There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Science deals with reason and facts whereas religion (including Christianity) operates on feelings and beliefs.
As science advances, the room for religion gets smaller and smaller.
Science and Christianity conflict with one another.
Christians can be scientists, but they must check their religion at the lab door if they want to make real progress.
These stark statements reflect how many people think, but nothing could be further from the truth. As a devout Christian with a lifelong passion for pursuing science, I contend that not only do science and Christianity work well together, but they also belong together.
Early Science-and-Faith Influences Two memories from my early childhood stand out. I remember being three years old, sitting at the top of the stairs in our duplex, and watching my dad perform a science demonstration for a group of my older brother’s friends. That moment marked the start of my lifelong fascination with science.
A few months later I stood on the banks of the 102 River outside St. Joseph, Missouri, witnessing my parents’ baptisms. My parents’ Christian faith permeated our home, and eventually, I trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior in the fifth grade. Though I became a Christian because what my mom and dad taught me about Christianity made sense, I eventually started investigating the claims of the faith myself. Those studies—which continue to this day—convinced me of the truth of Christianity.
Finding My Identity as a Christian and a Scientist Although my earliest memories include a fascination with science, I wasn’t the stereotypical science kid. I never memorized all the dinosaurs’ names and characteristics. The Christmas chemistry set I received sat unexplored on the shelf until my mom eventually gave it away. Playing with my LEGO or Erector sets usually meant building the equipment according to the instructions or occasionally deviating to replicate something my older brother or Dad designed. Though I enjoyed reading mysteries (like the Hardy Boys, which told you what book to read next), I never solved the puzzles until the author spelled them out in the last chapter.
However, I was very good at math and excelled in my high school science classes—especially chemistry and physics. These disciplines just made sense. I took every advanced science and math class that my high school offered, including two years of a class devoted to a research project. I even took a math class where most of my time was spent researching a specific math topic. Yes, I’m a nerd and spent a year writing a research paper on infinity!
In all honesty, my interest in science arose naturally and it brought a lot of praise and rewards for my accomplishments and knowledge. My science fair projects routinely garnered top prizes. I often received the highest scores on exams and placed well in statewide STEM competitions. As I started college, chemistry, physics, and math continued to just make sense. Even when upper-level classes became difficult, as I improved my studying skills and worked harder, I continued to excel!
Looking back on my studies and eventual success in a STEM career, I recognize that for much of the time my identity was an odd tension between being a Christian and being a successful scientist. I enjoyed the accolades that pursuing science brought and was quick to take personal credit. What I failed to fully comprehend until recently was the fact that my success largely stemmed from the abilities that God gave me. Yes, I worked to develop those gifts, but the innate capacity to do math, quickly reason through situations to understand the essential points, and apply those insights to solve complex problems were talents that reflected how God created me. Upon realizing God’s hand in it all, I shifted my mindset from one of seeking recognition to one of seeking to use those gifts to bring glory to God—at least most of the time.
Thinking Through Apparent Conflicts My first real experience of any conflict occurred during my sophomore year of college. Having started seriously reading the Bible a couple of years earlier, I began reading through Genesis. Upon reading verse 5, I checked out the footnote in my Bible for that verse. It said, “Evening and morning cannot be construed to mean an age, but only a day; everywhere else in the Pentateuch the word day, when used (as here) with a numerical adjective, means a solar day (now calibrated as 24 hours).”1
Even though I knew from my many science classes and studies that multiple lines of evidence pointed to a universe and Earth that were billions of years old, I took this statement about the days seriously. I thought that if the Bible states that the earth was formed in 6 solar days a few thousand years ago, then that’s what I believe. What else would someone who places a high value on the authority of Scripture do?
So, how did I reconcile the seemingly strong scientific evidence for an old Earth with the definitive statement in my Bible’s footnotes of a young Earth? I figured that scientists misunderstood time at a deep level. Though scientists think of time progressing linearly, perhaps time progresses exponentially.
As it turns out, the apparent conflict I perceived between science and the Bible arose because of a lack of knowledge. When investigating the strength of the scientific evidence, I found it quite strong. Applying that same investigative rigor to the meaning of day, I discovered that Christian scholars (more specifically, those who hold the Bible in high regard) don’t agree on the length of the creation days. Some scholars argue for a solar or calendar-day interpretation, some for a day-age position, others for an analogical day meaning and even others contend that the creation week is a theological framework rather than a chronological calendar.2 Sound hermeneutical reasoning stands behind each of these positions. After diligent study, I realized that there was no conflict between the scientific data and the biblical data—only between some scientific interpretations and some biblical interpretations!
This process of conflict resolution happened more than once. I found the same agreement between science and Christianity when investigating whether: (1) a multiverse exists, (2) Mars ever hosted oceans of water, (3) life might live on some other planet, and many other topics. As I experienced each perceived conflict, investigated the scientific and biblical data more carefully, and saw the consistent resolution, my confidence in the truth of Christianity grew stronger and stronger.
I did experience some tension in the church and in the scientific community—but not in the way most people would expect.
Tension in the Church Both the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA at the time) of my childhood and the Evangelical Free Church of college and graduate school had many members with advanced degrees, including scientists and engineers. Consequently, I never really experienced any conflict with fellow church members until I took my first job and started looking for a good church on my own. I moved several times over the next decade, and the tension arose in varying ways in different churches.
One church invited a speaker to address scientific topics and help the congregation know how to respond to scientific challenges. Unfortunately, the speaker proclaimed a number of indefensible scientific statements. One particularly egregious claim was that scientists had slowed the speed of light in a vacuum to a value comparable to a minivan driving down the freeway. For an equivalent effect, imagine a scientist presenting at a conference and making the statement that Jesus paid for his sins and ours on the cross. A Christian would recognize that such a statement demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what Christianity says about Jesus. Similarly, a Christian claiming that the speed of light in a vacuum changes demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about physics. In either case, the listener should be skeptical of any further claims the speaker would assert.
Everyone makes mistakes. However, when I corresponded with the speaker to offer a better understanding, both the pastor and the speaker stridently stood behind the claim. Each seemed to operate from the position that science was a threat to Christianity and no ground could be ceded.
Other churches rarely spoke about science-faith issues, probably because they would stir up controversy. A congregant of one church I attended tried to organize a Saturday afternoon event addressing science-faith topics and invited me to present some of the apologetic tools I had been learning from Reasons to Believe. I agreed but on the condition that he received approval from the pastor. In that process, I ended up having a series of meetings with the pastor. During these meetings, the pastor told me that any old-earth position was not a legitimate interpretation of Scripture. He also strongly implied that it was not possible that God could be directing me to work for Reasons to Believe.
Though I have encountered some people in the evangelical churches I attended who demonstrated hostility toward my old-earth position, those were the exceptions. Most of the time, people were either curious about how I could be a practicing scientist and a strong Christian or were not particularly interested in science at all. Usually, my fellow church members observed my commitment to Christ and active service in the church and placed a higher value on those commitments than on any perceived conflict with science.
Tension in the Lab My experience with scientists who were antagonistic toward Christians started during college and continued afterward. Iowa State University had a vocal atheist who routinely spoke out harshly about religion—Christianity in particular. After graduating, when I would bring up Christian ideas around my colleagues, some would take great offense.
At one conference a speaker addressed the scientific knowledge relating to the origin of life on Earth. During the Q&A afterward, I asked when scientists might be able to distinguish between a created origin of life and a naturalistic origin of life. The question caught the speaker off guard. Yet, he responded by seeking clarity and ultimately said he had never thought about it. However, a couple of other scientists in the crowd vocally wondered if I was “one of those silly creationists.” Even at dinner as my question stimulated a longer discussion, a couple of scientists asserted that such questions don’t belong in science.
Another time I gave a talk describing how religion, specifically Christianity, could make predictions about what scientists might discover. Although most of my colleagues in the audience were either indifferent or inquisitive about details, a few fellow scientists vehemently argued that religion had no place in science.
Even though I experienced some tensions surrounding my passion for science and devotion to the Christian faith, the “conflicts” represent a small fraction of interactions. Most of the time my colleagues assessed my scientific accomplishments to determine whether I had a “place at the table” to discuss Christianity. The better my scientific work, the more secure my place at the table.
Science and Faith Belong Together There’s no doubt that many people think that pursuing science and Christianity inevitably leads to conflict. Some Christians characterize science in a way that conflicts with Christianity. And some scientists characterize Christianity in a way that conflicts with science. My experience shows a different picture. Being a Christian drives me to pursue my scientific endeavors with integrity and in a way that honors God. Being a scientist equips me to think clearly and understand Christianity in a robust and God-honoring way. This makes sense if Christianity is true because the Bible states that God reveals himself in his Word and in creation.
As a Christian, I want to work diligently to properly understand both of these revelations. In fact, living as a committed Christian who does science with excellence shows how God’s revelations consistently agree, and it opens up many avenues for conversations with both those inside and outside the church. I hope to continue to open hearts to the gospel by revealing God in science.
2. For a good resource with respected scholars articulating three of these views (and responding to criticisms from scholars holding differing views), see David G. Hagopian, ed., The Genesis Debate: Three Views on the Days of Creation (Crux Press Inc, 2001).
These days it seems like everything is described as a new religion.Social justice is a new religion. So is climate activism. Trumpism, too. I saw a funny tweet recently about how girlboss feminism has now reinvented the Sabbath, with the shocking news that we might benefit from “one lazy day” a week. Even AI seems to be replacing religion, from giving spiritual guidance to reinventing arranged marriages.
I think this point can be a bit laboured sometimes—but religious faith has collapsed, and many trends and movements have moved in to fill the void. The one that most resembles a religion to me, though, is rise of therapy culture. I think it’s an exaggeration to say all of Gen Z are following the cult of social justice or climate activism—but I really don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that a significant majority of young people now interpret their lives and emotions and relationships through a therapeutic lens.
Of course this isn’t a newidea. As Christopher Lasch put it in 1979: “The contemporary climate is therapeutic, not religious. People today hunger not for personal salvation…but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security.”
But since then this way of thinking has only become more entrenched. I don’t even think young people see this therapeutic worldview as a worldview anymore. It’s hard to overstate how much it shapes our understanding of ourselves and the world. This is how many of us make sense of loss, of love, of hurt now. We refract our relationships through therapy-speak.We define ourselves by our diagnoses. And we mimic religion, all the time. We don’t pray at night; we repeat positive affirmations. We don’t confess; we trauma dump. We don’t seek salvation; we go on healing journeys. We don’t resist temptation from the devil; we reframe intrusive thoughts. We don’t exorcise evil spirits; we release trauma. And of course we don’t talk to God, c’mon—we give a “specific request to the universe” that “has a greater plan” for us.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with these things. I’m not against therapy (unless it’s an app; unless it’s obsessive texting). Meditation isn’t a problem. And of course there’s nothing wrong with getting help if you’re struggling, and becoming a better partner or parent for it. But my worry is with this tendency to obsess over our mental health, to orient ourselves with wellness and self-actualisation as our highest aim—even at the expense of others. My worry with this new faith is that it wrenches aspects of religion from the inconvenient parts; the parts we need most.
Because where is God, in all this? Who is God? Some say therapy culture has no God. I think, more accurately, it’s us. God is who all this revolves around. All these apps and platforms serve us. AI chatbots are “all about you and your mental health journey”! Our online therapist is here to serve our every need, whenever we have one, any time of day. We are the divine; we are the deity. We have become the omniscient,omnipotent, omnibenevolent beings in our lives. There’s a reason, I think, that one of the most popular therapeutic phrases at the moment isis this serving me?
What’s missing then, from this new religion, is moral guidance. Maybe real, rigorous therapy can help you become a better person, but that’s different from the culture girls and young women are growing up in. I’m talking about the TikToks telling us we don’t owe anybody anything. Mental health apps teaching us to track and take seriously our every emotion. Wellness companies pretending we can buy our way to spiritual well-being. The whole lot of it—this nudging to put our own needs first, this message that makes no room for kindness or generosity, that sees obligations to other people as obstacles to our mental health. And that we kid ourselves is self-reflection but really is self-obsession. Honestly look at how many of these positive affirmations and manifestations on TikTok are about us! We aren’t getting on our knees to pray for others—but to MANIFEST MORE for ourselves. COMMAND THE UNIVERSE TO GET WHAT YOU WANT (“UNIVERSE SHOW ME how I get to 100k on TikTok!”) Always I AM I AM I AM, never I SHOULD; I WILL. Put your palms together and manifest 10,000 followers!
It’s hard to put this into words but I think, in some ways, what we actually want is to be humbled. People say Gen Z follow these new faiths because we crave belonging and connection, but what if we also crave commandments? What if we are desperate to be delivered from something? To be at the mercy of something? I think we underestimate how hard it is for young people today to feel their way through life without moral guardrails and guidance, to follow the whims and wishes of our ego and be affirmed by adults every step of the way. I’m not sure that’s actual freedom. And if it is, I’m not sure freedom is what any of us actually wants.
Because look: our mental health is collapsing. Self-harm and suicide rates are on the rise. We feel lonelier than ever; we feel hopeless about the future. Despite the wellness industry being worth trillions now, despite the constant mental health campaigns, despite the relentless raising of awareness, none of it makes a dent. If anything we feel worse. And what’s telling is that the decline in mental health is worse for the least religious, which now happen to be girls and young women. Plenty of research shows that religious people are happier, more connected, and better protected from the pressures of modern life.
So maybe we can replace some aspects of religion. We can find community without church. We can be absolved from guilt and shame in therapy. We can find peace and calm by putting our faith in the universe.But what seems very difficult to replicate are the demands on the self. Not just a sense of continuity with the past, but a sense of obligation to the past—to honour our ancestors, to do right by our future offspring. Religion is not just reckoning with God and with the world, but reckoning with yourself. Not your needs and feelings but all the ways you fall short and fail to put others first. It’s a life devoted not to feeling better but being better; not to better thoughts but better actions. Instead we fear nobody. We need ask no forgiveness. But what if that’s what we need most? Less of a reckoning with childhood trauma, less with social injustice, and more with ourselves?
