking for a way to excuse away willful
and addictive sinful practices. When we do sin, we should humble ourselves
before him in repentance, and we should seek his counsel and help in fleeing
sin and in hungering and thirsting after God and his holiness and
righteousness. And, then we need to do what he shows us. We, too, must cut out
of our lives what leads us into sin, and we should not tempt fate by continually
going where we ought not to go, and then be surprised when it continues to end
up the same way.
In other words, we can’t put
on Christ in our lives if we are putting on the junk of this world every day.
If we spend hours upon hours playing video or computer games, reading novels,
watching TV shows, viewing movies, getting on Facebook, surfing the net, watching
sports, or otherwise wasting precious time with what is mostly junk, and with
what is often in direct contrast to God, to his Word, and to his divine
character and will, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. And, then we act
surprised when we fall into sin time and time again, and we can’t seem to get
victory. So, we have to get rid of the junk in our lives and we have to seek
after God with all our hearts if we want to experience his power and victory in
our lives.
Enemies of Christ (vv. 9-11)
But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go
down into the depths of the earth;
they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall
be a portion for jackals.
But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who
swear by him shall exult,
for the
mouths of liars will be stopped.
There are many people in this
world who are enemies of the cross of Christ and who want to live life however
they want, and who will not submit to God or to his purposes for their lives.
Many of these are strongly opposed to the gospel of our salvation, and
willfully work against Christ and his followers. They may even be among those
who are persecuting the Lord’s saints – his servants and witnesses. And, some
of these, sadly enough, even profess to believe in Jesus Christ and to be his
followers, but they believe in a man-made Jesus and a false gospel which gives
permission for its followers to continue in sin against God, yet still promises
them heaven when they die.
What we must know about this
is that the true gospel teaches death to sin, living to righteousness, repentance,
and obedience to Christ as crucial to saving faith in Jesus Christ and to
eternal life with God in heaven. We must also know that the Bible teaches that
if we continue in (practice) sin, we don’t have the hope of eternal life with
God, but a fearful expectation of judgment and of the fires of hell. And, this
is in the New Testament. So, if you bought into the lie that says that you have
the hope of heaven when you die, but that you can still play with sin and not
get burned, then think again. It isn’t that we must be sinless, but that we
should no longer walk in sin, and that now, by the grace of God, we should walk
in his holiness.
Praise Be Told! / An
Original Work
Based off Various Scriptures / December 28, 2013
He was pierced for our
transgressions.
He was crushed for all our
sin.
Our chastisement was upon
Him.
By His stripes, we now are
healed.
He has witnessed all our
trials,
And the sins we choose to wear.
Yet, while we were dead in
our sin,
Jesus died, our sins to bear.
He himself bore all of our
sins
In His body on a cross,
So that we might die to our
sin,
And live for His
righteousness.
By faith in the pow’r of
Jesus
And His blood shed for our
sins,
We can be forgiven our sin,
And have life with God in
heav’n.
He will lead us and He’ll
guide us
In the way that we should go.
He will comfort and protect
us,
Because Jesus, we do know.
Though He disciplines for our
good,
He will heal us – Praise be told!
Do not fear, your Lord is
with you.
Just have faith in Christ
your Lord.
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