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Ezekiel 1:5-9, Psalm 104:3-4

Just Trust God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 4, 2023

The living creatures that Ezekiel sees in his vision look like the idolatrous depiction of the Assyrian and Babylonian deities with a human appearance, the wings of an eagle, and the head of a bull or lion.  The arrival of these beasts was very dramatic. A stormy wind came blowing out of the north. It brought a bright cloud with it that had what appeared to be a fire burning in the middle of it. Then he continues his description in Ezekiel 1:5-9, “And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides, they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went.”

 I’ve seen some time travel shows at the movies and on TV. The “Terminator” series, the Matrix, and some others all have a dramatic atmosphere wherein the time traveler, or the one who moves from one dimension to another, arrives at his destination with lightning and smoke and loud sounds. It purports something significant. There seems to be a lot of pomp and circumstance with the traveler’s arrival—the more important the person, the more dramatic the appearance. Ezekiel seems to be picturing for us something like that. When angels appear to humans, there is some exciting fanfare but nothing like what Ezekiel describes here. Humans are almost always afraid when they receive a visit from an angel. The first thing we hear the angels say is, “Don’t be afraid.” The arrival of these “living creatures” is not a usual appearance. It’s a vision. It reminds me of the vision Jacob had at Bethel. He saw a dimension opening up with a ladder or a doorway breaching this world with the spiritual realm. Angels moved up and down (or in and out) of the access from one realm to another. In Abraham’s vision in Genesis 15, God produced a scene of sacrifice to reveal to Abraham that God will keep his promise no matter what. His promise is unconditional. This promise was passed on from Abraham to Isaac and then to Jacob. God was confirming this promise to Jacob at Bethel. The Angels ascending and descending in the vision was the promise that God would carry out his unconditional guarantee to Abraham that Jacob inherited. God was sitting at the top of Jacob’s ladder, sending his ministers to accomplish his will on earth. Jacob continued his journey to Haran, assured of God’s promises.

Ezekiel was an enslaved person in Babylon! The Assyrians had conquered his people in the North and the Babylonians in the South. But God sent Ezekiel a vision to assure him that He was not through with the nation of Israel and that God would make his appearance in a form mysteriously capable of delivering his people from captivity just as he had promised Jeremiah. Psalm 104:3-4 uses interesting language regarding God’s means of appearing to man. The Psalmist tells us that God “Makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.” We can see the images from this Psalm in Ezekiel’s description of the Lord coming from the midst of the storm. Ezekiel sees four living creatures coming from the storm. He tells us about their wings, their legs, their feet, their hands, and their unrestricted movement. Unlike the gods of Babylon, Ezekiel’s God was not impotent. He was a God with incredible ability and mobility. He just didn’t deliver His people from their struggles in Israel. He could move throughout the earth to carry out his plan for his people no matter where they were and what they were going through. It doesn’t matter where you are or what your circumstances are. God has a good plan for your deliverance, and He will work it out in His good time. Just trust Him.

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Lamentations 1:5

The Need For Repentance

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 3, 2023

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, laments the fall of Jerusalem with the destruction of its place of worship and the enslavement of its people. God had promised Israel many blessings if they would follow His instructions for righteous living. Just as Adam and Eve had the bounty and the beauty of the Garden of Eden, Israel prospered under King David and even more so under King Solomon. But again, like Adam and Eve, they failed to follow the Lord’s instructions and suffered the consequences. One of God’s great promises to Israel was the victory over their enemies. They would inherit fields they did not plant and houses that they did not build. Davis comments, “Having been lavished with an astonishing array of blessings from God historically—the promises to Abraham, the exodus under Moses, the manna in the desert, the conquest of the promised land under Joshua, the joy of eating harvests they did not plant and living in houses they did not build, the patience of God through the rebellions in the time of the Judges, the gift of leadership by David, the repeated warnings and encouragements from many prophets—Israel responded with a shameful array of sins for generations.”[1] But by Jeremiah’s time, God’s patience had expired. God turned Israel over to its enemies. Lamentation 1:5 says, “Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.”