What’s also missing from this new religion, I think, is a sense of stability, of being part of something bigger, something more enduring. I think young people today are desperate for that deeper connection. I sense it everywhere—this feeling that everything is so empty and evanescent now. A feeling that we are all clawing for something, anything, that is permanent, that isn’t commodified and cheap and ephemeral. Something that lasts! Our entire lives are just a collection of things that can crumble at any moment. We keep our options open. We play it cool. Our long-term relationships fall apart the second someone loses feelings. Even if we do get deeper commitment it’s all a big joke now: marriage vows are funny; the ceremony is a perfect moment for a prank; divorce is a celebration. Meanwhile we estrange ourselves from our families. We try out different places and try on different identities. And if we take the message of therapeutic culture seriously enough, we are in danger of ending up a “well-adjusted person”: not dependent on anyone, nobody reliant on us, with nothing to lose.
And so I think when young people talk about what’s plaguing them—situationships, not getting on the housing ladder, even the climate crisis—what they are often getting at is the transience of everything. Everything uprooted. Everything unstable. They don’t feel attached to anything, anyone, anywhere. They don’t even feel like the Earth will stick around. Nothing in our lives does! Our parents couldn’t even hold it together. And for some reason I can’t fathom we think the answer is to keep encouraging young people to be more detached? Be more free! Travel more; hook up more; enjoy thosesituationships; careful not to invest too much in any one person because that’s how you get hurt. But isn’t that the problem? We say our problem is patriarchy and climate change and election results and the cost-of-living crisis but I think there’s something deeper here; a deeper loss and longing that no material changes would solve. We are looking for something we can place our feet on that won’t fall away. We are looking for something more than this life where people have so few loyalties to each other, where everything is subject to constant change, where we can’t even feel rooted in our culture. I mean it feels as if relationships are even losing the basic requirement to be faithful now, the absolute bare minimum. No I don’t want to treat marriage like an employment contract. I want to be bound more! Bound to people; bound to places; bound to right and wrong!
Because when young people don’t think they can get anything real and lasting, they give up. Obviously. Gen Z say they are rebelling against old-fashioned responsibilities and restraints; we are empowered! I’m not so sure. We call it a revolt; feels more like resignation. No point having kids. No point committing. No point building any sort of foundation with anyone. Life is hopeless. No wonder we are drawn to the gospel of self-love and obsessively managing our own mental health. When everything is transient, might as well live for yourself. The only one left to rely on.
Of course we’re all free to follow our own faith, and I’m grateful for that. But still. Worth thinking about all this. Worth wondering—when we’re downloading these mental health apps in our millions, repeating our positive affirmations, speaking in the language of salvation and higher powers—what we’re really drawn to here. Worth asking ourselves, at least, why we mocked religion only to mimic it. And why what we’re doing isn’t working. My guess is that what we need most in this chaotic world is moral direction. What we need most in a rapidly changing world is rootedness. Could just be me but when I listen to the misery and confusion of my generation beneath it I hear a heartbreaking need—a need to be bound to others, to a community, to a moral code, to something more. This is not enough.
I’m not saying we should all be religious. But I do believe we all worship something. We all serve somebody. And the bitter irony is, the best way to protect your mental health is to be damn sure it isn’t yourself.
Gossip and slander is a heart issue at the root. This means that if we are tempted ourselves to pass on true or false information about another person, we must be prepared to honestly ask, “Lord, what is going on in my heart right now? Why am I tempted to gossip about and/or slander this person? What is the root issue here? My pride? My ego? My desire to get revenge? My hunger for other people’s approval? Lord, what is going on in my heart?”
One of my favorite authors, Jerry Bridges, wrote a book several years ago called Respectable Sins. In this book, he essentially addresses different types of sins that are somewhat “respectable” to most Christians in our day. Meaning, these are sins that are often viewed as minor sins, sins that are not serious enough to be confronted and dealt with in the same way as more serious sins. Respectable sins are sins we typically don’t really address within the walls of the church. Knowingly or unknowingly, we just let them slide.
As Bridges describes, there are big sins that of course we as Christians deal with quickly and unapologetically. The problem is, in the eyes of God, in light of His holiness, these “respectable sins” are just as evil. Yet for some reason we’re comfortable with these. We aren’t bothered by them. Why is this?
One of the primary reasons is because most of us are guilty of them. We are living with these sins, and we don’t have a problem with them. Not really. We have become desensitized to them. Perhaps, we have come to justify them.
Two of these “respectable sins” are slander and gossip. Because these sins are so prominent in our culture, and so prominent in our churches, we are oblivious to their seriousness. We are oblivious to the ways in which they are an offense to God Himself.
Proverbs 18:7 says, “A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.”
Ruin. Snare. These words are weighty. They should put some fear into us. To think that our hearts could become desensitized to the seriousness of slander and gossip? That slander and gossip could become so acceptable to us and to those around us that we are virtually numb to them? This is a scary thought. How dangerous to our souls!
Consider what Proverbs 6:12-14 says about slander and gossip. This passage tells us that an ungodly person “goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord.” It’s a pretty accurate picture. It’s pretty harsh. Continually sowing discord, division, confusion through crooked speech, this is a perfect recipe for bringing dissension to the body of Christ.
Satan loves this.
Some people love it too.
And sometimes, sadly, those people are you and me.
So, the practical question then is, how do we fight against gossip and slander?
Just when you think you know everything — no, I’m not being serious — you discover words and phrases that have been heretofore foreign to your Christian experience, and then face the task of deciding whether you are comfortable with incorporating them into your personal theology or Christian worldview.
Years ago, I encountered a blogger who I had featured here before using the term lorica. A quick trip to Wikipedia offered this:
In the Christian monastic tradition, a lorica is a prayer recited for protection. The Latin word lorica originally meant “armor” or “breastplate.” Both meanings come together in the practice of placing verbal inscriptions on the shields or armorial trappings of knights, who might recite them before going into battle.
Notable loricas include Rob tu mo bhoile, a Comdi cride, which in its English translation provides the text for the hymn Be Thou My Vision, the Lorica of Laidcenn and the Lorica of Saint Patrick, which begins
I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through a belief in the Threeness, Through confession of the Oneness Of the Creator of creation.
Okay. So far so good. Putting on the armor of God is always a good idea. And the Bible offers many “prayers for protection” many of which are Psalms:
Ps. 17:1 Lord, hear a just cause; pay attention to my cry; listen to my prayer— from lips free of deceit. (HCSB)
Ps. 64:1 Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy. 2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity (KJV)
Ps. 140:1 Save me, Lord, from evildoers; keep me safe from violent people. 2 They are always plotting evil, always stirring up quarrels (NIV)
Ps. 54:1 Come with great power, O God, and rescue me! Defend me with your might. 2 Listen to my prayer, O God. Pay attention to my plea. 3 For strangers are attacking me; violent people are trying to kill me. They care nothing for God. (NLT)
So these texts might fit the definition of a lorica.
However, what concerned me greatly when I first researched this word years ago was that the Wikipedia entry was disambiguated (in other words distinguished from other uses of the word) this way: “Lorica (incantation).”
It now reads, “Lorica (prayer),” but I sometimes fear that people fail to catch the nuance; fail to understand the difference.
That can be scary. Dictionary.com defines an incantation as:
1. the chanting or uttering of words purporting to have magical power.
2. the formula employed; a spell or charm.
3. magical ceremonies.
4. magic; sorcery.
5. repetitious wordiness used to conceal a lack of content; obfuscation: Her prose too often resorts to incantation.
Even before I saw the last definition, I was reminded of this verse in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches:
Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
For emphasis, allow me to repeat that 5th definition: “repetitious wordiness used to conceal a lack of content.”
The problem here is that those who practice these repeated prayers believe the source of help lies in the repetition of the words themselves, not in a trust in the one to whom before the request is laid.
Many things might come to mind here, and perhaps the most obvious would be the Roman Catholic practiced that when praying the Rosary, or when carrying out penance for a confessed sin, one needs to repeat the “Our Father” several times and the “Hail Mary” many times. Over and over again.
On one of the Catholic cable channels, there are half-hour blocks consisting entirely of nuns and priests leading people in a constant repetition of the prayer to Mary. (That it is a prayer to Mary is a subject that will have to wait for another day.) Honestly, it’s neither great theology or great television.
But we do this as Evangelicals and Protestants as well; investing ourselves in the believe that our help is found in the prayer, when our help is found in God. I’m not talking here about the times when you are interceding in the middle of a serious or urgent situation; in those times, our focus is on little else, and so we feel we must apply ourselves to pleading with God.
The opposite is also present as well: When our prayer petition is not answered swiftly in the positive way we had hoped, we can feel we didn’t get the words right. We cried to God for thirty minutes, and we should have brought our requests to him for a full hour. There again, that would be putting our faith in the prayer.
So what do we do with the idea of loricas? I think it’s a rather gray area. We don’t need believe in the prayer itself, or give special significance to special prayer forms, we simply need to bring our concerns before our Heavenly Father, our source of help and strength.
I John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (NASB)
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand (v. 11). This final verse uses words and ideas already employed earlier in the psalm (‘make known’, ‘life’, ‘joy’, ‘your presence’, ‘pleasure’, ‘evermore’). He wants to experience God’s leading in the path through life (cf. ‘the path of the righteous’, Prov. 4:18; and ‘the path of peace’, Luke 1:79). Fullness of joy is to be found where the Lord reveals his presence (cf. Pss. 4:7; 21:6), and the pleasant places and things (see v. 6) from the Lord’s hand will last right through life. Hence ‘lasting pleasures’ would be a preferable translation to the niv’s ‘eternal pleasures’.[1]
16:11path of life … joy in your presence. The phrase “path of life” belongs also to the language of wisdom (Prov. 2:19 [pl.]; 5:6; cf. 10:17; see also Matt. 7:14). It is life from God, with God, and in God (Deut. 30:15), who is life itself, and it climaxes in the presence of God. “Your presence” is literally, “your face.” In the Old Testament seeing God’s face was so awesome that it carried the penalty of death (Exod. 33:20). Yet that continued to be the spiritual aspiration of the great worthies of faith, to see God’s face and live. Historically speaking, this is a reference to worship in the temple (Ps. 11:7), and in the history of redemption it is symbolic of the ultimate state when believers will see God’s face (Rev. 22:4).
eternal pleasures at your right hand. The term “right hand” is a metaphor of privilege and authority (see Gen. 48:12–20; Pss. 109:31; 110:5; 121:5). Perowne, among others, understands this text to reveal a hope, even promise, of eternal life.[2]
11. This verse is unsurpassed for the beauty of the prospect it opens up, in words of the utmost simplicity. The path of life is so called, not only because of its goal but because to walk that way is to live, in the true sense of the word, already (cf. 25:10; Prov. 4:18). It leads without a break into God’s presence and into eternity (evermore). The joy (lit. joys) and pleasures are presented as wholly satisfying (this is the force of fullness, from the same root as ‘satisfied’ in 17:15) and endlessly varied, for they are found in both what he is and what he gives—joys of his face (the meaning of presence) and of his right hand. The refugee of verse 1 finds himself an heir, and his inheritance beyond all imagining and all exploring.[3]
Ver. 11. Thou wilt show me the path of life.—The path of life:—
Not merely, that is, the life of the body. This is shown by the pleasure and joy spoken of afterwards, which are to be found in God’s presence, and in communion with Him. “Life,” in the only true sense, is union with God, and from that springs, of necessity, the idea of immortality. It seems impossible to suppose that David, who here expresses such a fulness of confidence in God, such a living personal relationship to Him, could have dreamed that such a relationship would end with death. In this Psalm, and in the next, there shines forth the bright hope of everlasting life. Why should man question this? Even the heathen struggled to believe that they should abide after death. Would they to whom God had revealed Himself, and who were bound to Him in a personal covenant, be left in greater darkness? Impossible! The argument which our Lord used with the Sadducees applies here with special force—God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. They to whom God has made Himself known, they who are one with Him, cannot lose that Divine life of which they are made partakers. Immortality (and a resurrection, Psa. 17:15) follows from the life of the spirit. And though probably there would be many fluctuations of belief, though the spiritual eye would not always be clear, it seems impossible to doubt, when we read passages such as this, that there were times at least when the hope of life beyond the grave did become distinct and palpable. At the same time, in the utterance of this confident persuasion and hope David was carried beyond himself. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)
The two ways:—
(Taken with Prov. 14:12.) There is such a thing in this dying world as a “path of life.” This is represented as leading into fellowship with Him, in whose presence there is fulness of joy. “At Thy right hand,” and thither the path leads, “there are pleasures for evermore.” There are two distinct and contrasted ways or lines of life. The one is called “the way of life,” the other is “the way that seemeth right unto a man.” Set the two ways before you, and ask a deliberate choice. The first thing in journeying is to know where you are going. The one is the way of life, because it is a way which can only be traversed by those who live in the full sense of the word. The highest faculty of our nature is that spiritual capacity which enables us to hold communion with God. And also because it is the way in which alone life can be sustained. And further, because it leads to life. Look at the other way. It “seemeth right unto a man.” Only “seemeth.” But it is not what it seems. It is very popular. Everybody takes it. That does not make its character good, or its end desirable. (W. Hay Aitken, M.A.)
The desire for life:—
Beyond the fact that this Psalm was written by David, we know nothing of the circumstances of its authorship. It is evidently called forth by some signal display of the Divine goodness. The Psalmist felt round about him the strengthening sense of that protecting power and presence of God which filled his heart with confidence and made his cup to overflow with the wine of joy.
I. Every true religious sentiment meets with universal response. Like as the æsthetic sentiments of mankind, our best feelings of the beautiful in art and music, were given to the Greeks to preserve and develop; so the religious sentiments of mankind, our feelings of the Divine and spiritual, seem to have been the especial care and heritage of the Jewish race. And as our feelings of beauty are eternal, so that Greek art and poetry will never be unappreciated, so are our intuitions of righteousness, our yearnings for the Divine eternal, and hence the Bible will never die, its perennial fountain will never dry up.
II. Life is universally desired. Else why the frantic struggles to maintain it, even in its most wretched conditions. Only when reason has lost her sway does the suicide do his work.
