Joyful Indeed!

August 24, 2017

Joyful Indeed!

“May there be no enemy breaking through our walls,

    no going into captivity,

    no cries of alarm in our town squares.

Yes, joyful are those who live like this!

    Joyful indeed are those whose God is the LORD.”

Psalm 144:14-15

“You can believe what you want to believe, but what is, is.” This was the favorite saying of my old friend, Fred. I thought about his rustic wisdom this morning as I read Psalm 144. Sitting near my desk is an olive wood carving of the Good Shepherd. That vision of God’s Kingdom is the one I prefer. My favorite psalm is the 23^rd. My favorite NT text is Romans 8:1-2. I love to plumb the depths of Paul’s assertion in Romans 8:35-39 that there is no power that can separate me from the love of Christ.  However, as much as I prefer the surety and gentleness of God’s love, there is also another reality at work in our world: the reality of the forces of evil that oppose God. As much as I may want to deny this reality, what is, is. The Bible lifts this reality front and center, so that the wonder of God’s grace may be measured in the face of a reality that is so hostile to God’s love. Even Psalm 23 recognizes there is a valley of death, and that it is God’s presence, protection and comfort in the face of my enemies that delivers me from the fear of evil. Romans 8:1-2 proclaims that through the power of God, I have been delivered from the forces of evil that held me in slavery to sin and death. Paul’s great soliloquy concluding Romans 8 draws its eloquence from a listing of the forces and dangers that have been defeated by the love of Christ.

Psalm 144 is a companion to Psalm 18, which the writers of the New Testament believed was fulfilled when God’s Kingdom was inaugurated through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I noted in my meditation on Psalm 18 that we long for the day when the rule of the evil one, who has devastated God’s creation, will be put to an end, and God’s love, mercy and justice will flow like rivers of living water. Both Psalm 18 and 144 give us a glimpse of what it will be like to live in God’s Kingdom, when evil has been vanquished and the people of God are fully vindicated. As we look forward to that glorious day, we affirm our hope and faith,

“May there be no enemy breaking through our walls,
    no going into captivity,
    no cries of alarm in our town squares.
Yes, joyful are those who live like this!
    Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord.”

Psalm 144:14-15

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 © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

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.