It was the pride that Satan worked into Adam's and Eve's hearts that moved them to commit man's first sin. Man was moved to desire to be like God and not remain a servant of God. And every sin that we commit is due to that sinful pride that is in us from the day of our birth.
Salvation, therefore, requires the removal of that pride. If we are going to be saved from breaking God's law, we must be humbled by the truth that He is God and that we were created to serve and praise Him as God. That is why the psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:173, 174: "Let Thine hand help me; for I have chosen Thy precepts. I have longed for Thy salvation, O Lord; and Thy law is my delight."
God's hand must reach down and save us. We are like a drowning man with nothing on which to stand and in need of a hand that will lift us up out of the water and certain death. A cry for this comes out of a humble heart that wants to be lifted out of the sea of sin. Born again, we long for salvation; for God's law is our delight. We do have the old sinful nature, the old man of sin, but also the principle of new life that wants to keep God's law and to praise Him as God. And God, Whose hand put that new life in us, must reach down and strengthen it.
We can see that hand of God more clearly than the psalmist. For we can see Christ, God's right hand, and the pouring out of His Spirit that works in us this prayer as versified in our Psalter:
For Thy salvation I have longed,
And in Thy law is my delight;
Enrich my soul with life divine,
And help me by Thy judgments right.
We must have a divine life in the sense that we must be given the same sinless life that God's Son had when He came in our flesh.
Try to keep God's law in your own strength, and you will not only fail but will drown in added sins. Look instead to Christ Who is not only God's Hand but also sits at God's right hand with power over everything in heaven and on earth. He will lift you completely out of sin into everlasting sinlessness in the day of His return. Cry to Him for help. In God's grace He will give it to you.
Read: Psalm 130
Psalter versification: 342:3
(Words and Music of the Psalter)
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
Song for Meditation: Psalter number 53
Why not sing along??
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Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Daniel 5:1-31
2 Peter 2:1-22
Psalm 119:113-128
Proverbs 28:19-20
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Quote for Reflection:
"God the Father not only gives his Son but also pours out his Spirit. The reference is to Pentecost ( Acts 2:17 , 18, 33). Organically speaking, the Spirit was poured out upon the church of the present and of the future; for, that Spirit having once established his personal residence in the church, never leaves it again. Hence, Paul can say, ‘whom he poured out upon us.’" William Hendriksen on Titus 3:6
Additional Info
- Date: 28-November