III. But none can say what life is, any more than we can say what electricity is, what gravitation is. We see it, we feel it, we are conscious of it; but that is all. We know it only by its manifestations, and if we can see in what these agree, what they have in common, our text will have much meaning. The exotic cannot bear frost, the camellia from the hothouse perishes before it. The luxuriously reared child suddenly flung into poverty and want would probably die. Now, in all these cases there has been change in the surroundings; but if, with the changed outward conditions in each case, the inward conditions as well could have been changed, the mischief in each case would not have happened. But they were not so changed, and so there was either death or else a diminution of the powers of living. For life, then, there is needed the complete correspondence between the inward nature and the outward surroundings, harmony between them and our nature. Apply all this to the spiritual life. For this life also there must be harmony between itself and its surroundings. What are these, what its soil, atmosphere, elements of growth, its habitat or dwelling-place? God—is the answer; there is none other. God revealed as our spiritual Father is the spirit’s fit outward surroundings, its external relations. Hence, would we live the true spiritual life we must be in harmony with God, our environment. The low, sensual, selfish life kills the spiritual life, as the frost killed the flower. But where, as in Christ supremely, there is harmony between God and the soul, there is the true life. Christ is the way, because He is the revelation of God. (H. Varley, B.A.)
The path of life:—
1. It is the path, because while all other paths end at death, this begins there.
2. Christ took the first step in this path. Some one must lead in it, and He did, and now says, “Follow Me.”
3. It is a customary road; a path is so. There never was another than this, and never will be.
4. Every one who walks in it makes it plainer and easier. We help others to walk in it by walking in it ourselves.
5. Beware, as we go through life, of diverging paths that lead astray to death.
6. The Bible is the lamp in our path.
7. We are always walking in some path—either of life or death. We cannot stand still.
8. To walk in a path we must put forth energy and activity. We must not only know it but walk in it.
9. The path of life, to those who walk in it, grows brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
10. Divine guidance is necessary and promised. “Thou wilt show me the path of life.” “He will direct thy paths.”
11. Am I walking in it? (J. Stanford Holme, D.D.)
The path of life:—
The whole passage primarily refers to our Lord Jesus Christ, and the meaning is—My heart is glad, &c., for Thou wilt show me the path of life, or, Thou hast shown me. But we may apply the words to all who are Christ’s, who may be considered here—
I. As rejoicing in the life of grace. God quickened in them this life (Eph. 2:1); for they were spiritually dead. Not Scripture alone teaches this, but observation and experience. Religious things make no more impression on the spiritually dead than sunbeams on a rock. But God’s mercy comes in conversion, which is the quickening spoken of. Then are we born again, and begin really to live.
II. They rejoice, also, in the assurance of being conducted safe to glory. How else should a dying saint have any comfort at all? How shall a poor stranger in such a dark abyss find the path of life? Then—
1. How thankful should we be for the Gospel. Reason may argue in favour of the immortality of the soul, but could never show that such sinful creatures as we are should be admitted into the presence of God.
2. How sharply to be reproved and greatly to be pitied are they who will not walk in the path of life. (Samuel Lavington.)
The path of life:—
I. Thoughts suggested by the metaphor. A path. The believer’s life is a journey—a walk (Gen. 17:1; 5:24; Isa. 30:21; Eph. 4:1). We need both a door and a path. An entrance into life, and a pathway in it.
II. The teaching contained in the passage. The Psalm is prophetic of Christ. To Him “the path of life” was first opened. Lost man had no way to God. The path to life was from the manger to the Cross. The path of life is from the Cross to glory. Adam through sin had forfeited his right of access into the presence of God. Through Christ the way to paradise is opened.
III. Lessons. Man cannot make his own way to God. It is a path already opened for us. We need God to reveal it to us. We must be brought to its true starting-point. The path brings us into the presence and puts before us a prospect. The path brightens as we advance. (E. H. Hopkins.)
The path of life:—
I. An encouraging promise of Divine direction. Consider the text in reference to God’s answer to prayer. Has not every one the greatest need of Divine direction and heavenly illumination in his passage through life? What untiring diligence, unceasing watchfulness, and persevering prayer is every Christian constrained to use in his hourly converse with the world! How solicitous should every Christian be that, as every step of his life is leading to the path of death, he may be so guided by Divine counsel as to be directed to the path of life, to the path of glory, honour, and immortality, even eternal life.
II. The happy and blessed results arising from attention to this direction. An admission into His presence, where there is fulness of joy. It is the presence of God, our heavenly Father, which constitutes this fulness of joy. Fulness of joy can only be consummated in the other world. But what tongue can unfold the felicity of that state?
III. The eternal duration of the heavenly glory. This it is which invests the subject with the most momentous and overwhelming magnitude. (Nat. Meeres, B. D.)
The assurance of our personal immortality, and what it involves:—
Annihilation of man, or even of an atom, is unknown in God’s universe; while the grave is the place in which is covered what would otherwise be painful, offensive, and injurious to survivors. We know life is uncertain; but we practically regard it as certain, at least for a few years. There is in all of us faith in a future life, and hope and desire that in that life our merciful Creator will perfect our nature, and confer upon us a painless and unbroken happiness. The immortality of our race is deeply interesting, but our individual immortality, and what it involves, should be to us a matter of practical and daily concern. There is a sense in which men discover their value in the scale of being. They learn that they have not only a body but a soul, that not only must the wants of the body be supplied, but the mind must be trained, and the soul kept under God’s government, for its present health and future bliss. There are three states of man’s reasoning mind which no instinct of the lower animals that we are acquainted with has ever suggested—
1. We have no evidence that any creature except man expects death, or has any knowledge of it.
2. The idea of a future life cannot be entertained by the horse or the elephant, by the ant or the bee.
3. As little capacity have they for the desire of it. The instincts of brutes concern their present wants; but man, by his superior endowment, ranges over the present and the future, over what is near and far distant, and by the high faculty of reason can awake to a consciousness of God, and of his own personal immortality. Christianity has given to man a familiarity with pure religion for the soul, for moral and holy discipline, and for appreciating his destiny, which none of the old philosophies had the power to give or to enforce. We are now assured by Jesus that we shall live for ever, and, assuming this, it should involve hopes and duties in relation to ourselves and others of high and practical import.
1. It should involve sacred regard for our own life, and for that of others. The sacredness and value of our own life, and of that of others, should ever be a practical lesson inwrought daily with our very being, whether on the smallest or largest scale. Crime against the person cannot cease unless humanity is respected. There can be no respect for it where there are no just views of its dignity, worth, and moral and religious power; and the way to elevate it is not by depreciating and debasing it, nor by discouraging or damning it; but by loving efforts for its recovery, by purifying the sources of temptation to crime, &c. It also demands on our part sacred regard for the life of others. A hope of immortality also involves a sacred regard to our personal virtue, and to that of others. Whatever will purify our nature, control our passions, convince us of the evil and bitterness of sin, elevate our thoughts and affections, and help us onward in our Christian course, we should seek more perfectly to possess in the prospect of an immortal life.
2. If we had not the immortal life before us we should think of death as our end. In the prospect of our immortal life it must be wise, and every way worthy of us, to form the purest, most holy, and most just conceptions of the blessed God. But how can this personal immortality be assured? We have a soul; it implies immortality. The inequalities of the present state of man imply a sphere of re-adjustment. We desire immortality. The Bible declares it. These grounds of assurance with our individual consciousness, desire, and hope, are what men rest upon in relation to their immortality. It cannot be mathematically, philosophically, or logically demonstrated. (R. Ainslie.)
In Thy presence is fulness of joy.—The bliss of the Divine presence:—
Heaven is often described by negatives, but here we have positive statement as to that in which it consists. Therefore consider its perfection.
I. In extent. The state contemplated will be after the resurrection, as it was for our Lord after His resurrection. Hence St. Paul says, “Our conversation is in heaven.” And he tells us also of the “glorious body,” the “spiritual body” which shall be ours then (1 Cor. 15:44). And the mind also will partake in this glory, this fulness of joy. How much will result from memory. Also from survey of the present—the heavenly city, the glory of God, the Saviour. And the future, too, will minister to this joy. And the affections likewise, profound admiration, ardent gratitude, entire confidence, perfect love.
II. Its degree. This, too, will be perfect. There will be difference of capacity, and so of degree, which will be determined mainly by character. All that hinders full excellence here will be absent there.
III. In duration. It will be endless, and therefore perfect. “These are pleasures for evermore.” Without this we could not be satisfied. “A perpetuity of bliss is bliss.” Could we fear an end to it, it would wither. Many have denied eternal punishment, but none eternal bliss. Remember its spirituality and purity, and anticipate it with joy. (J. Kay.)
God’s presence manifested in heaven:—
The manifestation of God to man, which was begun in paradise, is to be continued through eternity. It has been maintained by some that the soul of man ceases to exist at the death of the body, and that there is an actual hiatus in man’s being from the moment of death to the period of the resurrection. Others, while admitting the continued existence of the soul, divest it of all consciousness, and suppose it to pass into a state of torpor, until awaked on the morning of the resurrection. In the dissolution of man we see these two distinct substances, body and soul, separated one from the other, and each consigned to a widely different destiny, the body to the earth from which it was taken, and the soul to a continued existence in the spiritual world (Eccles. 12:7; Matt. 10:28). Here it is evidently taught, such is the vitality of the soul, that no power can annihilate it but the omnipotence of that Being who brought it into existence; and therefore to deny its immortality is to contradict the plainest testimony of God Himself. Equally opposed to the authority of Holy Scripture is the theory which teaches that, at death, the soul passes into a state of unconsciousness until the resurrection Our Lord, when confuting the materialists of His day, who cavilled at His doctrine, asserted the actual conscious existence of the Jewish patriarchs, though at that time the latest of them had been dead nearly two thousand years. When the Saviour was about to expire as our atoning victim He said to the thief, who was dying by His side as a penitent malefactor, “Verily, to-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” When Lazarus died, angels carried him into Abraham’s bosom; and when the rich man died, in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. Now, had the souls of men passed at death into a state of unconsciousness, the condition of Lazarus and of the rich man would have been perfectly alike; but here their state is that of awful contrast, the one of blessedness, the other of torment. In conformity with these representations the apostle Paul speaks of death as being preferable to life. But why preferable? Because, as he affirms, to die was gain. Yet to pass into a state of unconsciousness would be to suffer loss—the loss of all the enjoyments and privileges of life (Phil. 1:21–23; 2 Cor. 5:6–8). While these passages decide the question as to the continued existence and consciousness of the soul, they also unfold the grand cause of its blessedness—it is in the soul’s being with Christ. The promise to the dying thief was, not only that he should be in paradise, but with Christ in paradise. The blessedness anticipated by St. Paul consisted in his being with Christ. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Thus these two ideas—the presence and manifestation of God to man—belong to the dispensation of eternity as well as time, and constitute the blessedness of heaven as well as of earth. The soul was made for God, and can find neither happiness nor satisfaction without Him. This is a law of our being, and is as applicable to the future as it is to the present life. Gravitation is not a more universal and imperative law in the physical universe than is this law of dependence on God in the spiritual world. Let us notice some of the conditions which render heaven an advanced dispensation for the realisation of the presence and manifestation of God to the human soul.
1. In heaven there will be perfect freedom from all the evils, sufferings, and dangers of the present state of being. Ever since man fell from God he has been subject to the evils and sorrows of a fallen state; and though religion greatly mitigates the sufferings of humanity, and supports us under them, yet its highest attainments cannot remove them. The world, the flesh, and the devil are antagonistic to our spiritual welfare, and the Christian life is an athletic struggle—a warfare against active foes and evil influences, which beset us at every step. We inherit diseases, afflictions, and death. Though such a state of things may suit a period of discipline and probation, it is not compatible with a state of absolute safety and perfect enjoyment. The battlefield may develop the courage and valour of the warrior, but the tranquil bower suits the contemplation of the philosopher. The storms of winter may cause to strike deeper the roots of the tree, but the calm sunshine of summer is required to develop its foliage and ripen its fruit. The struggles and tears of a probationary life may give nerve and athletic vigour to the Christian, but the calm rest which remaineth for the people of God is the state better suited to the contemplation of the Divine perfections and the deep consciousness of the Divine presence.
2. In heaven the powers of the soul will be quickened and its capacities enlarged. In the present state the soul, being united to a material fabric, performs many of its acts through a material organisation. A large proportion of its ideas are received through the medium of the senses. There is, however, as clear a distinction between the faculties of the soul and the material organs through which it acts, as there is between the soul itself and the fabric in which it resides. It is the soul that sees and hears, and the eye is merely the optical instrument through which it sees; and the ear is but the acoustic apparatus by which it perceives the various sounds, harsh or harmonious, which are made by the vibrations of the atmosphere. The same principle applies to the other material organs, through which the soul receives impressions and performs its various operations. Besides, it must be remembered that the Holy Spirit has the power of communicating, and the soul the capability of receiving, ideas and impressions by direct and immediate contact, without the interposition of the bodily senses. Hence the inspiration of prophets, and the Divine illumination and spiritual emotions of believers. The mind can abstract, compound, reason, imagine, cherish principles, and experience emotions of deepest joy or anguish, by its own internal operations, even when some of the organs of sense are destroyed. What visions of beauty and grandeur did the mind of Milton create after his eyeballs had ceased to admit a ray of material light! But in this case the mind is already furnished, all its faculties stimulated by exercise, refined and expanded by knowledge, and its emotions excited by experience. Let us then suppose such a mind, during the life of the body, bereft not only of one, two, or three, but of all the five senses: what then would be its state? True, it would be cut off from all further communication with the external world; but it would still have a world within itself—a world of thought, reasoning, and imagination, equally capacious, and of emotion far more intense than it had before. If such, in truth, would be the state of a soul deprived of the organs of sense, but still linked to the living material fabric, what should hinder it from possessing and exercising the same powers and realising the same state when the body ceases to breathe? Death is nothing more than the dissolution of the material fabric—the understanding, the memory, the judgment, the conscience, the powers of volition and emotion are still inherent, as essential properties of its nature, and must remain with it for ever; but vastly increased in their activity and intensity, in consequence of their separation from the earthly tabernacle in which they had resided. All the representations of Holy Scripture sustain these views of the soul in the separate state. The soul of the rich man in hell was in a state of vivid consciousness, having a clear knowledge of the present, with a full recollection of the past, a keen susceptibility of suffering. That the faculties of the soul in the separate state are more vigorous and capacious, and therefore better adapted for receiving the manifestation of God, than while in this mortal body, may be further argued on various grounds. The body has many wants of its own which, though inferior, are imperative in their demands, and retard the development of mind. But on the soul’s dismissal from the body these wants all cease, together with all the cares and toils they occasioned, leaving the soul unbroken leisure for contemplations and pursuits congenial to its nature, and exercises adapted to accelerate its highest attainments in knowledge, holiness, and bliss. While united to the body in its present state, the soul is located to a confined and narrow spot of Jehovah’s dominions, and cannot explore those displays of the Divine perfections which are presented in other and brighter regions of the universe. Nor is a world abounding with error the most fitted for the perception of truth; nor a world of sin the best adapted to the growth of moral excellence. Even now, the mind borrows from art means to supply the deficiencies of its own material organs: the microscope to magnify the diminutive, the telescope to discover the remote, and the acoustic tube to convey distant sounds, because the eye and the ear are not fully adequate to the mind’s investigations. Hence our best perceptions are but limited and obscure. The narrow grating of a dungeon admits a portion of the light of heaven, but let the incarcerated captive emerge from his cell and he beholds the whole hemisphere beaming with light, and an extended prospect filled with ten thousand beauties unknown before. So may the soul on passing from the body, which now limits its operations. Besides, this material fabric is too frail for the full exertion of mental power. Intense thinking softens the brain, and intense feeling, whether joyous or painful, soon exhausts the nervous energy. Progress is the law of mind, but decay the law of matter; and, within a very few years, the body becomes incapacitated as the medium for mental attainment and progress. So that were not death to relieve the soul from the restraints of physical weakness and the decay of age, the development of mind must be arrested and its noble powers be doomed to stop in their progress, just at a point when most fitted to make the greatest advancement and to realise the highest joys. But the soul, on emerging from the body, escapes from these restraints; it breaks its fetters and enters upon a state in which it may exert its vigorous powers unhindered by weakness, unarrested by decay, and expand its capacities without limit and without end. In such a state how adapted the soul to drink in the knowledge of God, to receive the disclosures of Jehovah’s perfections, to enjoy the manifestations of His presence, and to sustain an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. The sublime mysteries of creation, providence, and redemption, continually unfolding new glories, will astonish and delight the mind for ever.
