8. The Eternal Blessings of the Just Psalm 37:23-29

Text: “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.”
                                                                                                                    Psalm 37:29.

Good morning, Eternally blessed Christian!  Having been blessed by the Lord God Jehovah with Eternal Salvation in and through Christ Jesus and His full Atonement (at-one-ment) at Calvary’s Cross – you and I are completely and fully assured of Almighty God’s Sovereign care of us and His ever-given provision.  Hallelujah!

“What shall we then say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us?  He (God the Father) that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all (all the elect!), how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”  (Romans 8:31-32)

The blessings of God upon ‘the just’, those justified by faith in Christ Jesus, are of an Eternal nature – and, by God’s Sovereign grace, are freely given to us, ‘His people’.

Verse 23.  “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.  The Scriptures teach us that ‘...there in none that doeth good, no not one... (Romans 3:10-18).  Therefore, the only persons defined as ‘good’, are those unto whom the Lord God imputes the very righteousness of Christ Jesus Himself by faith.  (2 Corinthians 5:21)  This ‘good’ person’s steps, our every step in life, is ‘ordered’, or ordained, by our Sovereign Lord God.  That is why ‘...ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28) 

Notice, it is not all GOOD things that work together for our good!  No.  ALL things, good, bad, and indifferent, because our ‘steps’ are ‘ordered’ by the Lord – are made to eventually ‘work together for good’, if we ‘...love the Lord and are THE called according to His purpose.’  Hallelujah!  What a Lord God we have in Christ Jesus!

Verse 24.  “Though he/she fall, he/she shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth (continuous verb - upholds, and continues to uphold) him/her with His hand.  The times of every creature on earth is determined by Almighty God, that is why the writer to the Hebrews (I believe that writer to be the apostle Paul) teaches us, (under the inspiration of God the Spirit.) “...It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement.” (Hebrews 9:27) 

This is an ‘appointment’ the Lord makes with the soul of every creature under His Creation, and we all must keep His appointment with death.  Similarly, the Lord God is in Sovereign control of every tiny aspect of every creature’s life – and our confidence therefore is in His Divine ability to ‘uphold’ us, His people, with His hand in every circumstance we encounter in life.  Praise God for His Eternal uplifting!

Verse 25.  “Nor his seed begging bread.  If any man say that David himself begged – he asked bread of Abimelech and of Nabal – I answer, it is a good rule, and it resolves the case; transitory cases and sudden accidents make no beggars: we must not say, ‘David was a beggar, or begged his bread,’ because once he was in a strait and asked bread of Abimelech and in a second strait sent to Nabal.  In such sudden cases, the richest man in the world may be put to ask a piece of bread.  A good man may fall into such wants, but good men are rarely, if ever or at all, left in them.”  (Joseph Caryl 1602-1673)

Verse 26.  “He (the good man, the ‘elect’ of God) is ever merciful, and lendeth: and his seed (his children and posterity) is blessed. Again we are taught the Eternal nature of God’s special blessings upon ‘His people’.  (Matthew 1:21)  Thomas Adams strongly confirms the Eternal nature of God’s blessings upon those whom He saves:  “Trust, then, Christ with thy children; when thy friends shall fail, usury bear no date, oppression be condemned to Hell, thyself rotten to the dust, the world itself turned and burned into cinders, still “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever.”  (Thomas Adams 1614)  (Hebrews 13:8) Hallelujah!  Victory in Him!

Verse 27.  “Depart from evil...do good...dwell forevermore.  Every Christian today should know, by the inner leading of God the Spirit, and by the daily exhortation from God’s Word – our commitment must be a continual departing from all evil; a continual seeking to do good.  To be ‘Christian’ is to try hard to be like Christ.  Christ is Holy.  Therefore, you and I must seek to be as Holy as He – yet knowing in our hearts that we can never attain to His Holiness, His purity; His righteousness; or His perfect conduct.  When we sincerely TRY to be like Christ – in word, in thought, and in deed – the Lord God looks upon us as having achieved what no fallen human can ever achieve of ourselves: the righteousness of Christ Jesus Himself.  Wow!  What grace! 

Verse 28.  “For the Lord loveth (loves and continues to love forever) judgement, and forsaketh (never forsakes!) His saints; they are preserved forever.”  The Lord God must keep His own Sovereign Word, and in His Word He has promised us: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee...”  (Hebrews 13:5)

Verse 28.  “...But the seed (posterity) of the wicked (reprobate, rejected of God) shall be cut off.  This too is an Eternal declaration: “And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”  (Revelation 20:10)

Psalm 37 is filled full with what we call ‘Good Comfort In Bad Times’.  As we travel the road of this transient life, we are constantly harassed by enemies – Spiritual and temporal – yet we are never left comfortless, the Lord is always at hand to speak His Eternal truths to our inner beings and pour in His oil of Divine comfort and healing.

Verse 29.  “The righteous (in Christ) shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.  In spite of how you or I may be feeling this day – worn out, depressed in spirit, oppressed by our constant foes – take heart, beloved in Christ, God has spoken and we believe!  We have the victory over all negative things, the Victory of Christ Himself. Hallelujah!  Glory to the Lamb Who is indeed worthy!  Victory in Him!

Thought: Our Master Comforter is merely a prayer away. Let us go unto Him.

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