Lead A Life Worthy of Your Calling

Meditations on Christ in the Psalms 

January 4, 2023

Lead A Life Worthy of Your Calling

Like our ancestors, we have sinned.

    We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!

Psalm 106:6

Psalm 106 confesses the sins of Israel, from the exodus to the exile in Babylon. In one sense, the lament of the psalmist is like a millstone around the neck of Israel. The weight of the cumulative sins of the people is crushing, except that the psalmist repeatedly affirms the faithfulness of God in rescuing His people. From this perspective, the psalm becomes an urgent cry to the Lord, “Save us again.”

The psalm can also serve to build humility into the fabric of God’s people. Some churches have confessed their past sins of racism and bigotry. This has been offensive to many of their members who believe they should not need to confess the sins of their ancestors. However, God looks not only at an individual; He also looks at His people. When the whole church has been complicit in sin, the whole church surrenders God’s favor until the church accepts responsibility for her sin. (See Revelation 2:4-5)

I see a bit of a dichotomy for the followers of Christ responding to Psalm 106. First, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews stresses that Jesus has already paid the penalty for our sins. Six times he uses the phrase, “once for all time” to make his point that “Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28). However, the New Testament speaks almost one hundred times of the followers of Christ being “together.” We are called by God to live in community with one another. We are called to be a witness to the world and serve as co-laborers with Christ, building for the Kingdom of God.

My Takeaway: “Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.