Psalm 40:7,8

A truth concerning Jesus' coming in our flesh, and concerning His ministry until He was crucified, that is often overlooked or brushed aside is stated prophetically in Psalm 40:7,8, where we read, "Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God:  yea, Thy law is written in my heart."

Here we have characterized not only His work, during His whole life here below, but also the indispensable requirement for Him to be our Savior. God's love must be written in His heart, and He must do God's will without one moment of interruption, and without one sinful thought or desire.

If Jesus is guilty of only one sin, He cannot save us from our sins. Then He must die for His own sin. If Adam's sin is handed down to Him through an earthly father, salvation is hopeless for us. But no, God's law is written in His heart. As the Son of God no evil thought or desire has arisen in His heart. His heart wants to keep God's law perfectly, even after He came into our flesh. Only such a Savior will God accept as the sacrifice for our sins.

This also speaks volumes of what He will do in us. For us He suffered and died. In us He will implant God's law, that is a perfect love for God. He has earned for us, and will when He returns give to us, bodies and souls completely freed from sin.  He will make us sing with Him (PRC Psalter):

    Then, O my God, I come, I come, 
    Thy purpose to fulfill;
    Thy law is written in my heart, 
    'Tis joy to do Thy will.

He will cause us to come before God's face in the new creation, and there our only desire will be to serve Him fully. We will serve with perfect and unceasing joy, doing what He wills to have us do

What a change that is going to be! Now we have only a small beginning of that joy and obedience. But keep before your minds that Christ came to make us like Himself, and not simply to take away our guilt. He came to take away the power of sin that now rules us, and to make us love God with our whole being. That heavenly joy is in store for us.

Read: Jeremiah 31:31-34 
Psalter versification: #109:2

Daily Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Song for Meditation: Psalter #182
Why not sing along??

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Numbers 30; Numbers 31:1-54 
Luke 4:1-30 
Psalm 63:1-11 
Proverbs 11:20-21 
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Quote for Reflection:

"All of covenant life is a matter of the vow by the name of God and of the keeping of that vow in honor of the name of God. Baptism, whether of adult or child, imposes the vow to cleave to the triune God, to forsake the world, to crucify the old nature, and to walk in a new and holy life. How many baptized persons turn from God run with the world, yield to the old nature, and abandon the narrow way of a holy life, as soon as the life required by Christian baptism becomes difficult and costly! ...Presenting a child for baptism involves a vow by the parents that they will bring up the child in the fear of the Lord to the utmost of their ability, in the church, in the home, and in good Christian schools. How many fathers and mothers deliberately break their vows by neglect, by failure to discipline, by abuse, by the devastation of the children that is caused by divorce, by entrusting the children to apostate or apostatizing churches, and by enrolling the children in schools that are not founded on the Word of God! The reason is that the parents find it costly to keep their vow." --Prof. David Engelsma

Psalm 80:1-2

From the day that man fell into sin, and God promised to send Christ as the Seed of the Woman to save us, the believers have looked and prayed that Christ would come. And although the Old Testament saints did not see the Son of God come into our flesh, they did pray for Him to come.

We sing their prayers in this versification of Psalm 80:1-2 (PRC Psalter):

    Great Shepherd Who leadest Thy people in love,
    'Mid cherubim dwelling, shine Thou from above;
    In might come and save us, Thy people restore,
    And we shall he saved when Thy face shines once more.

This was not a literal prayer for Christ's coming in Bethlehem.  It was not in their minds a prayer for the wonder of the virgin birth of Christ. But it was a prayer to God that He would visit us with salvation.  Literally the psalmist said, "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock Thou that dwellest between the cherubim shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength, and come and save us."

Nevertheless the very fact that they pray to Him, as the Shepherd of Israel, reveals that in effect they were praying for Christ to come. For He Himself states in John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."

What about you then? Christ has now come and suffered and died for our sins. Do you daily look back at His cross? Do you mention Him in your prayers? Do you ever close your prayers without mentioning this Good Shepherd? Do you plead without a ''For Jesus' sake, Amen'"?

Leave Christ and His cross out of your prayers, and you leave out the only possible ground for the smallest part of the salvation which He earned for His people.

We can and must still pray that He will come again with the full salvation of body and soul. But since He came once and blotted out our sins, we must come to God on the basis of that mighty and important work.  The work He did then makes His final coming possible and wonderful.

Read: Psalm 80 
Psalter versification: #220:1

 Daily Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Song for Meditation: Psalter #217
Why not sing along??