3. As another facility for the manifestation of God, the soul shall be admitted into His immediate presence. Heaven is a place as well as a state of being. It is said that spirit has no relation to place, but we confess to the vulgar conception that if a spirit exist it must be either everywhere or somewhere; that unless it be ubiquitous it must have a limited presence. And, as in the present life, the human spirit is located in the human body, so in eternity it must have a location. As there was a locality for the Shekinah, the visible symbol of the Divine presence, so there is a sacred place, a distinct region, where the personal presence of Jehovah is manifested and displayed. To determine the particular locality where heaven is, no man is able. As to the description of this glorious place, language fails to set forth its beauty. In every inspired description of heaven the Shekinah, or the visible presence of God, is made prominent. The earthly temple, while forming a shrine for the Shekinah, was a mode of its concealment from the ordinary view of the people. The glory was curtained off and shut in, so that the radiant symbol was enthroned in solitary majesty in the most holy place. But in the New Jerusalem no temple is seen, for no external shade is required; and in the brightness of a better dispensation, concealment and restriction have disappeared. Here, then, is the first consummation of the believer’s aspirations and hopes. At last the wilderness is left, and the promised paradise is gained; the weary pilgrim has arrived at home; the absent son and heir has entered his Father’s house. The journey of faith ends in realising vision and actual possession. “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.” But love longs for the sight and presence of its object. But while the promises, which speak of our seeing God, imply an optical vision of the Deity, they imply also a more enlarged, comprehensive, and profound knowledge of His character and perfections; for the manifestation of the Deity, in order to our enjoyment of Him, is the end of all His dispensations, and applies to heaven as well as earth. Hitherto we have seen a gradual brightening of this manifestation, as one economy has succeeded another; and the manifestation in heaven shall be brighter than all its predecessors. Moreover, as the perfection of our vision always depends upon the perfection of the visual organ, and its proper adjustment to the object beheld, as well as upon the degree of light thrown upon it, so does the perfection of the soul’s knowledge of God depend upon its moral state, as well as upon the increased light which will beam upon it in eternity. So the untutored savage and the sensualist perceive but little, though they see much, for a brutish man knoweth not these things. Hence there is an amazing difference between men’s power of perception and appreciation, arising from the difference in their mental state, their education and habits of life; and often as great a difference between the same men in different periods of their own history! But the pure in heart see God. Their eye is open to perceive Him; their affections are sanctified to appreciate Him, and their aspirations are spiritual to enjoy the Holy One; and thus men see God just in proportion to their personal purity and their resemblance to Him. Here, then, we perceive important reasons which account for a deeper, a richer, a sublimer manifestation of God to the soul in heaven. All the conditions of the mind will favour this development. While absent from a world of illusion, while free from the restraints of a weak and decaying body, it is free from every vestige of sin; while dwelling in the light of the Divine presence, it is capacitated by a state of perfect holiness for seeing and appreciating the beauty of the Lord. There sin shall no more avert the eye from God, nor blur its perception of His glory.
4. In heaven the disposition for communion will be perfectly developed, affording the highest and most perfect gratification of that social principle which God has implanted in our nature. Man was formed for society. Yet society, as it exists in this world, is confessedly imperfect. Sin has infused its poison into this, as well as into every other cup of earthly happiness. There is a want of confidence, of disinterested affection, of constancy and fidelity. But in heaven this defect shall be supplied. For there angels and archangels, and the spirits of just men made perfect—all beings of unspotted holiness and full of love—will be our companions and our friends. “In this world the possession of a few friends, nay, even of one friend, is justly deemed an invaluable treasure, but what will be our blessedness in that world where all are our friends, and where the soul, like the region where it dwells, will be capacious enough to admit them all?” No rival interests, no conflicting aims, no jarring passions, no malign or discordant tempers disturb the society of heaven. This holy fellowship of heaven will contribute, in no small degree, to the grand purpose of a further manifestation of God to His intelligent creatures. In such a state of being, and favoured with such society, how rapidly must the soul grow in the knowledge of God! What are earthly teachers, however erudite, eloquent, and profound, compared with our instructors in heaven? What are our learned libraries here compared with the accumulated treasures of heavenly wisdom and knowledge there? What, indeed, are our present revelations, conveyed as they are through the imperfect medium of human speech, and received by minds so dull in their apprehensions?
5. In heaven there shall also be the most intimate, delightful, and ennobling communion with God. The disposition for communion dwells in the Deity Himself and ere a solitary creature existed it was reciprocally exercised between the persons of the Godhead—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man being formed in God’s image and likeness, this disposition for communion was implanted in his nature; and while it gives man delight in the society of his fellow-man, and makes the communication of thought and affection a source of happiness, it finds its highest gratification and development in fellowship with God. There the soul, dwelling in the immediate presence of Deity, and disengaged from the absorbing cares and distractions of a secular state of being, will realise the most intimate and uninterrupted fellowship with God. It will not, indeed, as the oriental philosophy teaches, be absorbed into the Deity, and, losing its personal consciousness, be swallowed up in the abyss of the Godhead; but with its identity preserved, as distinct and personal as it is in this inferior state, it will realise a union with God so perfect in the aspirations of its desires, in the intercommunion of its thoughts and affections, that it will live in God and God in it. We know a man best, not by seeing his picture or reading his history, but by personal intercourse and communion. Thus two congenial minds penetrate into each other’s thoughts, and reciprocate each other’s dispositions; they see as they are seen, and know as they are known. And thus it is (let us reverently speak it) that the soul knows the great and eternal God—not merely intellectually, as His perfections are displayed in His works and His character unfolded in progressive dispensations, but in the deep personal consciousness of our union with Deity. In this manifestation of the Deity the Holy Spirit will operate in heaven as He does on earth, but with an augmented power proportioned to the superior state and capacity of disembodied souls. Searching, as He does, the deep things of God, He will reveal them to the blessed, with whom He will abide for ever,
6. In heaven the saints will be engaged in the most ennobling employments.
7. There is one word uttered by an inspired apostle which is more pregnant with meaning as to the manifestation of God to the soul in the spiritual world, and of the eternal happiness flowing from it, than could be expressed by a thousand volumes. It is the single declaration that we “are heirs of God.” The apostle says the believer is an heir—not of the material universe, for that is poor compared with the treasure named—not of heaven, for that is not expressive of the opulence intended; but he is an heir of the God of the universe, of Him whose presence makes heaven what it is—an heir of the Deity Himself. As the mind has no limit to its development, nothing but the infinite can suffice for it; and there is nothing infinite but God. Of God Himself, then, the believer is now an heir; in eternity he enters into his possession and enjoyment, with free and full access to the fountain of eternal blessedness. All there is in God is his: his to know, so far as his understanding can comprehend; his to enjoy, so far as his capacity can contain; and eternity itself is designed to yield successive developments of the infinite fulness there is in God.
8. The state of the soul in heaven is one of further expectation. No dispensation which God has given to man in the present world has been a complete and ultimate good, but an instalment of some greater good to come. Promise and prophecy have ever led the mind onward and upward. Indeed, the exercise of faith and hope has been a prominent and indispensable element in that educational process by which the great Teacher has trained and developed the human mind in every age. Hence the progressive development of the Gospel plan, from the first promise of a Saviour through the successive stages of the Divine economy. Hence, too, the transition from the cloudy symbol of the temple to the personal manifestation of the incarnate God. Thus faith and hope live in heaven as well as on earth; and though much once promised is now realised, yet from the elevation to which he is exalted he beholds a wider horizon of truth and a brighter prospect of future blessedness; and faith in the promise and hope of the expected good are elements of his present enjoyment. Having noticed the various elements of the happiness of heaven, we ought here to remark that the essential qualification for this blessedness is holiness. We cannot conclude without adverting to the awful contrast presented in the condition of the wicked after death. They have the same nature, but a different doom. (W. Cooke, D.D.)
Heavenly felicity:—
I. The nature of heavenly felicity. It is living in the presence of God. It is living at the right hand of God, that is, in a state of exaltation, dignity, and glory. It is a state of joy. It is a state of pleasure.
II. The plenitude of heavenly felicity. Expressed by the word “fulness.” Here our enjoyments, even our religious enjoyments, are accompanied by fear, mixed with sorrow, frequently interrupted, at best but partial, and at most but small. There will be fulness, what is pure, without any alloy; perpetual, without any interruption; and what is enough, without any satiety.
III. The duration of heavenly felicity will be for evermore. “Evermore” is one of the scriptural expressions denoting interminable duration. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
The power of a presence:—
Not necessarily a spoken word or an act performed—simply a presence. There is a Divine presence, distinct from any word, or act, or exercise of Divine power; the charm is found in this, that God is there; it is what He is, not what He does or says, which His presence emphasises. The use of worship is partly this, that it makes His invisible presence a reality. The more forms and ceremonies corrupt the simplicity of worship, the more is attention diverted from God as a spirit. Closet prayer is especially helpful, if not hurried and superficial. To wait until a proper conception of God’s presence impresses the soul makes prayer of vastly more service to the suppliant. Every human being has a presence. It used to be said of Lord Chatham, that in the man was something finer than in anything he said. We bear with us a power that for good or evil is greater than any influence exerted by our deliberate acts or words. Swedenborg called it an “atmosphere.” It is as inseparable from the person as the fragrance from the flower. It is the unconscious reflection and transmission of character. It sometimes contradicts the words and studied externals; and it sometimes coincides with and confirms their witness. That atmosphere makes the home and the Church and society more than all else. Negatively, a good “presence” restrains, and positively, it inspires. To stay in Fénelon’s society, an infidel said, would compel him to be a Christian. While we emphasise the deliberate and voluntary part of our lives, God doubtless sees that the most potent, for good or evil, are the influences which silently and unconsciously go out from us, like the savour of salt and the radiance of light. (Homiletic Review.)
True happiness:—
I. True happiness is not to be expected here. This is implied in the text. The world is not our home. This life is but a small part of our existence. Take a general survey of the condition of human life. How weak and helpless is infancy! Childhood and youth are vanity! How many dangers always attend us! Who is secure? Changes of condition and circumstances are many times as sudden as they are sad. God is good and wise, as well as great. His benevolence is as unbounded as His power. Joys are mingled with our sorrows. Religion does not undertake to preserve its friends from affliction, but forewarns them of it, that they may be prepared to meet it. And it is a mighty support and cordial under it. Moreover, we have never found in the world as much as corresponds with all the capacities, and fully answers all the expectations, and gratifies all the desires of our souls.
II. Where shall we partake of that happiness of which our nature renders us capable? We must die before we can thus live. Death will transmit the children of God to the glorious presence of their heavenly Father, and there shall they be blessed.
III. The properties and excellencies of our future blessedness.
1. As to the degree—perfection. Nothing is wanting to render the joy complete.
2. As to the duration—perpetuity. The joys are for evermore. God is the fountain; and pleasures flow at His right hand in an endless stream. Reflections.
(1) Give not up your prospects and hopes of heavenly pleasures, perfect and perpetual as they are, for the sake of any worldly profits or sinful pleasures.
(2) To be without God’s gracious presence with us upon earth is very grievous; and with that we ought to give no place to fear and dejection, fear of evils that may happen to us, or dejection under such as have already overtaken us. (E. Sandercock, D.D.)
The happiness of the saints:—
Joy is the soul’s rest and satisfaction in the enjoyment of a suitable good.
1. The character of those who shall have fulness of joy. Such as repent of their sins; believe in Christ, are upright in their profession, and follow the example of Christ.
2. Wherein this blessedness consists. The presence of God is the presence of His glory; the presence of His face, without a veil; His immediate presence, without obscuring mediums; His countenancing presence, as a pleased friend and father; His fixed and abiding presence, we shall be for ever with Him; His influxive and efficacious presence, a glimpse of which made Moses’ face to shine. Their happiness is also occasioned by those joys and pleasures which are at God’s right hand. The joy and pleasures of the heavenly world are spiritual and heavenly, not carnal and earthly. Pure without mixture. A multitude without number. Full without any want. Constant, without diminution or interruption. Perpetual. Improvement:
1. Hence see the folly and madness of those who seek their portion in this life.
2. Let such glorious views and expectations comfort the heirs of glory in the midst of all their tribulations.
3. Let it excite all such to diligence and activity in the ways of God. (T. Hannam.)
The emotions of a saint just arrived in heaven:—
Fulness of joy is a most comprehensive expression. It implies the perfection of enjoyment in all the faculties of being. That joy which is destined to ultimate extinguishment cannot be said to be perfect joy. The expression “fulness of joy” cannot have relation to this world. It must stand related to some other and higher sphere. Heaven is the goal of the Christian’s race.
