GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 119:173-174
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173 May your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.
The poet asks for God’s helping hand, and shows that he firmly believes in God’s divine providence. God our Maker did not abandon the world after he made it. We pray in the Catechism: “And I believe that God still preserves me by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes, food and drink, property and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all I own, and all I need to keep my body and life. God also preserves me by defending me against all danger, guarding and protecting me from all evil. All this God does only because he is my good and merciful Father in heaven, and not because I have earned or deserved it. For all this I ought to thank and praise, to serve and obey him. This is most certainly true.” (Small Catechism II:2).
But there have been many people who have believed otherwise. “There are some who think that God made only the world, but now the world itself makes the rest as God ordained and ordered, though he himself does nothing” (Augustine). This was the belief of many of the founding fathers of the United States; men who were Deists, but not at all Christian. We benefit somewhat from their heretical faith on account of the way they phrased certain things in the Constitution and in the Bill of Rights, but we can hardly claim to be in fellowship with them or their beliefs. “For a ship cannot stand firm in the billows without a pilot, however strong and well-equipped she may be, all the less can the universe stand firm without God’s care and guidance” (John Chrysostom).
Everything God has done with regard to the world, the universe, and every part of the creation, is for the good and the benefit of man. He told our first parents: “Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28). The clearest passages about God’s providence include these:
“God sustains all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3).
“All things hold together in him” (Colossians 1:17).
“He rules over man and nation alike” (Job 34:29).
And, “God had planned something better for us” (Hebrews 11:40).
Also, when the Scriptures use the expression “God sees,” it is most often referring to the way he cares and acts on behalf of his people for our good, such as when Abraham says, “God himself will see [that there is] a lamb for a burn offering” (English, “God himself will provide,” etc., Genesis 22:8).
His providence means that he foresees our needs (for there can be no care for something one does not know or know about), that he wills or desires to foresee our lives and needs, and the action he takes for our benefit. His foreknowledge, his purpose (or will), and his administration (action, control) summarize his providence, for which we praise him.
174 I long for your salvation, O LORD,
and your law is my delight.
What a pair of words these are, “Salvation, LORD!” The Hebrews contracted them together to form the name Joshua, which in Greek is Jesus, which comes full circle to mean “The Lord Saves.” The poet longs for Jesus without necessarily knowing that Jesus will actually be his name, but he longs for him nevertheless.
The salvation that Jesus brought is complete, absolute, and leaving nothing straggling behind. He defeated the devil and the power of the devil; he defeated sin and all of its consequences. And since the chief consequence of sin is death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23), we know and believe that death, too, has been defeated by Christ our Savior. “Let me seek you, O my God, so that my soul may live.”
Knowing and trusting in our savlation through our Savior Jesus Christ, we have peace with God (Romans 5:1), a good conscience toward God (Hebrews 9:14), and assurance of God’s protection and guidance (Romans 8:28). We are delivered from all fear (Psalm 34:4), we can face and glory in troubles and tribulation (Romans 5:3), we triumph in death (1 Peter 1:3), and we have become children of God (Galatians 3:26) and heirs to heaven (Galatians 4:7).
We long for heaven. We ache for it, for union with God and reunion with our loved ones. It will be release from all sin, all temptation, all guilt, and things like doubt, fear, loneliness, grief, and pain. It will be eternal life, and everlasting joy– not a mindless joy or an empty euphoria, but a living, aware, understanding, and grateful happiness, that will never go away. That is why God’s word is our delight.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2024
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Psalm 119:173-174 Salvation