–Louis L’Amour  (Last Stand at Papago Wells)

       “Our great desire is that you will keep right on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.  Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent….”

                         –Hebrews 6:11-12(NLT) 
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Psalm 89 is one of those special psalms which should be contemplated and meditated upon.  It is powerful and one that should stir our very souls.  Today’s portion holds some vital truths that we would do to get into our hearts and minds.

          8 — O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O LORD?  Your faithfulness also surrounds You.”
          9 — You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them.
        10 — You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one who is slain; You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
        11 — The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fullness, You have founded them.
        12 — The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name.
        13 — You have a mighty arm; strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand.
        14 — Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face.
        15 — Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!  They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance.
        16 — In Your name they rejoice all day long, and in Your righteousness they are exalted.
        17 — For You are the glory of their strength, and in Your favor our horn is exalted.
        18 — For our shield belongs to the LORD, and our king to the Holy One of Israel.  (NKJV)

Grasp the thought of verse 8–faithfulness.  It has been translated “steady” or “faith” in other portions of the Old Testament.  Faithfulness is at the very core of God’s character!  He will not try to do what He promises like we humans do, but He is mighty enough to do them.  He doesn’t need helpers.  Oh, He might use angels to help, He might use us as His instruments, but none of us are capable of keeping the promises of God.  
       There are other characteristics of God we see in this portion:  righteousness, justice, unfailing love, truth.  Think of this–characteristics of God that we can count on.  When things seem to be falling apart in our lives or in the world around us we can rely upon the character of God to see us through.  Just realize that God can do only that which is right, just, equitable, and fair.  We can trust Him!  We can count on Him!  He will never fail us!
       One great theologian, Alexander Maclaren said that verse 15 should be paraphrased thusly, “Oh!  How blessed are the people who are sure that they have God with them, and who, being sure, bow before Him in loving worship.”  Are you sure?  As His children we can be sure that He is steady; He is faithful.  He will guide and care for us, and will be that shield when the enemy attacks.  “As we steadily trust in God’s steadiness and faithfulness, we find life, even when the powers of death surround us.  He holds us up in his mighty arms, and he will not let us down.”  (William Petersen)
 
               “Firm as His throne His promise stands,
               And He can well secure
               What I’ve committed to His hands
               Till the decisive hour.”
                        –Isaac Watts

                         –Ken Pratt  (The Wolves of Windsor Ridge) 

       “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice!  Tell all the nations that the LORD is king.”

                         –1 Chronicles 16:31 (NLT)
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It had been my intention to write about Samson for this morning‘s devotion, but yesterday while driving on the winding road on my way to Coldspring a song came to my mind.  It has been at least fifty years since I’ve heard this song.  Why, oh why did it come to mind?  Perhaps the words are for someone that is reading this.  So we’ll leave Samson wandering the streets of Gaza, why he is there I don’t know, and look at the words of this song.  
       I looked in both the hymnbooks that I have from my youth, “Hymns of Glorious Praise” and the “Melodies of Praise,” and cannot find the song in either of those so it must have been in an earlier book.  It was written by Adger M. Pace in 1940.  I always thought the title was “Glad Day,” but have found that the original title was “Glad Reunion Day.”  

               There will be a happy meeting in Heaven, I know
               When we see the many loved ones we’ve known here below,
               Gathered on that blessed hilltop with hearts all aglow
               That will be a glad reunion day.

               When we live a million years in that wonderful place,
               Basking in the love of Jesus, beholding His face,
               It will seem but just a moment of praising His grace
               That will be a glad reunion day.

  That first day, immediately after the trumpet sounds, in the twinkling of an eye, things will have changed forever.  I almost wrote when time will be no more, but that is still in the future.  That time will come.  However, we cannot speak in eternal terms, for we do not have the vocabulary.  There will be no time, no day for there will be no night.  Time will have ceased and only the eternal ages will continue before us.  That won’t happen until the Great White Throne Judgment after the Millennium reign of Christ.
       In my mind, the song was called “Glad Day” and for sure that day in heaven with all of the saints and loved ones who have gone on before will certainly be a glad day.  But now, living in this world below–living in time, the time the Lord has given us–we should be able to sing “glad day.”  This is the day the Lord has given each of us and we should be living it the best we can for Him.  It should be a glad day no matter rain or shine, glee or sorrow, storm or fair weather for we live each unto the Lord.

