PUT YOUR HOPE IN THE LORD GOD AND HIS UNFAILING LOVE

Proclamation:

“Israel, put your hope in The Lord, for with The Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.  He Himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”  Psalm 130:7-8 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  The name of the human author of this psalm of ascent is unknown, however, some Bible scholars attribute it to King David.  The psalmist began by stating that when he was deep in distress he cried out unto The Lord. (Psalm 130:1-2)  He knows that The Lord can forgive him and he is waiting on The Lord. (Psalm 130:4-6)  Here, he encourages all of Israel to also put their hope in The Lord and wait on Him. (Psalm 130:7-8)  The Lord God is full of grace and mercy and only He can forgive their sins and redeem them.

Application:                                            

At one time or another, all of us have been deep in trouble, in way over our heads.  We may not have been literally in very deep water as Jonah was, (Jonah 2:1-3) but figuratively we were so deep in trouble that we could not see our way out.   Those are the times when The Lord God made a way out of no way and He carried us through whatever it was.  As we look back over our lives, looking back over “the footprints of time in the sand”, those times when we see only one set of footprints are the times when He was carrying us instead of walking beside us.  Whatever He brings us to, He can bring us through.  We just need to put our faith and trust in Him, ask Him to forgive us and have mercy on us.  Then we need to wait upon Him to answer our prayer and redeem us.

GOD WILL REDEEM MY SOUL FROM THE POWER OF THE GRAVE

Proclamation:

“But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; He will surely take me to Himself.”  Psalm 49:15 (NIV)  The King James version of The Bible for this verse reads: “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for He shall receive me.”

Explanation:

This psalm was written as a song, under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God, by an unknown human author for the sons of Korah to sing.  The unknown psalmist herein presents the vanity of trusting in riches, (Psalm 49:6 and 10) the insufficiency of wealth to purchase the redemption of the soul, (Psalm 49:7-8) and the certainty of physical death. (Psalm 49:10-14)  However, he expresses his hope and faith in The Lord God knowing that He will redeem his soul from death and take it to be with Him for eternity.

Application:

There is nothing wrong with money, or with having a lot of it.  The problem comes from a person putting their faith in their wealth. (Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25, and Luke 18:25)  It is the love of money which is sinful. (1 Timothy 6:10)  Money cannot buy salvation or influence with The Lord. (Acts 8:18-20)  And, when we die, we cannot take our money or any of our possessions with us. (Ecclesiastes 5:15)  Our soul is eternal, and when we die it will leave our physical body and return to The Lord God who gave it to us and who will determine where our soul will spend eternity. (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)  As believers, we look forward to hearing Him say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. (Matthew 25:21 and 23)

VINDICATE US REDEEM US AND BE MERCIFUL UNTO US

Proclamation:

“Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in The Lord and have not faltered.”  Psalm 26:1 (NIV)

Explanation:

This psalm was written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  There are four succinct prayers within this psalm.  “Vindicate me, Lord …” (Psalm 26:1), “Examine me, Lord …” (Psalm 26:2), “Do not gather my soul with sinners … (Psalm 26:9), and “… Redeem me and be merciful to me.” (Psalm 26:11)  David is not clamming to be perfect nor that he has led a sin free life, just that he is innocent of the accusations against him.  Bible scholars believe that this psalm, like psalm 7 verses 1 to 5, refer to King Saul who wanted to kill David when he had done nothing wrong. (1 Samuel 18:5-9)  Saul accused David of plotting against him.

Application:

There will be time when we will be falsely accused and we will not have any witnesses to verify our innocence.  Those are the times when all that we can do is trust in The Lord God to vindicate us.  Some people have to put others down so that they can look good.  They will lie and present false witness against us so that they appear good by comparison.  Those are people that we have to pray for and we will be blessed for not doing unto them as they did to us. (Matthew 5:11 and Luke 6:27-28)  Just as David said, we do not want to be included in that group of people who falsely accuse and intentionally do wrong to their fellow men. (Psalm 26:4-5 and 9-12)  Let us pray to The Lord to help us to walk, talk, and behave in a Christ-like manner, especially when those around us are doing otherwise.

