Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Our Places Of Rest

PSALM 89:1-2 – I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

Pop quiz. What are the two character qualities in our God repeated in today’s scripture? Yes, it is an open book quiz. Did we see them? Steadfast love and faithfulness. One more assignment in addition to the pop quiz. Sometime after reading today’s nugget, go back through the entirety of Psalm 89.It is lengthy consisting of fifty-two verses. As we read the Psalm, count the number of times the character qualities of steadfast love and faithfulness appear. I won’t give out the number. I don’t want to rob anyone of the joy of the discovery.

Two of God’s most encouraging dealings with us when our hearts and minds need places to rest in the midst of life’s chaos and storms are His steadfast love and faithfulness. In His steadfast love, He will never direct or allow anything to come into our lives that is not for His glory and our good. Yes, there will be things that hurt, that “sting our pride” and don’t feel very pleasant but they are good and come from the hands of steadfast love. When tough times come, don’t just remember that God is love, but that He is and deals with us in steadfast love; a steadfast love that will always be, well, steadfast (Jeremiah 31:3; 1 John 4:8).

The second character quality in God and His dealing with us that always provides rest for our hearts and minds is His faithfulness. And the two ways to find encouragement from God’s faithfulness are His faithfulness to His promises and His unchanging nature.

What was written of old to God’s people of old is the same for us today under the new covenant – Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass (Joshua 21:45). We find this reinforced in the New Testament book of Hebrews – So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us (Hebrews 6:17-18).

Another way God proves His faithfulness is what theologians call “God’s immutability” or His inability to change. The prophet Malachi writes of our unchanging God – For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed (Malachi 3:6).Take a moment and praise God for His immutability. As we do, think how often we change with our “emotional swings” or changing moods. Are we not over-the-top glad God isn’t like us? He remains faithful when we do not (2 Timothy 2:13).

God has promised to be our rest. It is found in His steadfast love and faithfulness. As life’s difficulties and storms come upon us, run to His steadfast love and faithfulness. They will never fail to comfort and strengthen us no matter the circumstances.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for being my God of steadfast love and faithfulness.”

QUOTE: “No matter how bad life may appear, God remains committed to us in steadfast love and faithfulness for His sake.”

Because of Him,

Pastor Jim