                              A glad day, a wonderful day,
                              A glad day, a glorious day,
                              There with all the holy angels and loved ones to stay
                              That will be a glad reunion day.

                    –Ernest Haycox  (Trail Smoke)

       “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.”

                    –Psalm 16:11 (NLT)
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A couple of songs came to my mind as I was pondering this morning‘s devotion.  Songs from long ago, the first–“Stop the World I Want to Get Off,” second, “Make the World Go Away,” and lastly, “Going 90 Miles an Hour Down a Dead-End Street.”  Have those thoughts ever crossed your mind?  Solomon has been talking in Ecclesiastes about things that are futile like grasping the wind.  Think of some things that are futile:
          “As futile as watering a post.”
          “As futile as plowing rocks.”
          “As futile as singing songs to a dead horse.”
          “As futile as pounding water with mortar.”
Let me get off this crazy, insane world.  But that is not the answer.  William Cowper wrote this,
          “The toil of dropping buckets into empty wells,
          And growing old in drawing nothing up.”
In other words, what are the important things in life?  Are you drawing up empty buckets?  Perhaps then, you are not learning what the Lord would have you learn.  Perhaps you are remaining in the world of childhood forsaking or neglecting responsibilities.  Life is a gift from God, are you enjoying it or dreading each day as it unfolds?  If you are not enjoying it, the problem might lie in the relationship that you have with the Lord.

               “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men.  A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it.  This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.”
                              –Ecclesiastes 6:1-2 (NKJV)

       We have wonderful blessings, yet we often take them for granted, or do not recognize them.  Somewhere along the way a “foreigner” comes.  Who/What is this foreigner that gains your attention and tries to steal your blessing?  It could be sickness.  Some people are still reeling from the virus; they are still threatened by it and live in anxiety.  It could be a natural disaster.  A storm has come through bringing destruction and you focus on the storm rather than the Lord.  It might be an adversary–someone who is against you, or that dreaded adversary the devil.
       This foreigner is an “evil affliction.”  It draws us away from God.  We focus on the calamity, the destruction, the fight rather than keeping our eyes upon the Lord.  This is 2023, and I will tell you that if the Rapture doesn’t occur each of us will have our share of problems.  The “foreigner” will try to steal our blessings.  I would remind you of the words of that chorus that we sang so often in youth and in church services of by-gone years.

               “Turn your eyes upon Jesus
               Look full in His wonderful face
               And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
               In the light of His glory and grace.”
                              –Helen H. Lemmel

                         –Larry McMurtry  (Lonesome Dove)

       “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.”

                         –Psalm 118:8 (NKJV)
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I started reading the Letter to the Hebrews to begin the year.  Now, I don’t consider myself a biblical scholar by any means, but I think that when a word is repeated several times we should look at it.  The term “better” is mentioned nineteen times in the New Testament, thirteen of those times in Hebrews.  I want to take a look at these verses and let you ponder them this Wednesday morning.

      1:4, “Having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”  Think of this–the Creator of the angels, came to earth as a man, and became lower than the angers, and now has gone back to His rightful position in glory.
     6:9, “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.”  I remember when as a kid I would do something not so pleasing, Dad would give me “that look” that said I thought better of you.  The writer here has that same look however not in an accusing manner, but knowing that we are capable of better things.
     7:7, “Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better.”  How are you at blessing others?  
     7:19, “For the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”  Wow!  We now have a better hope to live this life–Jesus Christ.  We also have that better hope that awaits us in eternity.
     7:22, “By so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.”  For sure!  The Law made us realize that we needed a Savior.  Jesus is that new covenant.
     8:6, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.”  
     9:23, “Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”  Christ is the better sacrifice–the final sacrifice for sin.  However, we should also be a living sacrifice and better because of the Holy Spirit within us.
     10:34, “For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.”  
     11:16, “But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”  There awaits for us a home far better than anything here on earth.
     11:35, “Women received their dead raised to life again.  Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.”  Hold on, hold on, no matter what, hold on for there is a better resurrection, a life eternal with God.
     11:40, “God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”  In Christ, life is much better.
     12:24, “To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”  The sacrifice of Jesus, is much better; it is final, than any blood offering.

I hope to take more time studying this as I get to that portion of Scripture.  I’m taking it slowly, trying to digest what the writer is saying and how it applies to me.  However, with the word “better,” and what is on the surface of these verses I can begin to understand Paul’s view.  
               “For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”  (Philippians 1:23, NKJV)