Author Archives: reveds

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About reveds

Occupation: Pastor, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Lennox, SD Education: BS - Christian Education, Sterling College; MDiv. - Princeton Theological Seminary Family: Married, with Four children. Hobbies: Running (will someday run a marathon), Sci-Fi (especially Doctor Who and Sherlock), Theater, and anything else my kids will let me do.

A Promise for the Righteous

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“For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.” (Psalm 112:6, ESV)

Sometimes while reading through the Bible, one verse, a verse you’ve read countless times, will jump off the page in front of you. You see it in a whole new light, finding depths which before went unnoticed.

Psalm 112 was one of my devotional readings this morning. It is a Wisdom Song, and psalm that extols the man who fears the Lord, focusing on the moral character, and benefits, of those who delight in the commands of God.

Standing right in the middle of this Psalm is a message of tremendous promise: “The righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.” I’d like to take just a moment to unpack that small verse.

The first question we must ask is this, “who is the righteous one?” This psalm praises the one who fears the Lord, who delights in His commands, but who could that be? Throughout the scriptures, we are reminded of the deceitfulness of the human heart (Jer. 17:9), how all have turned from God, how no one seeks Him, no one is righteous, no not one (Psalm 53).

That’s the problem, isn’t it? There are wonderful blessings for the righteous, but righteousness is unattainable.

Except that God has made a gracious way to righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. The Shorter Catechism teaches, “Justification” (God declaring a sinner to be righteous) “is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”

God, in His grace, gave us His Son, who fulfilled the righteous demands of the law, and yet also suffered the wrath of God for sin upon the cross. When we are united to Christ by faith, we are reckoned righteous in God’s sight, because Jesus was reckoned cursed for us. By this gracious exchange, we are declared righteous by God.

By faith in Jesus, we are declared righteous. What God has spoken is sure. It is declared, and therefore unmovable. God cannot, will not, go back on His word. If God did, He would cease to be God.

Not only that, the righteous one, those who are declared righteous, are secure unto the end, remembered forever. In theological circles we call this the Perseverance of the Saints. Those who are declared righteous, whose whose name is in the Book of Life will never be blotted out, never be forgotten (Rev. 3:5). He will not lose one that he has given him (John 6:39-40).

“He is not afraid of bad news…” (Psalm 112:7) The Psalm goes on to describe the practical application of the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God in salvation. Because of this grace which has been so lavishly poured out upon us in Christ, because the sovereign God has called us righteous, and the righteous shall never be moved – because of this I can rest secure.

The Heidelberg Catechism frames this confidence this way:

“My only comfort, in life and in death, is that I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.”

There is a lot that he world is throwing your way right now, things that would cause terror and dismay. When that voice of fear stalks you, remember this promise! “The righteous will never be moved, he will be remembered forever.” Know that by faith in Jesus Christ, you are counted among the righteous, declared justified in God’s eyes, and you will be remembered by Him. Stand firm, be filled with joy and peace of believing.

SDG

One Thing

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“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
1 Corinthians 2:2

Some days it is really hard to focus. We live in a very distracting world.

This is not altogether a bad thing. We can get distracted by wonder and beauty, and those are God’s blessings. I have a beautiful view of a crabapple tree out my office window, a home to robins and turtledoves, shelter for squirrels and rabbits alike. I can lose track of time taking in this beauty. I have a playlist of podcasts to which I want to listen, all edifying Biblical teaching that will do my soul good. These are wonderful things, but they can suck up my time, my attention, and keep me from what needs to be done.

There are, at the same time, many unhealthy distractions: games on the phone, YouTube channels that lead one to another, television shows that draw you in and make you want to binge the entire season.

There are so many voices clamoring for our attention today, it is so difficult to stay focused. I read an article which says that we’re actually re-wiring our brains with modern technology – with devastating effect. We’re accustomed now to a constant barrage of media input, but we never really absorb any of it. We’ve become well-informed idiots.

Even writing this article today, I’ve become acutely aware of how distracted I am. I’ve got so many things running through my mind, so many irons in the fire, so many conversations/texts I’m trying to maintain… so much to say that nothing was coming out. I sat staring at a blank page for 45 minutes. It’s not writers block, but rather the opposite. So much is running through the mind that I can’t even find a place to begin. I’ve started about 20 different posts, all to end up going nowhere, or morphing into something completely incoherent. Again, well-informed idiocy.

I know this isn’t what Paul was talking about when he wrote above verse in his letter to the Corinthians – maybe it was. The Corinthians were really taken in by the philosophers and orators of the day. They were impressed with impressive speakers, swayed by dazzling intellect. But Paul reminded them that when he was among them, he came not with great eloquence or intellect, but only knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified.

There were, and are, tremendous depths of theological profundity into which we may plunge ourselves as we grow in our knowledge and love of God. There are far reaching political, cultural, and even economic ramifications of our faith that must be explored. All of these things are worthy of pursuing, but none of them take precedence over the one thing: knowing Christ and him crucified.

Here’s thread of consciousness: Knowing Christ and him crucified: Christ, the 2nd person of the godhead, fully God, full of glory, wonder, power and majesty; one with God from all eternity; who, in accordance with God’s perfect and sovereign plan, did come to us, being born of a virgin, taking on the form of man though never ceasing to be God, fully God – fully man, he suffered in our place, lived in complete obedience to the Father, perfectly keeping His righteous law; but, in demonstrating the love of God, died upon the cross to take the full punishment of our sins, my sins, and was raised on the third day for the justification of all who put their faith in him.

Christ and Him crucified. Once I focus on this, all other things seem to lose their attraction. Dwelling on the beauty of who He is, the wonder of what He has done takes preeminence, drowns out all the lesser, insignificant, and trivial distractions.

Christ and Him crucified. It makes me want to delete a few apps. Makes me want to put my phone on “Do Not Disturb.” Makes me want to “be still and know.”

Christ and Him crucified. This is my one thing.

Is He yours?