Image: Checking Things Out, 2020, Titmouse, Severna Park, Md
Psalm 89:15 Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance.
Psalm 90:1–2 LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 92:13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
Psalm 95:6–7 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand....
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In these days of forced quarantine I don't suppose we are so much "walking" in the light of God's countenance as contemplating it on the other side of the window. We are somewhat like the little titmouse perched on the fence, gazing at what's on the other side, trying to figure out what to do next.
But actually walking or not, the condition of "blessedness" still applies. We have heard "the joyful sound" of the beautiful spring day cheerfully anticipating this coming Easter's morn. We sing with the Psalmist that "the heavens are Yours, the earth also... the world in all its fullness... You have founded them!"(89:11) This is the "joyful sound" that lifts our eyes up and away from the relatively depressing to the eternally exciting. We live, day by day, in the "light of His countenance." He is fully aware of every momentary concern or anxious anticipation. This is our rock... we know that He has covenanted with us through His Son and He will never forsake us.
It is this overall conviction that makes us sing "You have been our dwelling place in all generations.." (Psa. 90:1) The history of the Church of Jesus Christ is a long litany of generation after generation discovering just what it means to trust God. Every age has its perils, some of which far surpassed this COVID-19 pandemic in scope and deadliness. Every individual life is tested by the spiritual warfare that surrounds it. The "Evil" in this world shows itself in many ways... sometimes through man's viciousness to other... sometimes through tragedy... sometimes through persistent horror like the Great Depression or the World Wars. Cancer claims more lives each day than this plague. Many are there who suffer. This is the "Evil" that shows up in one form or another in every age.
Hence, each generation of Christians discovers that God has to become their "dwelling place." Our only hope in a dangerous world is that there is "good" above and beyond the "ugly." This conviction has to so characterize our lives that even if we have to suffer... or die... yet we can say, "Blessed be the Name of the Lord." (Psalm 113:2) That is why the Psalmist pleads with God to "teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psa 90:12) He knows that man's time in this age is short, maybe seventy or eighty years (Psa. 90:10), so it is important to survey the world around us and seek to understand how we should walk in it. We need a heart of wisdom in every eon but most certainly do we need it when difficulties are everywhere.
What we are called to do in the face of adversity is first of all, to persevere in faith and thanksgiving. We have many reasons for thankfulness. Our second duty is to be useful. We call upon God to let His "beauty" be upon us and to "establish the work of our hands."(90:19) Perhaps no greater distinctive commends the Christian faith than its joyful call to service in the face of danger. Christians, like "first responders", run to the danger... they go where they are needed... and they go because the "glory of the Lord is on them" and they want to minister in His name. We want the "work of our hands" to be established.. to go down in God's book of life as works done in His name and unto His Kingdom. Such works will never fail to receive their reward. (1 Cor. 3:14, Col. 3:23-24)
Scary as it is, this "pestilence that walks in darkness" (91:6) shall not prevent the Lord Christ from building His Kingdom. In fact, it will be prove His works even more gloriously. And that work He is doing is done through His people, those who have answered His call and follow in His footsteps. He will cause His people, the ones "who are planted in the ouse of the LORD" to flourish and bear fruit, "even in old age." (92:13-14) They know, deep in their hearts that "judgment will return to righteousness and all the upright in heart will follow it!" (94:15) Therefore they rise up from the gloom that seeks to bring them down... they fill their lungs with the refreshing Spring air... and they look forward with hope to what God next brings before them to do.
This is the land we survey on "the other side of the fence." It is a good land... flowing with milk and honey... it has many delights and offers of shade... it abounds with fruitful fields where good work can be done. This is our blessedness, O People of God,
Come, let us worship and bow down.... let us kneel before the LORD our Maker
For He is our God... and we are the people of His pasture
and the sheep of His hand. (Psalm 95:6-7)
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