1. The glorified Christian will feel that he has been the subject of a change which affects everything connected with him save his identity. One source of singular emotions is the absence of the body, the former inlet of physical pain, and of general suffering.
2. Another source of new and joyful emotions springs from the unencumbered action of the spirit, and its unconstrained inspiration in the air of heaven.
3. Another source of happiness is the fact that the believer has now entered into more exalted society than he enjoyed on earth.
4. The friendships of heaven will be of a higher order than those of earth.
5. Another element will be the clear light which will then be shed upon all God’s dealings with the believer while he was upon earth.
6. That which will give fulness of joy to the glorified believer will be the unutterable privilege of standing in the presence of his Saviour Jesus Christ. (A. S. Gardner.)
The presence of God:—
I. What we are to understand by the presence of God here. God is present everywhere by His infinite knowledge and almighty energy. He fills universal nature. But the Psalmist speaks of a more gracious presence, those peculiar manifestations of Himself with which He delights His believing and obedient people, and which He affords them through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only in Jesus Christ that we, sinful creatures, can see or think of a holy and just God with any comfort.
II. How does it appear that in this presence there is fulness of joy? Consider this presence as it is known in—
1. This world. Here the enjoyment of it first begins. To the good man the Divine presence gives a peculiar and most lively relish to every enjoyment here. The creatures around us, the beauties of nature and art, the social connections in life, the Divine Word, and all means of grace, are all more desirable and delightful as tokens of the Divine presence are found in them. We are all exposed to affliction, trials, perils and death, and our consolation in all comes from the presence of God.
2. The world to come. There our joy will be full indeed, because—
(1) It will be absolutely pure and unmixed. It will be all joy, without any alloy of sorrow; without even the fear of it.
(2) It answers to every want and desire of our nature. It includes every possible delight, and will leave no desire unsatisfied.
(3) It will be full in point of duration. It will fill even the endless ages of eternity itself.
(4) It is all derived from, and supported by, the fulness of Christ. Improvement:
1. How mean the sentiments and pursuits of the bulk of mankind appear in view of this truth.
2. There must be some very great change wrought in us, before we can so enjoy the Divine presence as to find our happiness there.
3. How invaluable a blessing the Gospel is. (Daniel Turner.)
The presence of God, as it is the heaven and happiness of the saints:—
The presence of God maketh heaven, and the perfect happiness to be enjoyed there.
I. The characters of those who shall be blessed by being in the presence of God forever.
1. Those who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ with a Divine, practical, heart-purifying, and life-sanctifying faith.
2. You who are upright in a good profession.
3. You who are Christ’s honest servants.
II. What presence of God makes heaven unto the saints. The presence of His essence is as really on earth as in heaven.
1. The presence of God that makes happy in heaven is the presence of His glory.
2. It is the presence of His face; in the glory of the Mediator.
3. His immediate presence, manifested no longer through obscuring mediums.
4. His countenancing presence.
5. His fixed and abiding presence.
6. His efficacious and influxive presence. (James Robe, M.A.)
“Fulness of joy” to come:—
There can be no doubt that in their primary application these words bear reference to the Lord Jesus; for of Him only could it be said, “Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.” But while we thus believe that the Psalmist is writing chiefly about Jesus, we at the same time feel that, He being the Head of the body, the Church, these verses may for the most part be applied to all those who are made living members of His body by the mighty operation of the Lord the Spirit. The text speaks of a “fulness of joy,” and tells us where it is to be had. Jesus always intended His people to be happy. One of His sweetest discourses closes with the words, “these things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you and your joy might be full.” But the believer has to confess, notwithstanding all the blessed promises of God’s Word, that his joy is not full. He has real joy, spiritual joy, springing from the consciousness of the love of God; and this joy is a great help to him. But he wants more. Now, amongst the things which interrupt the fulness of our joy on earth is—
I. The weakness of our faith. There are very few, even of the most advanced Christians, who do not mourn over weakness of faith. Abraham himself failed once and again. We walk by sight overmuch, or at least desire to.
II. The slowness of his growth in grace. He longs to love God with all his heart and soul and strength; to be holy even as Christ is holy, perfect even as his Father in heaven is perfect. But when he sits down to examine himself, and weighs his thoughts, his words, his deeds, in the scales of the sanctuary, he finds so much of worldly conformity, so much cleaving to the earth, so little rising in thought and spirit to heaven, that he rises from the examination with a drooping spirit and an aching heart.
III. The power and ascendency of besetting sin. Whether it be pride, or covetousness, or envy, ill-temper or uncharitableness, whatever it be, we have all of us some sin which has a greater power over us than others. It may be we fondly deemed we had wholly subdued it. But in a little while some trifling temptation is laid in our way; it looks enticing, fascinating, profitable; away go all our good resolutions, and we are betrayed into the commission of that very sin against which we had prayed so earnestly, and whose power we thought we had broken.
IV. Seasons of spiritual desertion. He has been walking for some time in the light of God’s countenance, rejoicing ever to look up and see a Father’s smiling face. But things are sadly altered now. Prayer goes up, but the answer comes not. Difficulties encompass him on every side; his enemies are many and mighty, yea, they come in like a flood; he cries aloud, but his Father makes as though He heard not; distress, tribulation, anguish come upon him. Again he well-nigh sinks in despair.
V. Care concerning provision for the future. You, my poorer brethren, will understand what we mean. Most, if not all of you, have to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. We meet you looking careworn, anxious, depressed; joy has departed from you, and trial wears you down. Very many, we fear most of you, increase these cares and troubles by carrying them yourself instead of casting them on Jesus; and you lose much of the joy that religion affords, because you refuse to see a Father’s hand in all that befalls you. But to you, who are the Lord’s own dear people, we say, yet a little while and these cares shall be over.
VI. The loss of the near and the dear. But look on to blessed reunion in Christ. (Henry J. Berguer.)
At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.—Heaven:—
Two ideas are here brought together,—fulness of joy, and the presence of God. Joy is the realisation of God’s presence in heaven. This absolute necessity for some distinct and uniform characteristic in order to the enjoyment of heaven seems to be very generally forgotten. The general idea is that every one is to be perfectly happy there, according to his own inclinations. Heaven is not a place in which the evil disposed could find pleasure if they were put there. Consider what is happiness. On what it depends. Happiness is a relative term. In circumstances precisely the same, one man would be happy and another miserable. To produce happiness, circumstances and character—position and disposition—must agree, and if they do not, either must change so as to become suited to the other. If a man who is now wicked would be happy in heaven, his character must become changed to suit his circumstances. Our Lord Jesus has secured for all who believe on Him the free pardon of all sins. He has opened to all a heaven which they never could have earned by their own acts. But He has never abolished the necessary qualification for actual admittance there. (J. C. Coghlan, D.D.)
On the presence of God in a future state:—
In the early age of the world those explicit discoveries of a state of immortality which we enjoy had not yet been given to mankind. But in every age God has permitted such hopes to afford consolation and support to those who served Him.
I. The hope of the Psalmist in his present state. “Thou wilt show me the path of life.” There are different paths or courses of conduct, which may be pursued by men in this world; a path which leads to life and happiness, and a path which issues in death and destruction. These opposite lines of conduct are determined by the choice which men make of virtue or of vice; and hence men are divided into two great classes, according as their inclinations lead them to good or to evil. The path of life is often a rough and difficult path, and it conducts us up a steep ascent. The hope that good men entertain is, that this path of life shall be shown them by God; that, when their intentions are upright, God will both instruct them concerning the road which leads to true happiness, and will assist them to pursue it successfully. In all revelation there is no doctrine more comfortable than this, that good men are pursuing a path which God has discovered and pointed out to them. Every path in which He is the conductor must be honourable, must be safe, must bring them in the end to felicity. The Divine Being will never desert those who are endeavouring to follow out the path which He has shown them. With Him there is no oblique purpose to turn Him aside from favouring the cause of goodness. No promise that He has made shall be allowed to fail.
II. The termination of these hopes in a future state. All happiness assuredly dwells with God. The “fountain of life” is justly said to be with Him. Whatever gladdens the hearts of men or angels with any real and satisfactory joy comes from heaven. Every approach to God must be an approach to felicity. The enjoyment of His immediate presence must be the consummation of felicity. The whole of what is implied in arriving at the presence of the Divinity we cannot expect to comprehend. Surrounded now with obscurity, no hope more transporting can be opened to a good man than that a period is to come when he shall be allowed to draw nearer to the Author of his existence, and to enjoy the sense of His presence. In order to convey some idea of that future bliss, by such an image as we can now employ, let the image be taken from the most glorious representative of the Supreme Being, the sun in the heavens. There are two sublime and expressive views of the Divine Essence given us in Scripture, on which it may be edifying that our thoughts should rest for a little—
(1) God is Light. The revelation of His presence infers a complete diffusion of light and knowledge among all who partake of that presence. This forms a primary ingredient of happiness. Ignorance, or the want of light, is the source of all our present misconduct, and of all our misfortunes. The light of God’s presence not only banishes the miseries which were the effects of former darkness, but also confers the most exquisite enjoyment.
(2) God is Love. His presence must, of course, diffuse love. Heaven implies a society, and the felicity of that society is constituted by the perfection of love and goodness flowing from the presence of the God of love. Hence follows the entire purification of human nature from all those malevolent passions which have so long rendered our abode on earth the abode of misery. Considering God under these two illustrious characters, which are given of Him in Scripture as Light and as Love, it follows that in His presence there must be fulness of joy. Remember that, in order to arrive at the presence of God, the path of life must previously be shown to us by Him, and in this path we must persevere to the end. These two things cannot be disjoined, a virtuous life and a happy eternity. (Hugh Blair, D.D.)
Heaven:—
I. Our truest notions of heaven are derived from considerations rather of what it is not than of what it is. How glorious a liberty it will be to attain “the redemption of our body.” Think of the toil it has to undergo, the distempers and pains to which it is subject. But then, we shall be out of the reach of these. There will be no sickness, no withering old age; no poor shall cry for bread, none shall thirst or hunger any more. And there will “be no more death.” No, not of the irrational creation; the sheep and cattle will be slaughtered no more. And there will be no more sin. Then the nations learn war no more. Sin is the root of all our miseries. But days of innocence that we cannot know here will be realised there. Such are some of its negative blessings.
II. Let us consider some of its positive blessings. The happiness of heaven is occasionally described under the most captivating forms of rural pleasure. We read of its green pastures, its clear fountains, its rivers of pleasures. When I sometimes walk in a garden, amidst fruits and flowers, and birds that sing among the branches, I feel relieved in turning to those promises which hold out to us, as it were, a renewal and restoration of these calm delights, in an unchangeable world, in the paradise of God. And sometimes the state of blessedness is likened to a city; and its brilliancy and magnificence are described. See the description, in the Revelation, of the holy city, the new Jerusalem. Such is the residence which God has prepared for His people. There they will pass, not a solitary existence, but will form a united and happy society together. All jarring interests, all selfish and discordant passions unknown. And then we shall meet the holy and illustrious dead: all who have walked with God on earth, or suffered for the testimony of Jesus. To see there, perhaps, those who led us to Christ, and our parents who watched and wept and prayed over our souls, and the children who followed their good example. Above all, we shall meet the Lord Jesus there. He has promised this to all His faithful ones. The evil hearts of men are made known by their desertion of God, but so are also all faithful souls which confess Him when all the world is against Him. How will His faithful flock hail their triumphant Shepherd, when He appears in glory! And then, there is the beatific vision of God—Himself unveiled without a cloud. But we have not now faculties for so high a theme. And these joys are for all who will accept Christ. We could never reach them by ourselves. Receive the Gospel in its fulness and it will prepare you for them. We, then, pray you, “Be reconciled to God.” (H. Woodward, A.M.)
The future happiness of God’s people set before the unconverted:—
God appeals to us by various motives. Amongst others this, which is addressed to our natural desire for happiness,—the blessedness of the children of God in another world. In the hope that some may be constrained thereby to seek Christ, we would consider the words before us. Now were the promises of our text to be realised, then, what in a few years would be our happiness?
I. It would be complete. “Fulness of joy” is there. No more evil. Especially no more sin. Therein “dwelleth righteousness.” It may be a far more glorious earth than ours, but this is not the substance of our hope. That hope is for freedom from sin; no more tormenting passions, no more envy, or anger, or tyrannical appetites. And there will be no more sight of evil in others. And no more temptations of Satan. And no more exposure to the wrath of God, for there shall be “no more curse.” And death and sickness and pain shall be no more. Nor toil, nor weariness, nor want, for the Lord is our Shepherd and we shall not want. And then we shall see His glory and His bliss. And all this will make us like Him. Our body shall be changed “like unto His glorious body.” That was revealed, in fact, at the Transfiguration. And what is better, we shall be like Him in mind as well as form. When we see His wisdom, goodness, holiness, truth and love, then shall we contract something of the same glory. And we shall share in His glorious bliss. It will be “fulness of joy.” Each as happy as his soul can be.
II. Then joys will be as eternal as they are complete. Death shall not take them from us, nor will they be liable to decay. It is an inheritance “incorruptible” and that “fadeth not away.” And yet many “make light” of these promises. They have no heart for such a heaven. May God change their heart. You, whose hope this is, live as those who look for such a heaven. (Baptist W. Noel, M.A.)
Nature and excellencies of the happiness of heaven:—
I. What is meant by the joy and pleasures at God’s right hand.
1. There are pleasures in heaven capable of giving joy and satisfaction.
2. There is a communication of these pleasures unto them who are in the immediate presence of God.
3. The saints have joy in the vision of God, the immediate fruition of Him and their likeness to Him.
II. The excellencies of these joys as expressed in the text. They are spiritual and heavenly, pure without mixture; a multitude without number; a fulness of them without want; a constancy without interruption or diminution, and a perpetuity without end. (James Robe, M.A.)
Little joy to be found on earth:—
The ancient Thracians used to keep a box in their houses into which they dropped a white stone to mark the day when they were happy, as it was an event which so seldom occurred. Lord Nelson wrote to a friend, “I am persuaded there is no true happiness in this present state.” Such was the mournful experience of one of the world’s heroes, on whom plenty, pleasures and glory combined to wait and minister. Lord Byron writes to the poet Moore, “I have been counting over the days when I was happy since I was a boy, and cannot make them more than eleven. I wonder if I shall be able to make them a dozen before I die.”[4]
Verse 11.—In this verse are four things observable:—1. A Guide, Thou. 2. A Traveller, Me. 3. A Way, the Path. 4. The End, Life, described after. For that which follows is but the description of this life.