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Numbers 28:16-31; Numbers 29:1-40 
Luke 3:23-38 
Psalm 62:1-12 
Proverbs 11:18-19 
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Quote for Reflection:

True Family Happiness:  “O happy is that family, my brethren, which has embraced that God Who says, 'I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people'! Happy for time, and happy for eternity! How can you hope to meet with those whom you love near Christ in heaven, unless with them you seek Christ on earth? How shall you assemble as a family there, if you have not as a family attended to heavenly things here below? But as to the Christian family which shall have been united in Jesus, it will, without doubt, meet around the throne of the glory of Him whom it will have loved without having seen. It will only change its wretched and perishable dwelling for the vast and eternal mansions of God. Instead of being a humble family of the earth, united to the whole family of heaven by the same ties, it will have become an innumerable and glorious family. It will surround the throne of God with the hundred and forty-four thousand, and will say, as it said on earth, but with joy and glory, 'Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.”  -J. D’Aubigne

Psalm 106:2

In this season when our thoughts are directed in a special way to the suffering and death of our Savior, we ought to listen to the psalmist in Psalm 106:2. There the psalmist states, "Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord, and who can show forth His praise?"

And undoubtedly the greatest wonder, the mighty deed of God behind all that which His Son did for us, and causes His glory to shine forth most beautifully, as well as calls for praise, is the fact that God Himself came into our flesh to become one of us. Indeed, His virgin birth was an amazing miracle, a mighty wonder that calls for endless praise. It was a miracle that man cannot begin to duplicate; and there is just nothing like it in all the history of mankind. But more wonderful, more amazing is the fact that through this wonder of the virgin birth God Himself became flesh and tabernacled with us so that we could see Him and touch Him. The infinite One became finite. The Creator of all became a creature so that He might be our covenant Head and represent us.

Truly our salvation is a wonder, and as we consider for a few days what God's Son did for our salvation, our wonder ought to grow, and our praise to God ought to increase. The implications and significance of that incarnation of the Son of God are so great that God Himself prepared an everlasting life, so that His people might utter His mighty acts and never come to an end of doing so, nor ever lose the implication and significance of it. Not one of the elect in that new Jerusalem will ever run out of words, or think that he sees less reason for praising God.

Do you not see the truth the psalmist declares here in this Psalm? Do you not agree with him that, as we have it in our Psalter versification:

    What tongue can tell His mighty deeds,
    His wondrous works and ways?
    O who can show His glory forth,
    Or utter all His praise?

It takes an innumerable host to do that, and an everlasting life. But we should begin that praise today, and by a wonder of His grace we will do so.

Read: Psalm 106 
Psalter versification: #290:2

 Daily Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Song for Meditation: Psalter #400
Why not sing along??

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Numbers 26:52-65; Numbers 27; Numbers 28:1-15 
Luke 3:1-22 
Psalm 61:1-8 
Proverbs 11:16-17 
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Quote for Reflection:

Baptism Vows:  “Every professing Christian is the soldier of Christ. He is bound by his baptism to fight Christ's battle against sin, the world, and the devil. The man that does not do this, breaks his vow: he is a spiritual defaulter; he does not fulfill the engagement made for him. The man that does not do this, is practically renouncing his Christianity. The very fact that he belongs to a Church, attends a Christian place of worship, and calls himself a Christian, is a public declaration that he desires to be reckoned a soldier of Jesus Christ.”  -J.C. Ryle

Psalm 127:4, 5

As the psalmist wrote in Psalm 127:1, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it so it is true that they who build a household must give God all the credit. Children are Gods gift; and even as no one has room to boast of bringing himself into being, no one can rightfully boast of having brought children into being. God brings them into being through man and gives them to man. Man gives God nothing. All is His eternally.

And what a gift children are! As we read in Psalm 127:4-5, "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of thy youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.'' We may sing it thus (PRC Psalter):

Lo, children are a great reward,
A gift from God in very truth;
With arrows is his quiver stored
Who joys in children of his youth.
And blest the man whose age is cheered
By stalwart sons and daughters fair;
No enemies by him are feared,
No lack of love no want of care.

God may not have given you a house. You may not own a city. But if He gave you a covenant child, He made you rich with a most precious gift. Many children do not make a man poor. No covenant parent has room to complain about how much it costs to bring up a child. He may not be able to buy or build a house. Many of the dainties of this earth may never be his. But if God gives him a child, He has made him rich with that which lasts beyond this earth and all its treasures. As a covenant parent with covenant children he will have with him in the house of many mansions, and in the holy city, a gift of God, while the multi-millionaires have seen all their wealth go up in smoke.

Before those who have and fight for gold and silver, he need have no fear, and by all means need not be ashamed of the gift God gave him. No one with gold and silver can take thorn from him. They are his children forever. Gold and silver are ours only for a few years.

Read: Mark 10:13-16 
Psalter versification: #359:3,4

Song for Meditation: Psalter #278
Why not sing along??

Daily Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Numbers 26:1-51 
Luke 2:36-52 
Psalm 60:1-12 
Proverbs 11:15 
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Quote for Reflection:

"…Nowhere perhaps is the devil so active as in a congregation of Gospel-hearers. …From him come wandering thoughts and roving imaginations – listless minds and dull memories – sleepy eyes and fidgety nerves, weary ears and distracted attention. In all these things Satan has a great hand. People wonder where they come from, and marvel how it is that they find sermons so dull, and remember them so badly! They forget the parable of the sower. They forget the devil." --J. C. Ryle