FBC Daily Devotional – November 6, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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Boy, this week has flown by, hasn't it? It seems like the weeks tend to do that.

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Just yesterday started this week of devotionals, and here we are ending up, wrapping up the first week back and providing these.

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I hope this week has been an encouragement to you, as we've looked at Psalm 103 and been encouraged to bless the

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Lord, to praise Him, to give thanks to Him with all of our being, and found in this psalm plenty of reasons to do so.

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The psalm exhorts us not to forget the benefits that the Lord has given to us, and the psalmist, he illustrates what some of those benefits are, forgiveness and health and so on, and those are great benefits to keep in mind.

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And perhaps this week, I hope, I encouraged you early on in the week to actually take some time every morning and jot down three or four things that you are thankful for, that you can be grateful for, some benefits from the

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Lord. I was at the hospital the other day for just a routine screening.

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It's a thing that the hospital does for the clergy every year. And the guy who was doing my cholesterol screening, he mentioned while we were waiting for the results, that one of the things he does every day is he gets up and offers a prayer of gratitude, a prayer of thanksgiving for a variety of things.

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It's a great practice to get into, just to remind ourselves of what benefits we have from our

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God. But yesterday, we wrapped up the day talking about one of these truths of God that says, as a father shows compassion to his children, so the

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Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. And then he says this, why does the Lord deal with us in this way?

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It says, because he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. Now, we've seen this already in this psalm where the psalmist will mention one thing and then he elaborates on it later.

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And that's what happens here with this particular verse. The Lord remembers our frame, he knows we are dust.

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And then that leads the psalmist to expand upon that idea of us being our frame, being but dust.

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And he goes on to say in the next verse, As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place knows it no more.

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Well, we get this imagery pretty well this time of year, don't we? Last Saturday, many of you probably did this too, but last

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Saturday I went out in the yard and in some of the flower beds and we have some hostas, a couple hostas in the front of the house and the frost had killed them and they're just laying there, you know, that ugly pale yellow color.

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Time to cut those things down. And on the side of our driveway, we've got a flower bed with a bunch of perennials that grow every year, you know.

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But at this time of year, you know, they've faded, there's no color left in them and they've died off.

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And so you cut those things down. And so that whole flower bed just looks like pretty bland and bare right now.

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We get this. And the same with our lawns. Our lawns have slowed down in the grass growing.

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Now, the warmer weather this week with the sunshine has probably caused a little bit of germination and flourishing of the grass, but we understand it isn't going to last.

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We know it's not going to last. It comes here in a few weeks. You're going to put the lawnmower away and you're not going to pull it out until April, maybe

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March. So we understand this imagery and he uses that imagery of our lives.

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They're like grass, withers, like the flowers. They shine, they glow, they bloom for a while, but then they fade away.

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That's what we are like. And so when he says that God remembers our frame and he knows we're dust, he goes on to illustrate it in this way.

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Aren't you thankful that the Lord remembers just how short our life is and what the nature of our life is as he deals with us?

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And yet that then leads the psalmist to make another contrast.

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In contrast to our days that are like grass, where we flourish for just a short while and then we're gone, in contrast to that, he goes on to say, but the steadfast love of the

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Lord, here's that word again, that term again, the steadfast love of the

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Lord, it is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

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So in contrast to our brief temporal lives, we're here for a while and then our lives fade and we pass away, the steadfast love of the

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Lord endures forever. It endures forever from everlasting to everlasting.

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And remind you what that steadfast love is. That's talking about the

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Lord's faithfulness to his covenant, the covenant that he has made with his people.

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So you who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord has promised to give everlasting life to whosoever believes in Jesus as their

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Savior, calls upon him as Lord to save them from their sin. Whosoever believes in him, the promise is you'll never perish but have everlasting life.

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That's God's covenant to you who have been converted and have put saving, repentant faith in Jesus.

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You have everlasting life and you will never perish. So that's God's covenant with you.

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And when we read that the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, the psalmist is saying that that promise that he's made to you will never pass away.

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It cannot pass away because the steadfast love of the

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Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. And then before reminding us to bless the

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Lord again with all of our being, the psalmist inserts another statement that should serve as a great encouragement and a great reason for thanksgiving to us, especially this week when we're dealing with the election and the aftermath of it and the upheaval of our nation and of our world.

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He says near the end of the psalm, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all.

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We're going to elaborate on that a little bit this Lord's Day in the Sunday morning service looking at a passage in Jeremiah.

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But what a blessing it is and what a reason to bless the Lord with all of your soul that the

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Lord's kingdom rules over all. And if you're his, you're one of his people, you're in that kingdom.

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Give thanks to the Lord for who he is to you, what he's done for you, and all, all that he is even in this world.

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Give thanks today for his steadfast love that far outlasts even your own life.

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Our Father and our God, we are so grateful. We think of our own brief lives and how quickly they come and go.

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We are so thankful that your steadfast love isn't like that, but it is from everlasting to everlasting.

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You remember your covenant and you keep it with your people. We thank you and praise you. Now, Lord, bless this weekend as we have opportunity to worship you.

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I pray that we would look forward to that opportunity and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. I hope you have a good rest of your

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Friday and wrap up your week well. Look forward to the Lord's Day gathering together for worship, more tentatively planning in service.

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If you're not comfortable with that, perfectly understandable with all the COVID potential.

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But we will be live streaming Sunday morning at 1030. So look forward to joining us in worship on the

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Lord's Day. So you have a good rest of your day and may God bless you this weekend.