 It’s not uncommon to see God’s judgment falling upon the Israelites because of their rebellion against God. Yes, she was afflicted for the multitude of her transgressions, but the affliction did not come from her rebellion. It resulted from her refusal to repent of her transgressions and rebellion. That’s why God sent the prophets. He gives sinners a chance to repent of their rebellion against God as well as their many transgressions. Even the sacrificial system provided in the book of Exodus and Leviticus teaches us that man sins, but God forgives when we repent. Everyone has “transgressed” God’s commandments. Isaiah tells us that there is no one who seeks after God. Each of us has gone our own ways to get what we want in contrast to what God wants for us. Paul echoes Isaiah when he says there is not one righteous man. We have all fallen short of God’s standards. The key to a successful life is not trying harder! We just fail when we do that. It’s to repent and acknowledge our sinfulness before God. When the residents repented at Jonah’s preaching, they escaped God’s plans to destroy the city. Repentance is something for both believers and non-believers. The word in the Greek for “repentance” is literally to change one’s mind. It’s to stop rebellion against the truth of God’s instructions for a healthy and happy life. It’s to see that there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is destruction. In our country, that’s the way of moral decline, lawlessness in the cities, and weaponizing the institutions of America for political gain. This will result in the death of our country, just as Jeremiah says about Israel, “Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.”

It’s not sin. It’s the failure to repent of sin that brings judgment. It’s not the same thing as saving faith. Both believers and non-believers are called to repent in the Bible. Swindoll has it right when he says, “Repentance and faith are two distinct terms that should not be identified with each other. Repentance is for all people, unbelievers as well as believers. Repentance is not necessary (though it may often occur) for entering into an eternal saving relationship with Jesus Christ. But repentance on the part of believers is necessary for maintaining fellowship with the Savior. For unbelievers, repentance from sin and toward God (that is, changing one’s mind or perspective about sin and God) prepares the individual for saving faith.”[2] Repentance for both believers and non-believers also leads to a healthy and happy life in our temporal world. A thief who repents of his stealing will find that life outside of jail is preferable to life behind bars. Sometimes, salvation in the bible refers to deliverance from temporal consequences that we face in the world today. So, Jeremiah, as well as all the other prophets, calls God’s people to repent. When they fail to do so, they face the consequences.

[1] Davis, Andrew M. 2017. Exalting Jesus in Isaiah. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference.

[2] Swindoll, Charles R., and Roy B. Zuck. 2003. Understanding Christian Theology. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

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Jeremiah 7:24-26

Yes, We Will!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 2, 2023

Jeremiah confronts the nation with their rebellion against God from the very beginning of their journey out of Egypt to the promised land to the day of their enslavement in Babylon. They went from slavery in Egypt to slavery in Babylon because they ignored God’s instructions. He explains that God saved Israel from their dire straights under the Egyptian Pharaoh, that intended to annihilate them. God destroyed Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea and brought the children of Israel into their promised land. He then provided them with a constitution that included laws to be observed in the land, which would establish a bright future for the nation if they followed them. But the prophet now charges them with this truth in Jeremiah 7:24-26. He says, “But they did not obey or incline their ear but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants, the prophets, to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.” The ten commandments stand at the heart of God’s instructions for a successful life and a successful nation.