SIGNED SEALED AND AWAITING DELIVERY

Proclamation:

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins ... and you also …When you believed you were marked in Him with a seal, the promise of The Holy Spirit, … until the redemption of those who are God’s possession ..." Ephesians 1:7 and 13-14 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by the Apostle Paul to the believers in Ephesus.  Paul wanted them to know that they were only acceptable to God because they had been redeemed and purchased by the blood of Christ who paid the price for their sins to be forgiven by His death on the cross.  Paul also wanted them to know that the moment they first believed in Christ, The Holy Spirit of God marked and sealed them as belonging to Christ.  They would be kept and protected until they were redeemed and repossessed by The Lord Jesus.

Application:

As believers we were purchased by the blood of Christ.  We were sealed by The Holy Spirit the moment we believed.  We belong to Jesus, The Christ, and we are just waiting to be delivered to Him.  That is some very good news which is worth shouting about.  So, as Christians, to paraphrase the song by Stevie Wonder, we are "signed, sealed, (and waiting to be) delivered, (because) we're His".  We are just waiting for the rapture. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

Praise The Lord

"Praise The LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name.  Praise The LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."  Psalms 103:1-5 (NIV)

In this psalm, King David was talking to himself and telling himself to praise The Lord with all of his innermost being because of all of the blessings which The Lord had bestowed upon him.  He stated that The Lord forgave his sins, healed his diseases, redeemed his life from the pit, crowned him with love and compassion, and blessed him with the good things that he desired.

We should praise The Lord fervently and frequently for all that He has blessed us with.  He has blessed us with a home and home-life, a reasonable portion of health, happiness and joy, a good heritage, and hope for the future.  We should praise God and we should thank Him for all that He has done for us.  Then we should pray that The Lord God will continue to be gracious to us and continue to bless us. (Psalms 67:1)  

Jesus Said "It Is Finished"

"When He had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.'  With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit."  John 19:30 (NIV)

The Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, records that one of the last words that Jesus said  while He was on the cross before He died was "It is finished."  This was a reference to the work that God, The Father, had assigned for Him to do for the redemption of mankind.

Jesus said that He must be about His Father's business and He must work the work of Him that sent Him. (Luke 2:49 & John 9:4)  He knew from the very beginning that He came into this world to teach, suffer, and die, so that we could have the choice of salvation. (John 18:37)  Because of His love for us, Christ died for us. (John 15:13-14 & Romans 5:8)  He could have saved Himself or called for legions of angels to do whatever He wanted, but He knew that this was the only way that we could be saved and that the scriptures could be fulfilled. (Matthew 26:53-54)  When Jesus said "It is finished" He knew that He had done all that needed to be done in the redemptive process for the salvation of man.  Thankfully, He completed His work and He paid the price for our salvation.  All we have to do is believe.

We Are Blessed Chosen Predestined And Special

"Praise be to The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will; to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in The One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment ..." Ephesians 1:3-10 (NIV)

In this letter from the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Ephesus, who he had never met but he had heard of the demonstrations of their faith, he tells them that the saints of God are special. They are blessed, chosen, and predestined by God, according to His will, to receive His glorious grace through Jesus Christ.

As believers in Christ we are also special. We are blessed in more ways than we can count, we
have been redeemed, our sins have been forgiven, we have been given wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and our heavenly Father has even more good things are in store for us when the fullness of time has come.

Righteousness By Faith To All Who Believe

"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:22-24 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul told the Christians in Rome that the righteousness that was imputed to them comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe in Him, because we have all sinned and we must be justified by His grace.

We are not "innocent" of sin, we have been declared "not guilty" because Jesus paid the price for all of us who believe in Him and it is by His grace that we are justified and declared righteous. We ought to thank Him every day for what He did for us.

We Hope For That Which We Do Not Yet Have

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us ... Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of The Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of The Spirit, because The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Romans 8:18-28 (NIV)

Writing to the Christians in Rome, the Apostle Paul tell them that even though we are saved, some times our sufferings cause us to moan, groan, and complain as we wait impatiently for our future blessings. But The Holy Spirit knows and understands our moans and groans, and intercedes on our behalf before God.

Our hope for a better future is not based upon what we can see or have. Our hope is in The Lord. In our weakness and shortsightedness, we don't even know what to pray for. We can't always put all of our requests into words. But thanks be to God, He knows what we need, and want, and He knows what is best for us. As we have hope and faith in Him, He will supply all of our needs.