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Psalm 49:12-13  People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.  This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.

As human beings, we were all made in the likeness and image of God, our Creator.  As such, our life can only have true and fulfilling substance and meaning when we acknowledge who we are, and submit, and trust in, his rule in our lives.

In Psalm 49, the ‘Sons of Korah’ warn of the danger and consequences of our failure to do this.  Acknowledging the fact of God the Creator’s existence, and our utter dependence on him in everything, is what makes us essentially different from the animal kingdom.  Satan’s basic and evil strategy from the very begining in the Garden of Eden was to rebel against, and undermine, God’s sovereign rule, by convincing us to  dismiss God’s instruction, and to ‘trust in ourselves and our ‘wisdom’, and make up our own minds about what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’ – set our own personal moral agenda, to satisfy our own culture for living: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?’” (Genesis 3:1)

Adam and Eve, our biological parents, ‘removed’ God from their lives and from their thinking, which put them firmly back into the animal Kingdom – among the ‘beasts that perish’. As a result, we are all born as the ‘followers’ of ’those who trust themselves’, who ‘approve their sayings’.

This is the bad news.  But thankfully, our gracious, loving God has not left us with this as our only option.

The good news is: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through HIM. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:16-18), and “For as in Adam all [without exception] die, so in Christ all [without distinction] will be made alive” (1 Corimthians 15:22).  This means that every one of us, regardless of skin colour, ‘religious’ background, gender, financial status, academic achievement, or any other factor, is free to desist from being ‘followers’  of all the modern ‘influencers’ on social, or any other, media, which Satan is still committed to using to keep us on his path to eternal death.  Rather, we can choose instead to be followers of the One who claimed with all the authority of the Creator God: “I AM the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Let us all turn our backs on the ‘trust in ourseves’ culture that dominates our nation today, and trust in, and turn to in repentamce-and-faith, the One of whom our Creator-Redeemer God declares: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)!  And how important it is that we commit ourseves to being an effective resource that God can and will use to rescue our children, grandchildren, and other young people in our care, from Satan’s evil ongoing influence!

– Bruce Christian