It’s not a popular precept today, but I still believe America was founded on the same principles that Israel was founded on. God established a new nation on the North American continent. It was founded on the moral principles established in the ten commandments. 52 of the 55 signers of our Constitution were strong believers in God and the Bible. They were of various denominations, but their common bond was the bible. “It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society. Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of Scripture for the people of this nation.” Our children are still being taught about the American Revolution and the heroic figures that founded our country. But in many cases, they are not taught the whole story. “Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still remembered for his words, ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ But in current textbooks, the context of these words is deleted. Here is what he actually said: ‘An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.’”[1]

As I reflect on my life from 1947 to 2023, I notice many changes. The moral decline is obvious to any objective observer. One might argue rightfully that we are advancing in knowledge, discoveries, technology, and conveniences, but that’s not what matters to the God that established Israel and the United States. I don’t agree with Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who suggested that the attack on America on 9/11/2001 was God’s punishment for the decline of America’s moral values. This sounds like the three friends of Job who blame him for the sufferings he endured at the hands of his enemies. I don’t like that approach, yet I think that America’s moral fabric has gone wrong. Just compare the situation comedies of the 1950s to those of the 2020s. There is a huge difference between “Father Knows Best” and “Leave to Beaver” compared to the sexually graphic sitcoms and TV shows of today. Furthermore, the movies are filled with graphic scenes of violence that were once unthinkable. It’s no wonder we are plagued today with mass shootings nearly every day somewhere in the United States. One blogger said, “The more time goes by, the worse TV and film content get with the rating companies becoming more and more lax. This is the content that we are being exposed to and that our children are being exposed to. It is a frightening concept. Will we sit idly by and watch these things get worse and worse as generation after generation becomes desensitized to extreme sex and violence?”[2] Yes! Yes, we will. The nation would not hear Jeremiah or the other prophets. Why should I expect them to hear me?

[1] America’s Christian Roots (gospelweb.net)

[2] https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-moral-decline-in-american-entertainment

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Isaiah 1:7-8, Ecclesiastes 12:3

God Remains

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 1, 2023

Sin is like leprosy. It starts within and works its way out in various symptoms. Ryrie says, “Principally, leprosy illustrates the defilement of sin, which results in separation. Insidiousness, loathsomeness, uncleanness, separation, defilement, death, are all points of comparison between leprosy and sin.”[1] Most important here is that sin results in separation from God, just like leprosy did in the Old Testament. A leper was not allowed to enter the temple area. They were not allowed in the social gathering of the people either. It was something that had to be contained, and God’s people needed to be protected from. According to the book of Deuteronomy, sin would remove God’s protection from his people as they occupied the land that he had promised to give to them. As Moses promised, the nation turned away from God, and God turned away from the nation. Isaiah 1:7-8 reports the result, “Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence, foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.  And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.” The once massive city of Jerusalem is like a small shed in the field.

As the nation of Israel turned away from God, God turned away from them, and they were left at the mercy of the pagan nations around them. Assyria became the instrument that wreaked havoc on the nation. Isaiah informs Israel that it will be done “in your very presence.” While the Israelites look on, Assyria is “devouring” their land. The idea of devouring captures the image of having all my good things taken from me right in front of me. Then having to watch my enemy eat and enjoy everything that was once mine! It’s like a madman criminal tying you up and making you watch the rape of your wife and murder of your children. Could there be anything more horrific? “When ancient cities fell to attacking armies, the survivors generally suffered cruelly at the hands of their captors. Jeremiah mentions some of the indignities face by the people of Judah after the fall of Jerusalem. He tells us that King Zedekiah was made to watch his sons being put to death before he was blinded and led away in chains to Babylon. However, cruel as the Babylonians were, they were probably more lenient than their predecessors, the Assyrians. Surviving records of the Assyrian Military victories tell of several atrocities. Captives were often beheaded or had their arms, legs, or hands cut off. Some were staked to the ground while their tormentors disemboweled them. Others were impaled on sharply pointed poles erected outside the walls of the conquered cities. The main point of these detestable cruelties was to humiliate the conquered and to deter other enemies from resisting Assyrian demands.”[2]

When Jeremiah writes the book of Lamentations, he tells his readers about the destruction of Israel and the great weeping and lament of the people. But, when the humiliation is over, the Lord is still there. The city is no more, but God remains. After the great flood, the earth has been wiped clean, but God is still there. Job suffers dramatically, but in the end, God is still there. An entire generation of Israelites waste away in the wilderness, but God is still there. Actually we see civilization after civilization rise and fall, but God remains. The world itself will be destroyed according to the book of Revelation, but God is still there. This is a truth we all must face. Families, businesses, cities, seminaries, universities, colleges, and whole nations will all come and go, but God remains. It brings to light the wisdom Solomon preached in the book of Ecclesiastes, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Ecclesiastes 12:3).

