GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 31:23-24
23 Love the LORD, all his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful,
but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the LORD.
The saints are all who trust in God. We could say “believers” or “Christians” and have the same meaning. Here the Hebrew word is hasid, which can be looked in one of two ways. The first is “gracious,” those who proclaim God’s grace and are gracious to others. The second is “favored” (i.e. “graced”), those who have been shown God’s merciful favor and are forgiven of their sins. In the context of verse 23, we could make an argument for either definition, and perhaps it would be best to remember that both are true of God’s children.
“Hope” is meant to be a confident word, and not a timid one. The hope Christians have of Christ and everlasting life is only called a “hope” because it’s still in the future—not because it isn’t certain. We could equally say, “Be strong and take heart, all you who confidently wait for what the Lord has promised, because it will certainly, certainly be yours!”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota