Psalm 37:23-26 (NCV)
When people's steps
follow the Lord, God is pleased
with their ways. If they stumble, they
will not fall, because the Lord
holds their hand. I was young, and now I
am old, but I have never seen good people left helpless or their children
begging for food. Good people always lend freely to others, and their children
are a blessing.
If you read this passage for the first time or perhaps had read it
before but not as carefully as you just did now, what do you think? Are not these verses awesome, encouraging,
and comforting? Let’s review four
promises.
Promise 1. When you follow the Lord with your life’s
actions, He is pleased with you. Another
way of stating this promise is that the Lord grants success to the one who desires
to obey His commands or whose behavior He finds commendable. You want to be successful in life,
right? Yet, likely your definition of
success involves status, wealth, and power.
These are worldly views of success.
The spiritual view of success in life is a life that pleases the
Lord. Joshua 1:8 is the only verse in
the Bible that uses a word that is translated in English as success. Joshua 1:8 says that success results from
being careful to do what the word of God commands.
Promise 2. If and
when you stumble you will not fall because the Lord upholds you. The Hebrew word for stumble means to make a
mistake, even to fail, and the Hebrew word for fall here means be hurled down
or thrown out. If you are a person with
whom God is pleased, while you still might make mistakes in your life, none of
these mistakes or stumbles will hurt you permanently. Why?
Because the Lord is always with you and protects you from getting
seriously hurt by your stumble. You
might make a lapse in judgment, make a bad decision, and/or say or do something
that is regrettable. Yes, you will
experience some momentary hurt, but the Lord will not allow you to be
irreversibly hurt by your mistake(s).
Promise 3. Good
people (righteous people……..people right with God) are never left helpless nor
are their children ever starving or not taken care of. You might know of examples where it appears
that righteous people are in a state of helplessness or their children not
cared for, but you may not know the true state of righteousness of that person
or that their dire situation is not permanent.
The Lord will deliver them if they please Him with their actions.
Promise 4. Children of parents who are pleasing to the Lord will be blessings to others and blessed themselves. No hope of a parent can be greater than this.
Are not these four promises awesome, encouraging, and comforting? The key to all of them coming true for you is
to trust in the truth of the word of God and do your best to follow (obey) His
word every day of your life. Yes, you
will stumble from time to time in your efforts to be obedient, but praying and
confessing your stumbles (sins) will enable the Lord to forgive you and make you righteous
(I John 1:9). Then you will be able to claim and stand on the promises of
God.
“Standing on
the promises I cannot fall,
List’ning every moment to the Spirit’s
call,
Resting in my Savior as my all in all,
Standing on the promises of God.”
– Russell K. Carter, “Standing on the Promises” (5th stanza)[1].
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