[1] Ryrie, Charles C. 1956. “The Cleansing of the Leper.” Bibliotheca Sacra 113: 264.

[2] Word in Life Study Bible. 1996. Electronic ed. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

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Song of Solomon 1:5-6, Various

The Eyes of Love

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 31, 2023

After extolling all the lovable characteristics of the man she loves, Solomon’s lover appears to apologize for things about herself that might seem unattractive. In Song of Solomon 1:5, she says, “I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,

like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.  Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me.” It appears that her “darkness” is more a product of the sun than it is of her race. In contrast to the city girls of Jerusalem who live lives shielded from the sun, this girl is a country girl who is familiar with hard work and spends a lot of time outside. Palace princesses don’t spend a lot of time in the sun. She is a commoner. Maybe she is apologizing for her social status. Obviously, she’s not apologizing for her looks because she calls herself lovely. I think that she sees herself as “lovely” because her lover tells her that she is. Love is indeed blind. But love can change the way we see others and even the world. Hubbard writes, “The lover’s final delight in the one he has chosen matches the woman’s initial delight in being desired by him, despite her swarthy complexion. The joy of being cherished sparks an inner beauty that no cosmetic can imitate. That joy lends radiance to both persons in the Song.”[1]

Although it is surely a reference to human love for men and women for each other, one cannot miss the allusion to God’s love for sinners the same way. Many of the older commentators want to make the Song of Solomon strictly an allegory referring to God’s love for the church. I’m not sure you can do that, yet the comparisons are obvious. I wonder if Paul’s use of the idea can’t be found in his letters. Consider Ephesians 1:4 concerning God’s choosing us; he writes, “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love. Some might argue that the last two words “in love” belong to what follows in verse 5, I can’t help but see it referring to God’s looking at us through the eyes of love and proclaiming we are blameless. The Bible makes it clear that we are sinners. We are not righteous or blameless, yet God bestows his love on us anyway. The last phrase, “in love,” might be translated as “by love” or “even “through love.” So God sees us as Saints. That’s a title given to all believers in the New Testament. The only possible way he can refer to us like that is that He is looking through the eyes of love when He looks at us. He loves us because we are “In Christ!.”

In our case, our “darkness” has to do with sin. I remember the wordless book that was used to teach children the gospel message at Martin Road Gospel Chapel when I first became a Christian. We would take our young boys to church, and they would learn a song based on the wordless book. It had different color pages. The colors were black, red, white, and gold. The song went like this:

Once my heart was black as sin,

Until the Savior came in.

His precious blood, I know.

Has washed it whiter than snow;

And in this world, I’m told

I’ll walk the streets of gold.

Oh, wonderful, wonderful day;

He washed my sins away.

 Living in this world under the sun, as Solomon writes about in the book of Ecclesiastes,  will indeed bring blackness to our hearts and souls. But God looks at us through the eyes of love. God “so loved” the world that He sent His son to pay the penalty for our sins and to reserve for us a place in heaven which he offers to each of us as a free gift. It’s a gift of God and received by faith alone.

