Todays readings … Leviticus 14, Psalm 115&116, 2 Corinthians 8&9

“THEREFORE I WILL CALL UPON HIM AS LONG AS I LIVE”  

How inspiring are the Psalms we read this morning. Psalm 115 starts, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory … “   God’s name, that is, his reputation for all he has done, beginning with creation, has this primary sense of ‘God’s reputation’.   

Today we know more of the wondrous intricacies of his creation than ever before – but there is less belief in God – than ever before!  Consider and meditate on how it all works together, one thing depending on another.  Most of us see the major things in front of us every day – the birds, the flowers and the bees.  And how needful the rain and the sun!

After this we must focus our thinking on history, the panorama of human events.   God has shown his anger, especially on Israel, to whom so much was given 2 to 3,000 years ago – and how they were punished for rejecting and crucifying his Son.  Then we bring our minds to focus on and consider the meaning of the situation today!  What a miracle, as prophesied  has unfolded in the last 100 years – and surely it is now reaching an utterly sensational climax: surely the words we read in Psalm 79 last month – contain a question which is about to be answered!

“Why should the nations say, ” ‘Where is their God?’  Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations …” [v.10] This helps us to see the challenge of this morning’s Psalm which repeats this challenging question on its second verse!.

But then our eyes see – and our minds absorb – the next Psalm listed for today– 116! This is an intensely personal Psalm, it starts!  “I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.”  And David did do this – may we do the same, “as long as” we “live.”  And, by his grace, that will ultimately be forever if we have fully committed our lives to him, a commitment that starts with our baptism into the name of his Son.