Today's Quick Word
Today’s Quick Word
Psalm 94:14, 22 For the LORD will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance. … … But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in […]
Psalm 94:14, 22 For the LORD will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance. … … But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.
The Psalmist has been really struggling with God’s Providence as he finds himself among a people, and within a whole culture, where God is not honoured nor even acknowledged, and where the wicked (those opposed to God and his revealed truth) seem to have the upper hand and are ‘calling the shots’ in everything that is happening around him.
At a purely human level it seems that everything is lost and the future seems quite hopeless. At this point I can easily identify with him! Can you?
So his reminder of the real situation, from the Sovereign LORD’s perspective, is most encouraging … and challenging! His statement in verse 14 very aptly anticipates Jesus’ promise to Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for [your confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”] was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are ‘Petros’, and on this ‘petra’ I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome [or prevail against] it” (Matthew 16:18)!
Yes, we, as God’s chosen people today, can have real confidence in the fact that Jesus is “the rocck in whom we can take refuge”. “As servants of the gospel, Christ’s work we carry on, that through our prayer and witness, by grace, we might win some – we call on every nation to turn to Christ the Lord, [take] refuge in His mercy and marvel at His love” (Bryson Smith, Philip Percival).
Next time I’m feeling down and discouraged about the world, and the society I’m leaving to my grandchildren, I’ll remind myself that ‘the [faithful, Covenant] LORD will not reject his people, he will nevery forsake his inheritance’, and that he is ‘my fortress’ and ‘the rock in whom I take refuge’! “O, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land; O, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a Shelter in the time of storm” (Ira Sankey).
– Bruce Christian
