Questions for Littles: Who may now say something? How may they say it? Whom do I say is my helper? What will I not do? Who can do me no ultimate harm?From the Scripture for this week’s sermon, we heard the mechanism by which we embrace God’s love for us, in order to stir up our love for Him and others: His Word.
At first, we might have missed it in v5. We might just have seen that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
But then v6 begins, “So we may boldly say…” This is a parallel follow-up to where v5 says, “For He Himself has said…” There’s an extra pronoun in there. The verb already has the “He” implied. So there’s an emphasis upon His action of speaking there in v5.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
He Himself has said. So we may say.
And that’s what we need to be doing, according to v6. Meditating upon the Word of God. That’s what the Old Testament would have called it. Christian meditation isn’t a mental inactivity. It’s a verbal activity. We take what God has said, and we preach it to ourselves.
Not just tell it. Preach it. Notice that v6 takes us a step further in content than v5. In the Lord’s speech in v5, He tells us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. But in our speech, we proceed to tell ourselves the differences that His continual presence make.
He will never leave us, so He is always present to help us. The Lord is my Helper. He will never leave us, so we never need to fear. I never need to fear. He will never leave us, so all things must work together for our good. What can man do to me?
If we are going to live lives of extraordinary love, it will not be enough merely to know the gospel or to have believed it at some point in the past. The Lord’s means of upholding this life of love is by our continually, intentionally dwelling upon the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us, and He gave Himself to us. Forever!
What habits help you preach the gospel to yourself continually?Suggested Songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH243 “How Firm a Foundation”
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