Friday, February 17, 2017

The LORD’s Promises Are Pure



February 17, 2017
The Lord’s Promises Are Pure

Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!
    The faithful have vanished from the earth!
Psalm 12:1

In Psalm 12, David continues with his lament over the moral decay in his society. David was not referring to people outside of the covenant relationship with God, but to the people of Israel. David’s concern for those who were set apart as the people of God is valid for the Christian church today. More and more churches are adopting the marketing style of the world’s culture to promote their church. More and more churches are using the management and transformational programs of the Harvard Business School to try and revitalize congregations. Recently, a church conference adjourned after spending two weeks in session at a cost of millions of dollars. Nothing of substance was accomplished. Instead of the worldwide body of believer’s getting on their face before God to seek his will for the church, the session was an exercise in parliamentary gamesmanship. Many people had a passion for things to be done their way, or no way. Sadly, few people evidenced a passion for Christ. I despair over the good that could have been accomplished, but was not.

In Psalm 11, David wrote, “The virtuous will see his face.” He renews that affirmation here. David models for us the life of a follower of God who hungers and thirsts for God’s holiness. David’s heart was breaking over the sinfulness and rebellion against God that was so prevalent in Jerusalem.

David also noted in Psalm 11 that “the righteous LORD loves justice” which means God hears the cry of those who long for God’s justice: “The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor. Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do” (Psalm 12:5).

David called Israel, and us, to live with an abiding trust in God’s faithfulness, or as he put it in Psalm 131: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—now and always.”


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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

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.

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