This verse is a proper subject for a meditation. For, all three are solitary. The guide is but one; the traveller, one; the way, one; and the life, the only one. To meditate well on this is to bring all together; and at last make them all but one. Which that we may do, let us first seek our Guide.
The Guide. Him we find named in the first verse—Jehovah. Here we may begin, as we ought in all holy exercises, with adoration. For, “unto him all knees shall bow;” nay, unto his name. For holy is his name. Glory be to thee, O God! He is Deus, therefore holy; he is Deus fortis, therefore able. “For the strength of the hills is his;” and if there be a way on earth, he can “show” it; for in his hands are all the corners of the earth. But is he willing to “show”? Yes, though he be Deus, holy (which is a word terrible to poor flesh and blood), yet he is Deus meus, my holiness. That takes away servile fear. He is meus, we have a property in him; and he is willing: “Thou wilt show,” etc. And that you may know he will guide, David shows a little above how diligently he will guide. First, he will go before, he will lead the way himself: if I can but follow, I shall be sure to go right. And he that hath a guide before him, and will not follow, is worthy to be left behind. But say, I am willing, I do desire to go, and I do follow: what if, through faintness in the long way, I fall often? or, for want of care step out of the way, shall I not then be left behind? Fear not; for “He is at my right hand, so that I shall not slip.” Verse 8. This is some comfort indeed. But we are so soon weary in this way, and do fall and err so often, that it would weary the patience of a good guide to lead us but one day. Will he bear with us, and continue to the end? Yes, always; or this text deceives us; for all this is found in the eighth verse. We must have him or none; for he is one, and the only one. So confessed Asaph: “Whom have I on earth but thee?” Seek this good Guide, he is easy to be found: “Seek, and ye shall find.” You shall find that he is first holy; secondly, able; thirdly, willing; fourthly, diligent; and fifthly, constant. O my soul! to follow him, and he will make thee both able to follow to the end; and holy in the end.
The traveller. Having found the Guide, we shall not long seek for one that wants him; for, see, here is a man out of his way. And that will soon appear if we consider his condition. For, he is a stranger (“Thou wilt show me”); and what am I? “I am a stranger, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were,” says he, in another place. But this was in the old time under the law; what, are we, their sons, in the gospel, any other? Peter tells us no: that we are strangers and pilgrims too; that is, travellers. We travel, as being out of our country; and we are strangers to those we converse with. For neither the natives be our friends, nor anything we possess truly our own. It is time we had animum revertendi; and surely so we have if we could but pray on the way. Converte nos Domine. But it is so long since we came hither, we have forgot the way home: obliti sunt montis mei. Yet still we are travelling; and, we think, homewards. For all hope well: oculi omnium sperant in te. But right, like pilgrims, or rather, wanderers. For we scarce know if we go right; and, which is worse, have little care to enquire.
“Me.” David still keeps the singular number. As there is but one guide, so he speaks in the person but of one traveller. There is somewhat, peradventure, in that. It is to show his confidence. The Lord’s prayer is in the plural, but the creed in the singular. We may pray that God would guide all; but we can be confident for none but ourselves. “Thou wilt show,” or thou dost, or hast, as some translate: all is but to show particular confidence. “Thou wilt show me;” me, not us, a number indefinite wherein I may be one; but me in particular that am out of the way; that am myself alone; that must walk in “the path” alone. Either I must follow, or go before others; I must work for myself alone; believe for myself alone: and be saved by one alone. The way in this text that I must walk is but one; nay, it is but a “path” where but one can go: this is no highway, but a way of sufferance by favour: it is none of ours. It is no road; you cannot hurry here, or gallop by troops: it is but semita, a small footpath for one to go alone in. Nay, as it is a way for one alone, so it is a lonely way: preparate vias ejus in solitudine, saith John, and he knew which way God went, who is our Guide in solitudine: there is the sweetness of solitariness, the comforts of meditation. For God is never more familiar with man than when man is in solitudine, alone, in his path by himself. Christ himself came thus, all lonely; without troop, or noise, and ever avoided the tumultuous multitude, though they would have made him a king. And he never spake to them but in parables; but to his that sought him, in solitudine, in private, he spake plain; and so doth he still love to do to the soul, in private and particular. Therefore well said David, “Thou will show me,” in particular, and in the singular number. But how shall I know that I, in particular, shall be taught and showed this way? This prophet, that had experience, will tell us: mites docebit, the humble he will teach. Psalm 25:9. If thou canst humble thyself, thou mayst be sure to see thy guide; Christ hath crowned this virtue with a blessing: “Blessed are the meek;” for them he will call to him and teach. But thou must be humble then. For heaven is built like our churches, high-roofed within, but with a strait low gate; they then that enter there must stoop, ere they can see God. Humility is the mark at every cross, whereby thou shalt know if thou be in the way: if any be otherwise minded, God also shall reveal it unto you, for, “Thou wilt show.”
“The path.” But let us now see what he will show us: “the path.” We must know, that as men have many paths out of their highway—the world—but they all end in destruction; so God hath many paths out of his highway, the word, but they all end in salvation. Let us oppose ours to his (as indeed they are opposite), and see how they agree. Ours are not worth marking, his marked with an attendite, to begin withal; ours bloody, his unpolluted; ours crooked, his straight; ours lead to hell, his to heaven. Have not we strayed then? We had need to turn and take another path, and that quickly: we may well say, semitas nostras, à viâ tuâ. Well, here is the Book, and here are the ways before you; and he will show you. Here is semita mandatorum, in the one hundred-and-nineteenth Psalm, verse thirty-five; here is semita pacifica (Prov. 3:17); here is semita æquitatis (Prov. 4:11); here is semita justitiæ (Psalm 23:3); here is semita judicii (Prov. 17:23); and many others. These are, every one of them. God’s ways; but these are somewhat too many and too far off: we must seek the way where all these meet, and that will bring us into “the path;” these are many, but I will show you yet “a more excellent way,” saith Paul. 1 Cor. 7:31.
We must begin to enter at via mandatorum; for till then we are in the dark and can distinguish no ways, whether they be good or bad. But there we shall meet with a lantern and a light in it. Thy commandment is a lantern, and the law a light. Prov. 6:23. Carry this with thee (as a good man should, lex Dei in corde ejus); and it will bring thee into the way. And see how careful our Guide is; for lest the wind should blow out this light, he hath put it into a lantern to preserve it. For the fear, or sanction, of the “commandments,” preserves the memory of the law in our hearts, as a lantern doth a light burning within it. The law is the light, and the commandment the lantern. So that neither flattering Zephyrus, nor blustering Boreas shall be able to blow it out, so long as the fear of the sanction keeps it in. This is lucerna pedibus (Psalm 119:105); and will not only show thee where thou shalt tread, but what pace thou shalt keep. When thou hast this light, take Jeremy’s counsel; enquire for semita antiqua, before thou goest any further. “Stand (saith he) in the ways and behold and ask for the old way; which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” This will bring you some whither where you may rest awhile. And whither is that? Trace this path, and you shall find this “old way” to run quite through all the Old Testament till it end in the New, the gospel of peace, and there is rest. And that this is so Paul affirms. For the law, which is the “old way,” is but the pedagogue to the gospel. This then is “a more excellent way” than the law, the ceremonies whereof in respect of this were called “beggarly rudiments.” When we come there, we shall find the way pleasant and very light, so that we shall plainly see before us that very path, that only path, “the path of life” (semita vitæ), in which the gospel ends, as the law ends in the gospel. Now what is semita vitæ that we seek for? “All the ways of God are truth,” saith David. Psalm 119:151. He doth not say they are veræ, or veritates, but veritas; all one truth. So, all the ways of God end in one truth. Semita vitæ, then, is truth. And so sure a way to life is truth, that John says, he had “no greater joy” than to hear that his sons “walked in truth.” 3 John 1:3. “No greater joy:” for it brings them certainly to a joy, than which there is none greater. Via veritatis is “the gospel of truth.” but semita vitæ is the truth itself. Of these, Esay prophesied, et erit ibi semita et via, etc. “There shall be a path, and a way;” and the way shall be called holy, the proper epithet of the gospel: “the holy gospel,” that is the way. But the path is the epitome of this way (called in our text, by way of excellence, “the path,” in the singular); than which there is no other. “The gospel of your salvation,” saith Paul, is “the word of truth;” and “thy word is truth,” saith our Saviour to his Father. Truth, then, is “the path of life,” for it is the epitome of the gospel, which is the way. This is that truth which Pilate (unhappy man) asked after, but never stayed to be resolved of. He himself is the word; the word is the truth; and the truth is “the path of life,” trodden by all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs and confessors, that ever went to heaven before us. The abstract of the gospel, the gate of heaven, semita vitæ, “the path of life,” even Jesus Christ the righteous, who hath beaten the way for us, gone himself before us, and left us the prints of his footsteps for us to follow, where he himself sits ready to receive us. So, the law is the light, the gospel is the way, and Christ is “the path of life.”—William Austin, 1637.
Verse 11.—It is Christ’s triumphing in the consideration of his exaltation, and taking pleasure in the fruits of his sufferings: “Thou wilt show me the paths of life.” God hath now opened the way to paradise, which was stopped up by a flaming sword, and made the path plain by admitting into heaven the head of the believing world. This is part of the joy of the soul of Christ; he hath now a fulness of joy, a satisfying delight instead of an overwhelming sorrow; a “fulness of joy,” not only some sparks and drops as he had now and then in his debased condition; and that in the presence of his Father. His soul is fed and nourished with a perpetual vision of God, in whose face he beholds no more frowns, no more designs of treating him as a servant, but such smiles that shall give a perpetual succession of joy to him, and fill his soul with fresh and pure flames. Pleasures they are, pleasantness in comparison whereof the greatest joys in this life are anguish and horrors. His soul hath joys without mixture, pleasures without number, a fulness without want, a constancy without interruption, and a perpetuity without end.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse 11.—“In thy presence,” etc. To the blessed soul resting in Abraham’s bosom, there shall be given an immortal, impassible, resplendent, perfect, and glorious body. Oh, what a happy meeting will this be, what a sweet greeting between the soul and body, the nearest and dearest acquaintance that ever were! What a welcome will that soul give to her beloved body! Blessed be thou (will she say), for thou hast aided me to the glory I have enjoyed since I parted with thee; blessed art thou that sufferedst thyself to be mortified, giving “thy members as weapons of righteousness unto God.” Rom. 6:13. Cheer up thyself, for now the time of labour is past, and the time of rest is come. Thou wast sown and buried in the dust of earth with ignominy, but now raised in glory; sown in weakness, but raised in power; sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual body; sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption. 1 Cor. 15:43. O my dear companion and familiar, we took sweet counsel together, we two have walked together as friends in God’s house (Psalm 55:14), for when I prayed inwardly, thou didst attend my devotions with bowed knees and lifted-up hands outwardly. We two have been fellow labourers in the works of the Lord, we two have suffered together, and now we two shall ever reign together; I will enter again into thee, and so both of us together will enter into our Master’s Joy, where we shall have pleasures at his right hand for evermore.
The saints, entered as it were into the chamber of God’s presence, shall have joy to their ears in hearing their own commendating and praise, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21); and in hearing the divine language of heavenly Canaan; for our bodies shall be vera et viva, perfect like Christ’s glorious body, who did both hear other and speak himself after his resurrection, as it is apparent in the gospels’ history. Now, then, if the words of the wise spoken in due places be like “apples of gold with pictures of silver” (Prov. 25:11), if the mellifluous speech of Origen, the silver trumpet of Hillary, the golden mouth of Chrysostom, bewitched as it were their auditory with exceeding great delight; if the gracious eloquence of heathen orators, whose tongues were never touched with a coal from God’s altar, could steal away the hearts of their hearers, and carry them up and down whither they would, what a “fulness of joy” will it be to hear not only the sanctified, but also the glorified tongues of saints and angels in the kingdom of glory?.… Bonaventure fondly reports at all adventure, that St. Francis hearing an angel a little while playing on a harp, was so moved with extraordinary delight, that he thought himself in another world. Oh! what a “fulness of joy” will it be to hear more than twelve legions of angels, accompanied with a number of happy saints which no man is able to number, all at once sing together, “Hallelujah, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” “And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Rev. 4:8; 5:13. If the voices of mortal men, and the sound of cornet, trumpet, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and other well-tuned instruments of music, passing through our dull ears in this world be so powerful, that all our affections are diversely transported according to the divers kinds of harmony, then how shall we be ravished in God’s presence when we shall hear heavenly airs with heavenly ears!
Concerning “fulness of joy” to the rest of the senses I find a very little or nothing in holy Scriptures, and therefore seeing God’s Spirit will not have a pen to write, I may not have a tongue to speak. Divines in general affirm, that the smelling, and taste, and feeling, shall have joy proportionable to their blessed estate, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality; the body which is sown in weakness is to be raised in power; it is sown a natural body, but it is raised a spiritual body, buried in dishonour, raised in glory; that is, capable of good, and, as being impassible, no way subject to suffer evil, insomuch that it cannot be hurt if it should be cast into hell fire, no more than Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, were hurt in the burning oven. In one word, God is not only to the souls, but also to the bodies of the saints, all in all things; a glass to their sight, honey to their taste, music to their hearing, balm to their smelling.—John Boys.
Verse 11.—“In thy presence is fulness of joy.” The saints on earth are all but viatores, wayfaring men, wandering pilgrims far from home; but the saints in heaven are comprehensores, safely arrived at the end of their journey. All we here present for the present, are but mere strangers in the midst of danger, we are losing ourselves and losing our lives in the land of the dying. But ere long, we may find our lives and ourselves again in heaven with the Lord of life, being found of him in the land of the living. If when we die, we be in the Lord of life, our souls are sure to be bound up in the bundle of life, that so when we live again we may be sure to find them in the life of the Lord. Now we have but a dram, but a scruple, but a grain of happiness, to an ounce, to a pound, to a thousand weight of heaviness; now we have but a drop of joy to an ocean of sorrow; but a moment of ease to an age of pain; but then (as St. Austin very sweetly in his Soliloquies), we shall have endless ease without any pain, true happiness without any heaviness, the greatest measure of felicity without the least of misery, the fullest measure of joy that may be, without any mixture of grief. Here therefore (as St. Gregory the divine adviseth us), let us ease our heaviest loads of sufferings, and sweeten our bitterest cups of sorrows with the continual meditation and constant expectation of the fulness of joy in the presence of God, and of the pleasure at his right hand for evermore.
