God shows His love to us

0:00Thanks for tuning in to Manna, a short daily meditation to feed hungry souls with God's Word. These episodes were prepared by our Dane Ministers for a radio broadcast called Voice of the Church and are now republished by the Reform Perspective Foundation, a Canadian charity that applies biblical truth to the issues of our time, here's today serving. Good day listeners, welcome to today's broadcast. The Bacook ends his prophecy with a song of praise. I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. This song is not meant only for himself. He wants the Church to sing this as well, and that's why he gives instructions for its use in the worship. We learned this from the last verse of his book for the director of music on my stringed instruments. These are instructions by the Bacook to make sure that God's people sing about this, about what? They may sing their strength in the world where rickeness is rampant.

1:04About their strength in the subrened Lord, verse 19, the subrened Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. To sing this song was not easy for a Bacook. Verse 16, he says that his heart pounded, his lips quivered, his legs trembled. A Bacook seems to be overcome by emotion by awe. Why? What caused this trembling and quivering? Verse 16 starts with the words, I heard. I heard in my heart pounded, what did he hear? Is it the army of the Babylonians? No. A Bacook understood what is behind all this, the Lord as the judge of heaven and earth. The Lord is coming in His holiness and that makes a Bacook tremble. He comes as a consuming fire, destroying all resistance and showing His glory and power. Hear how a Bacook describes this coming, in verses 3 and 4.

2:07God came from Teaman. The Holy One for Mount Perran, His glory covered the heavens in His praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise, rays flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden. Listen to what He does. Play went before Him, pestilence followed His steps, He stood and shook the earth. He looked and made the nation's tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age old hills collapsed, verses 5 and 6. He comes to destroy all who were opposed to Him. One and Moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows. At the lightning of your flashing spear, in wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you thresh the nations. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness. You stripped Him from head to foot, verses 11 through 13. A Bacook trembles because he hears the Lord coming.

3:07The Lord will destroy all evil. He will show that He is king, that His name is glorious. Who wouldn't tremble and stand in awe? And this trembling is also caused by something we saw earlier. The righteous will be heard too. When God comes to judge in the use of the Babylonians, the believers may have to go through very difficult times. The Bible doesn't try to hide this. According to what a Bacook says about his own situation in verse 17, though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes in the vines, though the olive crop fails and the field produces no food, though there are no sheep in the pan and no cattle in the stalls. The orchards destroyed, the vine stripped of their grapes, the fields used by the enemy, the sheep in cattle stolen by the Babylonians. That can happen, says a Bacook. When the items he lists are not luxury items, items you can do without, they are life's essentials, your income, your livelihood.

4:08It can all be taken away. The Word of God is realistic. It doesn't want God's people to be lulled into a false security. The Babylonians will come, but nothing will happen to me. On the contrary, I can lose everything, says a Bacook. What does he do when all this happens? Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God, my Savior. What a change in this man! He struggled with all these things at first. How can the Lord allow this, and now he says, they may happen, yet I will praise the Lord. That little word yet is remarkable here. Our human inclination is to look at what we suffer and then draw conclusion. My vines are empty, I have lost all my cattle, for thus why should I serve the Lord? Why does he do these things to me? A Bacook says, though I may be deprived of all these things, yet I will praise the Lord.

5:09What gives him the strength to say this? He is well aware of the hardship. This is not a case of putting your head in the sand. This is the power of faith. For faith is being certain of the things you do not see. A Bacook says, it may seem that the Lord is left you when you go by the visible evidence, no crops, no animals. But I know the Lord, and I know His power. The same God who comes to destroy the wicked will also use that power to save His people. Verse 13, you came out to deliver your people to save your anointed one. A Bacook's strength is knowing that this awesome God who is coming to judge is His Savior, His Redeemer. He holds onto this truth in His hardship. It gives Him joy, it gives Him strength. And this is why He can say, the sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to go on the heights. He is not seeing the hardship won't hurt me. He is saying, in my hardship, I hold on to God and His Word.

6:14And this is also why He used the Word yet. In verse 16, I heard and my heart pounded. My lips quivered at the sound, decayed, crept into my bones, and my legs tripled, yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. The Lord comes in His power to show Himself King Supreme. It is important to point out that Bacook doesn't make the statement after everything is over. As if this is a conclusion after the Babylonians have come and gone, and He is still alive. Our trust in God is not a conclusion we draw after the hardship has passed. It is a confession before it takes place. Why can't have Bacook do this? Does he know how much he will have to suffer? No, he doesn't know. But he does know the Word of God in the power of his grace, and that gives him strength. We have connected the questions and words of a Bacook to our times.

7:16We are troubled by the power of evil. We too can worry about the coming judgment, and with a Bacook we have to learn to live by faith. We know from His Word that Christ will climb to judge the living and the dead. In the events in this world we, like a Bacook, hear the coming judge, He will pour out His wrath over this world. The Book of Revelation speaks about it as the wrath of the Lamb. It will terrify many. When we think about it our hearts too can pound in our lips, can quiver. Yet we will wait patiently. For He comes to destroy the enemy, and bring His people home. And we confess in question and answer one of the Heidelberg catechism, what comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead? And then the answer comes, in all my sorrow and persecution I lift up my head, and equally await from heaven as judge from heaven, the very same person who before has submitted himself to the judgment of God for my sake, and has removed all the curse from me.

8:23Though we know that Christ's return will come with judgment, and we may be hurt by it. Yet we will rejoice in the Lord. Why? Because we know that His Word goes on in spite of the powers of the enemy. And that makes this little word yet so wonderful. It speaks of the power of God's grace. This yet is not said by the believer who boasts in himself and relies on his own strength. This is the child of God who humbly lives from God's Word. And what gives the children of God the right to do this? The mercy of God in Jesus Christ. I mentioned earlier that we can so easily draw conclusions. If God doesn't give me happiness and health and prosperity, why should I serve Him? And then we look at the things He does to us and draw the conclusion. Imagine the Lord would do the same thing. Look at sinners and what they do to Him and then draw His conclusion. We would have no hope. Also in His dealing with us, the Bible uses the word yet.

9:26We read in Romans 5, verse 8, that God showed His love for us in this that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. God did it because He was faithful to His Word. Because He loves not because we deserve it. That is why we confess in Lord's Day 23 of the high lubrication that although our conscience is accused of sin, yet God, without any merit of our own, gives us the righteousness of Christ, a backer can say, yet I rejoice. Because the Lord says to Him, though you are a sinner, yet I give you my grace. What a wonderful end to this prophecy. It began with questions, it ends with praise. It is given to us so that we living in a world where evil rules in which deserves the judgment of God know how to walk on. It is by faith alone. It is in Christ alone. And therefore follow Him, serve Him, and be joined to His church. In the fellowship of His church He gives us shelter and protection, and there the Spirit

10:32teaches us to say, come, more Jesus. Thank you for listening until next time.