[1] Hubbard, David A., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1991. Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Vol. 16. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

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Ecclesiastes 1:8, Various

Peace In A Frustrating World

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 30, 2023

Life is, as Shakespeare said, “Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” I expect he got that from reading the book of Ecclesiastes. It sounds a lot like what Solomon had to say about life being “vanity of vanities.” Although we live on the earth, it could not care less about us. It’s all meaningless. Like the old man river, it just keeps on going while we struggle and strain with life’s meaninglessness. We suffer, and the rivers, the winds, and the oceans pay no attention to us. It just keeps on and on and on. None of the things on earth pay any attention to us and our pilgrimage, along with its trials and hardships that all come to but one end: Death. Solomon finds many different ways of saying this, and in Ecclesiastes 1:8, he adds the ideas of our senses of seeing and hearing. He writes, “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” We are insignificant creatures who live their short lives amidst an uncaring world of repetitive cycles. We see it, and we hear it all, but there is no hope for us. Life is just a meaningless prelude to death.

 Man has so many different insatiable appetites. I must have more. This is true of everything in life. That’s what makes it so weary. We get what we want, and it doesn’t satisfy us for very long. One very rich man was asked how much money it would take to make him happy. He simply answered, “More.” Life, under the sun, is moving from one experience to another. Solomon is right, “all things” are empty and meaningless. The eye will never have reached the point where it has seen enough. The ear will never say it doesn’t need or want to hear anything else. The rich man is right. It will always take “more” in our day-to-day lives. But unlike the rich man, Solomon teaches us that we are to evaluate this truth and have it impact us in our daily lives.

The weariness and vanity of life are that it just keeps going like the rivers. This applies to seeing and hearing as well. The Handbook for Bible Translators says, “The eye is not satisfied means that there is no way that we can actually ‘fill up’ our eyes. It does not mean that what the eye sees will never give it pleasure and satisfaction. It means, rather, that the eye can always see things as long as we keep it open to look at them. In the same way, the ear can always hear things. It does not get ‘filled up’ so that it cannot hear anything more. The eye and ear are not like containers that can only hold a limited amount. In this sense, they are just like the sea—always able to take in more.”[1] Jesus not only fulfills the law on behalf of us sinners, but he also fulfills the book of Ecclesiastes’ insistence on the repetitive weariness of life. He told the woman at the well in John 4:13-14, “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’” The Greek word for “eternal” carries with it the idea of “quality” as well as “quantity.” Later in John’s Gospel (John 10:10), Jesus says, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” In a world in which nothing really matters, we will agree with the speaker in Ecclesiastes. There is no meaning or purpose to our lives, only the drudgery of a hopeless daily existence. There are good times, but there are also bad times. In the end, the bad times win out with our death. No wonder we live in a world with such stress. Sailor said, “Never before in the history of civilization have so many voices been raised to declare that all purpose and meaning has departed from the world. Thus, Angst – dread, fear, anxiety – finds many expressions.”[2] Unlike the rest of creation, God does care about us and has eternal plans for those who believe. God wants to give us peace, not angst. Paul tells us, “be anxious for nothing.” Instead we should trust God, who will give us a “peace that passes all understanding.”

[1] Ogden, Graham S., and Lynell Zogbo. 1998. A Handbook on Ecclesiastes. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

[2] Sailer, William, J. Creighton Christman, David C. Greulich, Harold P. Scanlin, Stephen J. Lennox, and Phillip Guistwite. 2012. Religious and Theological Abstracts. Myerstown, PA: Religious and Theological Abstracts.

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Proverbs 1:8-9, 1 Samuel 15:22

Obedience: A Thing Of Beauty

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 29, 2023

When God delivered the ten commandments to Moses, there was one of the Ten that had a promise associated with it. That’s the fifth commandment. It says, “Honor your father and mother.” Paul says in Ephesians 6:1-2, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Then he quotes from the ten commandments and adds, “‘Honor your father and mother.’ This is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Solomon understood this truth well and wanted his children to understand it as well. This instruction is the key to a happy and successful life. In Proverbs 1:8-9, he tells the children of every generation, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.” One modern preacher argues that the problem in America is that we no longer teach this truth to our children. “A Chinese man traveled in America for six months. When asked what impressed him most about America, he answered, ‘The way parents obey their children.’ In many homes, the father is not the head—just a figurehead. Disobedience at home will lead to disobedience in school and disrespect for authority. Children should be taught and even forced to obey their parents. You cannot begin too early to teach this important lesson.”[1]

