Faithful

DEVOTION

PSALMS

FAITHFUL

Ps 89:30-37

30 "If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, 31 if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, 32 I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging; 33 but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. 34 I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. 35 Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness — and I will not lie to David — 36 that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; 37 it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky."

NIV

This may well be taking about Christ, although he uses the name of David. We know that Jesus is the line of David that sits upon the throne forever. The sons are all others. That would in include us. Of course the covenant the people of the Old Testament had with God was a whole lot different than covenant with God. Theirs were a complete set of laws, of statutes and degrees which they were required to keep. The point was to show them, to show the world man could not find salvation through works, through keeping the law because it was impossible to keep perfectly and it was intended to show mankind they needed a Messiah, a Savior, the one who would sit upon David’s throne forever, Jesus. When Israel did not keep the law, when they worshipped other gods, they were punished, God did not withhold the rod. Some people say that God still punishes those who disobey him, those who are under the new covenant. How could that be possible since the new covenant is Jesus? Either we are in or out, it is not a half-hearted situation. It is not a divided heart situation, although perhaps it is, but still are people punished because they are lukewarm, half-heartedly believing God, believing in themselves with the other half. This is an interesting concept. We have to make sure we love the Lord with all our heart, our mind, our soul and our strength. God will never without his love for us, he will never take back Jesus, remove our salvation, but we have to remain in Christ. We can do nothing apart from him. God will always be faithful to his people. He has sworn by his own words he will be faithful. He does not lie. Jesus will forever sit upon that throne, he will not be taken from his place of being the Savior. This is a forever situation, every person who lives has the opportunity to know Christ, of course, until it is too late and the end of days arrives. But until then the promise of God stands firm and the constant appearance of the moon and the sky are evidence of his faithfulness to his word and thus to us. The sun, moon and sky appear before him, we will appear before him. His covenant he made with us through Jesus is a forever situation. However, does God spare us the rod and as a result spoil us? It might be so, as long as we are not lukewarm. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. There is no rod for those who are in Jesus. There is no punishment for those who remain in Christ. There is the key. It is just like having a large umbrella the rain. As long as we are under the umbrella we remain dry, but get out from under it, and we are soaked. Even get a little part of us out from under, just half-heartedly stay under the umbrella, and we get wet. If that is the case we might as well just put the umbrella aside. We should either be cold or hot, in or out, all or nothing, if we want to remain in him. He is forever faithful, so let us remain forever in Jesus, all in, even bit, the whole of us, without any reservations, without a divided heart. God is faithful so let us be faithfully in Jesus.