Sunday Devotional 6th November 2022
by Bruce Billington
We are continuing to explore the knowledge of God as expressed in the Psalms. This week we will continue to look at Psalm 48, written by the sons of Korah.
V10 – As is Your name, O God, So is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness.
V11 – Let Mount Zion be glad, Let the daughters of Judah rejoice Because of Your judgments.
V12 – Walk about Zion and go around her; Count her towers;
V13 – Consider her ramparts; Go through her palaces, That you may tell it to the next generation.
V14 – For such is God, Our God forever and ever; He will guide us until death.
God’s great name is praised to the ends of the earth and His hand is never empty. It is full of energy, of bounty, and of equity. Neither saint nor sinner shall find the Lord to be an empty-handed God; He will in both cases deal out righteousness to the full: to the one, through Jesus, He will be just to forgive, to the other just to condemn.
God had faithfully exercised this power on behalf of His covenant people. Therefore, the worshippers determined to sing His praises to the ends of the earth, proclaiming His righteousness and rejoicing in His justice and judgments (V11). John Calvin makes a great addition to this passage by saying (abbreviated somewhat by me),
His works correspond with his name; for in Hebrew he is called, la, El, from his power, and he shows in very deed that this name is not applied to him in vain, but that the praise which is ascribed to him by it is right and what is due to him. Wherever the fame of the name of God may be spread, men will know that he is worthy of the highest praise.
Thy right hand is full of righteousness, teaching us, that God, in succouring his own people, clearly manifests his righteousness, as if he stretched forth his arm to us that we might touch his righteousness with the finger; and that he shows not only one specimen or two of his righteousness, but in everything and everywhere exhibits to us a complete proof of it. The righteousness of God is to be understood of his faithfulness which he observes in maintaining and defending his own people.
The point is being made that we discover so often in many parts of the Scriptures – that wherever the report of the Lord was carried, all would understand that He was the deliverer of His people, and that He did not disappoint their hope and desires, nor forsake them in danger.
Let us now bring this into our present-day reality, because much of what is spoken of in this and other Psalms, was not fulfilled in Jerusalem. As a city it was long since destroyed, and all its glory laid in the dust.
But this beauty today, the temple that God has chosen to express His glory in, is none other than the church – the gathering of those who have made Jesus Christ their Lord and Saviour. The promise is that God’s very church will be established for ever; it is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it, (Matt 16:18). God has taken it upon Himself to establish it and through it to manifest the true testimony of the Kingdom of God (Matt 5:14; 24:14).
All nature of goodness, all the beautiful streams of mercy, love and grace that flow from the heavenly realm to the earth and those in it must be traced back to the fountain of God’s lovingkindness. It is not owing to any merit of ours, but purely to His mercy, and the peculiar favour He bears to his people. There is nothing more noble, more pleasant, more profitable, than basking in the glory and favour of our God – it is not something we deserve – but something He lavishes upon those who delight in Him, despite the difficulties and hardships we encounter in this life.
As His people we should gaze upon such beauty, embrace it, and pass it on to those who come after us that they too might fortify themselves against the fear of the similar threatening danger that often comes, enjoying the same confidence and knowledge that we have, in such a great God that we serve.
We all should triumph in God, and in the assurances, we have of His everlasting lovingkindness, (V14) and we should proclaim this to the generation following us – that this God, who has done such great things for us, is our God for ever and ever; He is constant and unchangeable in His love to us and care for us. He will be our guide, and light, to show us our way and to lead us in it up until the end of our life. And at the point of our death, He will be our guide, not allowing death to hurt us by taking us safely beyond death to His eternal glory.
God bless you.
Bruce Billington