“In thy presence, is,” etc., there it is, not there it was, nor there it may be, nor there it will be, but there it is, there it is without cessation or intercision, there it always hath been, and is, and must be. It is an assertion æternæ veritatis, that is always true, it may at any time be said that there it is. “In thy presence is the fulness of joy;” and herein consists the consummation of felicity; for what does any man here present wish for more than joy? And what measure of joy can any man wish for more than fulness of joy? And what kind of fulness would any man wish for rather than this fulness, the fulness κατʼ ἐξοχὴν? And where would any man wish to enjoy this fulness of joy rather than in the presence of God, which is the ever-flowing and the over-flowing fountain of joy? And when would any man wish for this enjoyment of the fulness of joy in the very fountain of joy rather than presently, constantly, and incessantly? Now all these desirables are encircled within the compass of the first remarkable, to make up the consummation of true felicity. “In thy presence is fulness of joy.”—“The Consummation of Felicity,” by Edward Willan, 1645.
Verse 11.—The human nature of Christ in heaven hath a double capacity of glory, happiness and delight; one on that mere fellowship and communion with his Father and the other persons, through his personal union with the Godhead. Which joy of his in this fellowship, Christ himself speaks of as to be enjoyed by him: “In thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.” And this is a constant and settled fulness of pleasure, such as admits not any addition or diminution, but is always one and the same, and absolute and entire in itself; and of itself alone sufficient for the Son of God, and heir of all things to live upon, though he should have had no other comings in of joy and delight from any creature. And this is his natural inheritance.—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 11.—“In thy presence is fulness of joy.” In heaven they are free from want; they can want nothing there unless it be want itself. They may find the want of evil, but never find the evil of want. Evil is but the want of good, and the want of evil is but the absence of want. God is good, and no want of good can be in God. What want then can be endured in the presence of God, where no evil is, but all good that the fulness of joy may be enjoyed? Here some men eat their meat without any hunger, whilst others hunger without any meat to eat, and some men drink extremely without any thirst, whilst others thirst extremely without any drink. But in the glorious presence of God, not any one can be pampered with too much, nor any one be pined with too little. They that gather much of the heavenly manna, “have nothing over;” and “they that gather little have no lack. They that are once possessed of that presence of God, are so possessed with it that they can never feel the misery of thirst or hunger.—Edward Willan.
Verse 11.—“Fulness.” Every soul shall there enjoy an infinite happiness, because it shall enjoy infinite goodness. And it shall be for ever enjoyed, without disliking of it, or losing of it, or lacking any of it. Every soul shall enjoy as much good in that presence, by the presence of that good, as it shall be able to receive, or to desire to receive. As much as shall make it fully happy. Every one shall be filled so proportionately full; and every desire in any soul shall be fulfilled so perfectly in that presence of glory, with the glory of that presence, that no one shall ever wish for any more, or ever be weary of that it has, or be willing to change it for any other.—Edward Willan.
Verse 11.—“Fulness of joy.” When a man comes to the sea, he doth not complain that he wants his cistern of water: though thou didst suck comfort from thy relations; yet when thou comest to the ocean, and art with Christ, thou shalt never complain that thou hast left thy cistern behind. There will be nothing to breed sorrow in heaven; there shall be joy, and nothing but joy, heaven is set out by that phrase, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Here joy enters into us, there we enter into joy; the joys we have here are from heaven; the joys that we shall have with Christ are without measure and without mixture. “In thy presence is fulness of joy.”—Thomas Watson.
Verse 11.—“In thy presence is fulness of joy.” In this life our joy is mixed with sorrow like a prick under the rose. Jacob had joy when his sons returned home from Egypt with the sacks full of corn, but much sorrow when he perceived the silver in the sack’s mouth. David had much joy in bringing up the ark of God, but at the same time great sorrow for the breach made upon Uzza. This is the Lord’s great wisdom to temper and moderate our joy. As men of a weak constitution must have their wine qualified with water for fear of distemper, so must we in this life (such is our weakness), have our joy mixed with sorrow, lest we turn giddy and insolent. Here our joy is mixed with fear (Psalm 2), “Rejoice with trembling;” the women departed from the sepulchre of our Lord “with fear and great joy.” Matthew 28:8. In our regenerate estate, though we have joy from Christ that is “formed in us,” yet the impression of the terrors of God before the time of our new birth remains in us; as in a commotion of the sea by a great tempest after a stormy wind hath ceased, yet the impression of the storm remains and makes an agitation. The tender mother recovering her young child from danger of a fall hath joy from the recovery; but with much fear with the impression of the danger: so after we are recovered here from our dangerous falls by the rich and tender mercies of our God, sometime preventing us, sometime restoring us, though we rejoice in his mercy, and in our own recovery out of the snares of Satan, yet in the midst of our joy the remembrance of former guiltiness and danger do humble our hearts with much sorrow, and some trepidation of heart. As our joy here is mixed with fears, so with sorrow also. Sound believers do look up to Christ crucified, and do rejoice in his incomparable love, that such a person should have died such a death for such as were enemies to God by sinful inclinations and wicked works; they look down also upon their own sins that have wounded and crucified the Lord of glory, and this breaketh the heart, as a widow should mourn, who by her froward and lewd behaviour hath burst the heart of a kind and loving husband.
The sound believers look to their small beginnings of grace, and they rejoice in the work of God’s hands; but when they compare it with that original and primitive righteousness, they mourn bitterly, as the elders of Israel did at the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 3:12); “They who had seen the first house wept.” But in heaven our joy will be full, without mixture of sorrow (John 16:20); “Your sorrow,” saith our Lord, “shall be turned into joy.” Then will there be no sorrow for a present trouble, nor present fear of future troubles. Then their eye will deeply affect their heart: the sight and knowledge of God the supreme and infinite good will ravish, and take up all their heart with joy and delight. Peter in the Mount (Matthew 17), was so affected with that glorious sight, that he forgot both the delights and troubles that were below; “It is good to be here,” said he. How much more will all worldly troubles and delights be forgot at that soul-satisfying sight in heaven, which is as far above that of Peter in the Mount, as the third heaven is above that Mount, and as the uncreated is above the created glory!—William Colvill’s “Refreshing Streams,” 1655.
Verse 11.—“In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Mark, for quality, there are pleasures; for quantity, fulness; for dignity, at God’s right hand; for eternity, for evermore. And millions of years multiplied by millions, make not up one minute to this eternity of joy that the saints shall have in heaven. In heaven there shall be no sin to take away your joy, nor no devil to take away your joy; nor no man to take away your joy. “Your joy no man taketh from you.” John 16:22. The joy of the saints in heaven is never ebbing, but always flowing to all contentment. The joys of heaven never fade, never wither, never die, nor never are lessened nor interrupted. The joy of the saints in heaven is a constant joy, an everlasting joy, in the root and in the cause, and in the matter of it and in the objects of it. “Their joy lasts for ever whose objects remain for ever”—Thomas Brooks.
Verse 11.—“Pleasures for evermore.” The soul that is once landed at the heavenly shore is past all storms. The glorified soul shall be for ever bathing itself in the rivers of pleasure. This is that which makes heaven to be heaven, “We shall be ever with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:17. Austin saith, “Lord, I am content to suffer any pains and torments in this world, if I might see thy face one day; but alas! were it only a day, then to be ejected heaven, it would rather be an aggravation of misery;” but this word, “ever with the Lord,” is very accumulative, and makes up the garland of glory: a state of eternity is a state of security.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 11.—This then may serve for a ground of comfort to every soul distressed with the tedious bitterness of this life; for short sorrow here, we shall have eternal joy; for a little hunger, an eternal banquet; for light sickness and affliction, everlasting health and salvation; for a little imprisonment, endless liberty; for disgrace, glory. Instead of the wicked who oppress and afflict them, they shall have the angels and saints to comfort and solace them, instead of Satan to torment and tempt them, they shall have Jesus to ravish and affect them. Joseph’s prison shall be turned into a palace; Daniel’s lions’ den into the presence of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; the three children’s hot fiery furnace, into the New Jerusalem of pure gold; David’s Gath, into the tabernacle of the living God.—John Cragge’s “Cabinet of Spirituall Jewells,” 1657.
Verse 11.—This heavenly feast will not have an end, as Ahasuerus’s feast had, though it lasted many days; but “At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.” William Colvill.[5]
Romans 12:18-20 In this week’s study, we learn that being a peacemaker also means being willing to trust God to establish justice and mete out punishments and rewards hereafter.
THEME
Peace with God, Peace with Others
This week I have been working through what Paul is teaching about peacekeeping or peacemaking, and I have stressed that it requires realism, forbearance and active goodness to those who do wrong. But perhaps you have been thinking—I know the thought comes to me—“But I can’t do it. I don’t care if this is the Christian way or is the example of Christ, I can’t do it. Nothing is ever going to get me to the point of wanting to do good to those who hate me.”
Fair enough. You have to start where you are, and if that is where you are, you have to recognize it. But also recognize that those who belong to Jesus Christ do not have a choice about whether they are going to follow and obey Him or not. We must, if we are Christians. Therefore, we must be peacekeepers and peacemakers. We must be like Him.
So the question is not, “Will you?” The question is merely, “How?” Let me make three suggestions.
First, you will never make any progress in making peace between yourself and other people until you have first found peace with God. That means you must be a Christian. Our relationship to God is the most important of all relationships, and if we are not at peace with Him, we will never be at peace with others. We will be fighting constantly. On the cross Jesus made peace between rebellious sinners like us and the sovereign, holy God against whom we have rebelled. Jesus made peace between God and sinners, and it is by believing that and trusting in Jesus’ finished work that peace with God may be found.
Paul told the Colossians, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [that is, Christ], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col. 1:19-20).
Second, if you are to be a peacemaker, you must be at peace yourself, and this means you must have experienced what Paul in Philippians calls the peace of God. “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:5-7).
First, peace with God. Second, the peace of God. Then, at the last, you will be able to start being a peacekeeper and peacemaker. For when you are at peace with God and when the life of the Prince of Peace is in you, Jesus will be doing through you what He Himself was doing when He was in the world. And while you are at it, do not forget the seventh of the eight Beatitudes, which promises a blessing to peacemakers, adding, “for they will be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9).
Study Questions
Where does peacemaking start?
What other two things does peacekeeping require?
How was Jesus a peacemaker?
In what three ways do believers need to find peace?
Application
Application: Are there relationships in your life that are strained? How can you be a peacemaker? Ask the Lord to help you in your attempts to bring peace about, and also to maintain peace in all your dealings with others.
Key Point: Our relationship to God is the most important of all relationships, and if we are not at peace with Him, we will never be at peace with others.
For Further Study: Download for free and listen to Richard Phillips’ message, “Grace and Peace to You.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
For Further Study: The basis for how we as Christians live out the practical matters of Romans 12 is the opening teaching of the first two verses. Order your copy of James Boice’s Renewing Your Mind in a Mindless World, and receive 20% off the regular price.
Is it possible to face temptation and walk away unstained?
We’ve been answering this question over the last few posts by taking a close look at 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
Today, we will answer the question, What does it mean to escape temptation?
The Escape from Temptation
When God allows us to be tested with trials, He always provides a way out. There is always a path to victory. There is always an escape hatch. The Greek word for “escape” in 1 Corinthians 10:13 literally means “an exit.”
Here is a truth you may never have noticed in this verse: Paul tells us exactly what the way of escape is. God “with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” The way out is through. The way out of the temptation is to endure it as a trial and never let it become a solicitation to evil.
You have been wronged. You have been falsely accused. You have been maligned or treated unkindly or dealt with unjustly. So what? Accept it. Endure it with joy (James 1:2); that is the way of escape. Usually we look for a quick and easy escape route. God’s plan for us is different. He wants us to count it all joy, “and let endurance have its perfect result, so that [we] may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (v. 4). God is using our trials to bring us to maturity.
But how can we endure? There are many practical answers, so I will mention only a few here.
First, meditate on the Word: “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11). Second, pray: “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). In other words, ask God to keep the test from becoming a temptation. Third, resist Satan and yield to God: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
There is one more key to endurance that I want to focus on, and that is faith. Hebrews 11 talks about the great heroes of faith, and their common characteristic is that they endured faithfully to the end. Of Moses, the writer of Hebrews says, “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Hebrews 11:27). Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Rahab all ran the race that was set before them with endurance (cf. Hebrews 12:1). The writer of Hebrews summarizes:
What more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. (11:32–39)
Most of the heroes of faith endured incredible trials. If our faith is genuine, it will enable us to withstand whatever trials the Lord permits us to encounter. If you think your own trials are particularly severe, the writer of Hebrews reminds us, “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding [your own] blood in your striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4).
When testing comes, we must apply the truths we see in 1 Corinthians, James, and Hebrews. What an encouragement to our faith it is to know that no test can come to us that is more than we can bear!
Meanwhile, we must continually, faithfully mortify our sin. We must pray and ask God to deliver us from evil temptations. We must refuse to heed the lustful hankerings of our own flesh. And we must pursue God’s whole purpose in allowing us to be tested: the perfecting of our faith unto endurance and spiritual maturity.
Through it all, we must look to Christ and lean on Him, our merciful and faithful High Priest, who is touched by the feeling of our infirmities, who can sympathize with our weaknesses because He was tempted in all points like we are—yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
How can we “run with endurance the race that is set before us”? (Hebrews 12:1). By “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (vv. 2–3).
Resisting Sin in a World of Temptation
We live in a culture that is filled with temptation. Our society glorifies sin and despises God. It is certainly not an easy age in which to live. But neither was the first century. Remember, we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
Someday He may test us in a way that requires us to endure physical harm or death in our striving against sin. If that day comes, we are assured that He will sustain us through it. In the meantime, our trials are strengthening us, drawing us closer to Him, building our endurance, and conforming us to His image. What an encouragement to know that He personally ensures that our temptations will not be too great for us! He sustains us so that we will not fall away. And “He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6).
