1 Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,
“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their names on my lips.
5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
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What is striking to me in these verses is the comfort that David derives from knowing that his eternal destiny is in the Lord’s hands. He knows that he will not be left for dead, but instead will enjoy eternity at the right hand of God.
These are relevant words for our present time in our present crisis. Every day we hear updates of the numbers who have died from his illness. So much of our lives are governed by the steps we feel we must take in order to keep that number from going higher, not to mention to keep our own lives from being part of that number. This Psalm speaks of the comfort of seeing beyond the death we fear into the eternity that God has prepared for us.
Now, David didn’t have all the information we have about the resurrection, living 1000 years before Christ. But he did know enough to entrust his eternity to his God, and to find great comfort and strength in that. He says that he will not be shaken, and that he can rest secure.
We pray for the Lord’s help in the struggles that we face, and that are faced by the people around us. The Lord has instructed us to do so, and so we pray with confidence for His intervention and presence now in our troubles. But undergirding that faith is the knowledge that the Lord already has the last chapter written. That ultimately, no matter what this world throws at us, we have eternity secure, and a time will come, beyond time, when these troubles will fade away.
So my prayer today is for us all as we struggle with the fear of death, that we may find comfort in the resurrection, and so live each day in the strength that we have from the promise of eternity in Christ.
NOTE:
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