But Solomon isn’t focusing on the consequences of rebellion so much as he is pointing out the beauty of honoring one’s parents and respecting them by hearing their advice and heeding their instructions. The whole key to the verse of Proverbs is “fear of the Lord.” That’s the beginning of wisdom which results in a happy and successful life. Disregarding, disrespecting, and disobeying parents is to disregard, disrespect, and disobey God. The fifth commandment promises good things to those who listen and heed their parent’s advice. “Here, it helps to know that when the Bible talks about living long in the land, it is not simply talking about how old people are when they die. The expression ‘live long in the land’ is a Hebrew phrase for the fullness of God’s blessing. It means to have an abundant life. Anyone who wants to live long and prosper should honor his mother and father.”[2]

Obedience is a beautiful thing. Obedient children get a garland on their heads and a pendant to wear around their necks. “What do those metaphors mean? A garland was a Victor’s wreath. In Chapter 4, the garland stands in parallel with ‘a beautiful crown’ (Proverbs 4:9). And a pendant is a chain around one’s neck as a mark of prestige. Think of an Olympic gold medal.”[3] Obedient children are beautiful to the world. This is true of obedient adults as well. God delights in those who regard His worlds, who respect His authority, and obey His instructions. Saul, Israel’s first king, had to learn this the hard way. Saul took it upon himself to offer the sacrifices that were reserved for only priests to offer. When Samuel found out about it, he confronted Saul. 1 Samuel 15:22 says, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”

[1] Pentz, Croft M. 1979. Sermon Outlines for Special Days. Sermon Outline Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

[2] Ryken, Philip Graham, and R. Kent Hughes. 2005. Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

[3] Ortlund, Raymond C., Jr. 2012. Preaching the Word: Proverbs—Wisdom That Works. Edited by R. Kent Hughes. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

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Psalms 5:7-8, 1 Corinthians 15:10

But For The Grace Of God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 28, 2023

David talks about how God hates liars, murderers, and evil-doers of all kinds and how they will be excluded from the house of God in Psalm 5:4-6. Now in the next passage, Psalm 5:7-8, he expresses his own confidence in his relationship with God. He says, “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.  Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.” In view of David’s own sinfulness, the key to understanding David’s confidence is found in the opening phrase, “Through the abundance of your steadfast love.” Even David seems to understand that any righteousness he might have is by the grace of God.

I just watched a news report where Laura Ingraham did an on-the-street interview with drug addicts on the streets in San Francisco. In one interview, an addict told Laura that she has no ability to say “NO” to her habit. The Fentanyl she was taking was the only thing that relieved the pains in her life, and there was no way she could stop using it. Life, to her, was unlivable without it! She had tears running down her cheeks as she confessed her total dependence on the drug. Laura hugged her, and when she was interviewed later, she said, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” I think Laura meant what David meant when he said that any righteousness he possesses comes only through the abundance of God’s steadfast love.

We often sing the famous hymn “Amazing Grace.” John Newton, the author, recognized how sinful he was as he referred to himself as “a wretch like me.” When we sing that hymn, we too should realize that the only goodness we might truly boast of is that which God has bestowed upon us through faith in His son, Jesus. I like what McCalip writes, “God’s grace is truly amazing, for the only real difference between a sinner and a saint is God’s grace. Every saint can say, ‘There but for the grace of God go I’ when he speaks of what might have happened to him had he followed the crowds and not the way of God. We should never reach the point of pride where we can’t acknowledge, as the hymn says, that God ‘saved a wretch like me.’”[1] Paul agrees with David’s assessment. He acknowledges his complete dependence on God as well in 1 Corinthians 15:10. He writes, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” 

[1] McCalip, Steven Melvin. 2002. Where’d That Come From?. Chattanoga: AMG Publishers.

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