In our current culture, sin is not defined as a matter of fixed morality, but instead is wholly subjective. The individual’s own preferences determine the line between good and evil. All around us we hear appeals for universal “tolerance.” One gets the clear idea that no sin is as evil as the killjoy attitude of those who think sin is offensive to a holy God. People love their sin. They will go to any lengths to rationalize and defend it
For Christians, however, life cannot reflect our culture’s values. We cannot try to excuse or tolerate sin. It was sin that put our blessed Savior on the cross to bleed and die. Sin was what set us at enmity with God. Now that that enmity has been broken, we want nothing to do with the old life. Now that we are freed from sin, we do not want to go back into bondage. And we don’t have to! To choose to do so would be a denial of our Lord. As the beloved apostle wrote,
No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:6–10)
Do our actions and our reactions when “life happens,” reflect a forgiving and merciful Savior, or do they cause others to turn away?
Author of Beyond the Noise
What Would Jesus Do? By Laura Bailey
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” James 1:19 NIV
Screeecccchhhhhhhh.
My heartbeat quickened. I peered at my brother, desperately hoping that I had imagined that sickening sound while my shaking hand grasped my car door. My legs felt like pillars of cement, unable to move. No need to get out to look at the damage because my brother’s expression told me everything.
“Look what you’ve done! I am not paying for this! I hope Dad doesn’t kill you when he finds out,” he exclaimed. The car shook as he slammed the car door and stormed off to his first hour class as the ring of the school bell peeled across the student parking lot. Feeling abandoned, I remained behind, my only company, a knot in my stomach and tears in my eyes.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not that bad–it’s only a car. Are you alright?” asked the owner of the other car in a decibel just above a whisper. He bent to examine the fresh scrape onhisnew car.
With trepidation, my eyes met his, “Yeah, I’m okay. I am so very sorry about your car,” I cried. “I was in such a hurry and carelessly flung open my door without checking my surroundings.” I meant every word, but apologizing, no matter how sincere, wasn’t going to erase the ugly mark I had just made.
“It’s really okay,” he gently replied. “I know it was an accident and you didn’t mean to do it. Now let’s get to class before we’re both late.” He shrugged, locked his car and tried to lighten things with a couple of joking remarks as we hurried into school, but the last thing I felt like doing right then was laugh.
Not the reaction I had expected. Twenty years later, that young man’s self-control during that moment still amazes me.
In our key verse, James’ tone is not of rebuke or condescension, but one of authoritative affection, delineating the type of lifestyle Christians were to live. This verse is one of many in which James instructs believers to control their tongues, impressing the importance of taming our thoughts and words for our own good and the good of others. James’ message still applies to Christians two thousand years later.
So what does it mean to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry”? One of my Sunday school teachers used to tell us, “God gave you two ears and one mouth so you should listen twice as much as you speak.” James instructs us first to listen. Without pausing to listen before responding, we become like the fool in Proverbs 29:11, “A fool vents all his anger, but a wise man holds it back.” And sooner or later, even fools realize that their rants can devastate relationships that well-articulated apologies fail to mend.
It’s pretty clear why James tells us to be slow to anger and speak. We cannot retract words once spoken aloud, and contrary to the old saying, most all of us had rather have sticks and stones thrown at us than unkind words because words dohurt.
I want patience and sympathy to be from my heart, expressed through my words and actions,I sincerely want to imitate Christ, so I ask myself:
How different would my response would be to someone cutting me off in traffic if I knew the passenger was in labor?
Would I be as quick to criticize the mom on the playground if I knew her husband had recently left her to be with someone else?
Would I pounce on my husband as readily if I waited for him to finish speaking and paused a moment to pray for understanding and wisdom?
I will always remember the extraordinary, unexpected kindness he showed me that day. WWJD bracelets were popular at the time; maybe he was wearing one which reminded him to act like Jesus,or maybe not. But I know this, he acted like Jesus on that day. He had grace and mercy on me in that very awkward moment as we stood there on the school parking lot. May we be people who, even in the heat of the moment, show the love of Christ, and point others to Him.
Intersection Faith & Life:
God is watching us, and so are others. For many, we really are the only version of the Gospel they will ever “read,” and they judge us by the way we act, not our intentions. Our lack of self-control, often interpreted as hypocrisy by the lost world, is one of the most common reasons stated for rejecting Christianity. Do our actions and our reactions when “life happens,” reflect a forgiving and merciful Savior, or do they cause others to turn away?
Laura Bailey is a Bible teacher who challenges and encourages women to dive deep in the Scriptures, shift from an earthly to an eternal mindset, and filter life through the lens of God’s Word. She is the author of Beyond the Noise, and loves any opportunity to speak and teach women of all ages. She is a wife and momma to three young girls. Connect with her on her website, www.LauraRBailey.com, Facebook and Instagram.
How great You are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that I have heard with my ears. (2 Samuel 7:22; 1 Chronicles 17:20)
O Lord, the God of our fathers, are You not the God who is in heaven? Are You not the ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, and no one is able to withstand You. (2 Chronicles 20:6)
For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light. (Psalm 36:9)
O come, let us sing to the Lord; Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout for joy to Him with psalms. The Lord is the great God, The great King above all gods. O come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. He is our God and we are the people of His pasture And the sheep under His care. (Psalm 95:1–3, 6–7)
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be pleasing to Him; I will be glad in the Lord. (Psalm 104:33–34)
Pause to express your thoughts of praise and worship.
Confession
Out of the depths I have called to You, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice, And let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications. If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (Psalm 130:1–4)
You have been just in all that has happened to me; You have acted faithfully, while I did wrong. (Nehemiah 9:33)
I return to the Lord my God, For I have stumbled because of my iniquity. I take words with me and return to the Lord, Saying, “Take away all iniquity and receive me graciously, That I may offer the fruit of my lips.” (Hosea 14:1–2)
Ask the Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the Lord and thank Him for His forgiveness.
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness. God will not always strive with us, Nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve Or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His love for those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on His children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. You know how I am formed; You remember that I am dust. (Psalm 103:8–14)
Renewal
Lord, renew me by Your Spirit as I offer these prayers to You:
Who is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master finds so doing when he comes. (Matthew 24:45–46)
May I watch and pray so that I will not fall into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41)
May I abide in Christ, so that when He appears, I will have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. (1 John 2:28)
May I be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour when I do not expect Him. (Matthew 24:44; Luke 12:40)
Pause to add your own prayers for personal renewal.
Petition
Father, using Your word as a guide, I offer You my prayers concerning my need for wisdom.
May God grant me, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. And may I, being rooted and grounded in love, be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16–19)
If I have found grace in Your sight, teach me Your ways, so I may know You and continue to find favor with You. (Exodus 33:13)
Whatever I do, may I do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
May I not let Your word depart from my mouth, but meditate on it day and night, so that I may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then I will make my way prosperous, and I will act wisely. (Joshua 1:8)
May I meditate on Your precepts And consider Your ways. May I delight in Your statutes, And not forget Your word. Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word. Open my eyes that I may see Wonderful things from Your law. (Psalm 119:15–18)
Let me be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19–20)
May I guard my heart with all diligence, For out of it flow the issues of life. May I put away perversity from my mouth And keep corrupt talk far from my lips. May I let my eyes look straight ahead, And fix my gaze straight before me. May I ponder the path of my feet So that all my ways will be established. May I not turn to the right or to the left But keep my foot from evil. (Proverbs 4:23–27)
Let my light shine before men, that they may see my good deeds and praise my Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13–16)
May I do all things without complaining or arguing, so that I may become blameless and pure, a child of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom I shine as a light in the world, holding fast the word of life. (Philippians 2:14–16)
May I clothe myself with humility toward others, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. May I humble myself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt me in due time, casting all my anxiety upon Him, because He cares for me. (1 Peter 5:5–7)
Pause here to express any additional personal requests, especially concerning family and ministry:Family Ministry Sharing Christ with others Helping others grow in Him Career
My activities for this day Special concerns
Intercession
Lord, I now prepare my heart for intercessory prayer for missions.
Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith. (2 Thessalonians 3:1–2)
The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, I will pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into His harvest. (Matthew 9:37–38; Luke 10:2)
In the spirit of these passages, I pray for:Local missions National missions World missions The fulfillment of the Great Commission Special concerns
Affirmation
Feed my mind and heart, O Lord, as I affirm these truths from Your word concerning my hope as a follower of Christ:
I do not lose heart; even though my outward man is perishing, yet my inner man is being renewed day by day. For this light affliction which is momentary is working for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while I do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are unseen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)
Peace You leave with me; Your peace You give to me. Not as the world gives, do You give to me. I will not let my heart be troubled nor let it be fearful. (John 14:27)
Those who wait for the Lord Will renew their strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles; They will run and not grow weary; They will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
I am always of good courage and know that as long as I am at home in the body, I am away from the Lord. For I live by faith, not by sight. I am of good courage and would prefer to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6–8)
Since I am a child of God, I am an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ, if indeed I share in His sufferings in order that I may also share in His glory. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to me. (Romans 8:17–18)
Pause to reflect upon these biblical affirmations.
Thanksgiving
For who You are and for what You have done, accept my thanks, O Lord:
I will praise You, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. (Psalm 9:1–2)
We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. (Revelation 11:17)
I will sing of Your strength, Yes, I will sing of Your mercy in the morning, For You have been my stronghold, My refuge in times of trouble. To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises, For God is my fortress, my loving God. (Psalm 59:16–17)
Pause to offer your own expressions of thanksgiving.
Closing Prayer
Teach me to number my days, That I may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)
Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold From those who walk in integrity. O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You! (Psalm 84:10–12)
To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. (1 Timothy 1:17)
Boa, K. (1993). Handbook to prayer: praying scripture back to God. Atlanta: Trinity House.
MATTHEW HENRY’S “METHOD FOR PRAYER”
Bewail your Lack of Love for Others
Confession 2.10 | ESV
Our uncharitableness towards our brethren, and unpeaceableness with our relations, neighbors, and friends, and perhaps injustice towards them.
I have been very guilty concerning my brother; Genesis 42:21(ESV) for I have not pursued what makes for peace or for mutual upbuilding. Romans 14:19(ESV)
I have been ready to judge my brother and to despise him, forgetting that I must shortly stand before the judgment seat of God. Romans 14:10(ESV)
Contrary to the royal law of love, I have boasted and been arrogant, have been rude and insisted on my own way; I have been irritable, have rejoiced at wrongdoing, 1 Corinthians 13:4-6(ESV) and been secretly glad at calamities. Proverbs 17:5(ESV)
I have been conceited, provoking others, envying others, Galatians 5:26(ESV) when I should have considered how to stir up others to love and good works. Hebrews 10:24(ESV)
And if in anything I have transgressed and wronged my brother, 1 Thessalonians 4:6(ESV) if I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hastened to deceit, Job 31:5(ESV) and if any spot has stuck to my hands, Job 31:7(ESV) Lord, discover it to me, that if I have done iniquity, I may do it no more. Job 34:32(ESV)
•Because of all You have done for me, I present my body to You as a living sacrifice for this day. I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, affirming that Your will for me is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2)
ADORATION AND THANKSGIVING
•Offer a brief word of praise to God for one or more of His attributes (e.g., love and compassion, grace, mercy, holiness, goodness, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, truthfulness, unchanging character, eternality) and/or works (e.g., creation, care, redemption, loving purposes, second coming). •Thank Him for the good things in your life.
EXAMINATION
•Ask the Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the Lord and thank Him for His forgiveness. (Psalm 139:23–24)
MY IDENTITY IN CHRIST
•“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
*I have forgiveness from the penalty of sin because Christ died for me. (Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3) *I have freedom from the power of sin because I died with Christ. (Colossians 2:11; 1 Peter 2:24) *I have fulfillment for this day because Christ lives in me. (Philippians 1:20–21) *By faith, I will allow Christ to manifest His life through me. (2 Corinthians 2:14)
FILLING OF THE SPIRIT
•Ask the Spirit to control and fill you for this day. •I want to be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18) When I walk by the Spirit, I will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16) If I live by the Spirit, I will also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
•Pray on the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22–23) •“Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)
PURPOSE OF MY LIFE
•I want to love the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and I want to love my neighbor as myself. (Matthew 22:37, 39) My purpose is to love God completely, love self correctly, and love others compassionately. •I will seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness. (Matthew 6:33) •I have been called to follow Christ and to be a fisher of men. (Matthew 4:19) •I will be a witness to those who do not know Him and participate in the Great Commission to go and make disciples. (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 1:8) •I want to glorify the Father by bearing much fruit, and so prove to be Christ’s disciple. (John 15:8)
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DAY
•I will trust in the Lord with all my heart, and not lean on my own understanding. In all my ways I will acknowledge Him, and He will make my paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5–6) •“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28; also see 8:29) I acknowledge that You are in control of all things in my life, and that You have my best interests at heart. Because of this I will trust and obey You today. •Review and commit the events of this day into the hands of God.
PROTECTION IN THE WARFARE
Against the World: Renew
•I will set my mind on the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5) •Since I have been raised up with Christ, I will keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. I will set my mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:1–2; also see 3:3–4 and Hebrews 12:1–2) •I will be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving I will let my requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, I will let my mind dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:6–8; also see 4:9)
Against the Flesh: Reckon
•I know that my old self was crucified with Christ, so that I am no longer a slave to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. I will reckon myself as dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. I will not present the members of my body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but I will present myself to God as one alive from the dead, and my members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:6–7, 11, 13)
Against the Devil: Resist
•As I submit myself to God and resist the devil, he will flee from me. (James 4:7) •I will be of sober spirit and on the alert. My adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But I will resist him, firm in my faith. (1 Peter 5:8–9) •I will take up the full armor of God, that I may be able to resist and stand firm. I put on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness; I put on my feet the preparation of the gospel of peace; and I take up the shield of faith with which I will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. I take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition I will pray at all times in the Spirit and be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:13–18)
THE COMING OF CHRIST AND MY FUTURE WITH HIM
•Your kingdom come, Your will be done. (Matthew 6:10) •You have said, “I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20) •I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to me. (Romans 8:18) •I will not lose heart, but though my outer man is decaying, yet my inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for me an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while I look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18) •My citizenship is in heaven, from which also I eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20)
(Also consider 2 Timothy 4:8; Hebrews 11:1, 6; 2 Peter 3:11–12; 1 John 2:28; 3:2–3.)
Boa, K. (1993). Handbook to prayer: praying scripture back to God. Atlanta: Trinity House.
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