“Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!
His offspring will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
who conducts his affairs with justice.
For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn is exalted in honor.” (Psalms 112:1-9 ESV)
What does it mean to “fear the Lord”? It means to give the Lord God Jesus Christ our undivided heart, loyalty, attention, affection, faithfulness and obedience to him and to his commandments (New Covenant). It also means to be in reverent awe of his holiness and righteousness and to give him our reverence and honor and respect. It also means to take God and his word seriously, to believe him, including not only his promises but all his warnings, too, and to respond appropriately as though all this is true.
Now it doesn’t mean that we do this all the time with the upmost of absolute perfection, but it does mean that obedience to our Lord, and submission to him as Lord, and surrender of our lives to do his will, and the forsaking of our sins is what we live by, what we practice. We are people who walk in the fear of the Lord and who are following him wherever he leads us and who are living to please our Lord with our lives and no longer to live for the pleasures of the flesh and of this wicked world that we live in.
And it means that we love the word of the Lord and our desire is truly to follow what it teaches us who believe in Jesus Christ in truth and in righteousness. For the Bible teaches that it is not those who merely give lip service to the Lord who are righteous in his sight, but they are all who are walking righteously, for whom righteousness is their practice. And righteousness is God’s judicial approval, his divine approval which refers to what is deemed right by the Lord, what is approved in His eyes.
So righteousness has to do with how we live. It is not just a status or a position for those who are in Christ by genuine faith in him. But it is our lifestyle. It is only by the grace of God and because of what Jesus did for us on that cross that any of us are righteous in the sight of God, but God regards the righteous as those who are living upright, godly, morally pure, honest, and faithful lives in Christ Jesus in obedience to his commands. And the unrighteous are those still walking in sin and disobedience to God.
So, the righteous, i.e. those who walk in the fear of the Lord, are blessed of God. And those who are truly righteous in the sight of the Lord are those who are living for him steadfast in faith and in practice, who conduct their lives in honesty and uprightness in obedience to the Lord, and who are faithful in ministry and in ministering to the needs of the saints of God and who minister God’s love and grace to the people of the world as led by the Lord and as empowered by God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
So, we are not afraid of what other humans might do to us or say to us or about us to others. That doesn’t mean that we don’t get hurt by other humans. For we are feeling people. But we are not controlled by fear. And what others do or say about us does not dictate what we do or say under the direction of the Holy Spirit to the church and to the people of the world. And if we are truly following the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are going to be hated, rejected, falsely accused, and cast aside as unwanted.
“The wicked man sees it and is angry;
he gnashes his teeth and melts away;
the desire of the wicked will perish!” (Psalms 112:10 ESV)
But the enemy of our souls hates it when we serve the Lord Jesus with our lives, and when we walk in the ways of the Lord and not in sin. And he hates it when we speak truth to the people of the church and of the world where he has been spreading his lies. For he wants everyone believing his lies so that they are not genuinely saved from their sins and so that they will join him in hell thinking that they are going to heaven. So he will do all within his power to try to destroy us and to silence us. But we must not give in to him.
Now Satan has humans who do his dirty work, too, and who serve him in trying to destroy the servants of the Lord. And these humans may be pastors or elders of “churches,” or they may be family members or spouses, or they may be other professing Christians or friends or neighbors. And they may disguise themselves as servants of righteousness hoping that we will trust them and believe them but while they secretly work against us behind our backs, and while they may be working to destroy us, in reality.
For they will often present one image outwardly while secretly they are doing and speaking and living the opposite. But they may be truly malicious, morally unclean, unfaithful, sinfully wicked, hateful, spiteful, liars, and manipulators, while they smooth-talk you into believing that they are the opposite of that. And so some of them will fake Christianity to try to deceive Christians with their lies. And this is because they truly hate the righteous, and they are angry with them and gnash their teeth at them in secret.
Now, according to the Scriptures, those who live righteously by genuine God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ will have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. But those who live wickedly in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, and against other humans, even if they profess faith in Jesus Christ, will not have salvation from sin, and they will not inherit eternal life with God. And it is because disobedience to our Lord and to his commands, if in practice, is unbelief, and belief is obedience.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Songs in the Night
An Original Work / December 18, 2013
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84
Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.
I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!
Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.
I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!
Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.
Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!
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