FBC Morning Light – December 5, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Monday morning to you. I hope your weekend went well. I hope you had a good time at church yesterday, gathering with God's people and just enjoying the fellowship and especially enjoying the opportunity to hear from the

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Lord and the privilege of being able to worship Him. It's always a highlight of our week and a good way to get the week started.

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So today, as you start your work week, I hope you had an opportunity to spend some time in God's Word.

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If not, I just want to encourage you to read Psalm 136 today. It's in our Bible reading plan.

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And this is that psalm, I'm sure you've read it before, that every verse has this refrain in it.

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And the refrain is, well, in the King James it says, For his mercy endures forever.

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I have used the New King James for this series and it says the same thing, for his mercy endures forever.

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But that word translated mercy in that way can be a little misleading, because we think of mercy as God not giving us what we deserve.

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He's had mercy on us, and mercy does mean that. But this translates, this word is actually a different word in the

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Hebrew than is normally thought of as mercy, and it could be better translated some other way.

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The ESV, for example, consistently translates the word steadfast love. I've mentioned this before in these devotions, it's the

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Hebrew word hesed, and it's a rich word, greatly rich in meaning.

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I like to think of it, and I remember back in seminary days my Hebrew teacher said a good way to think of this word is it refers to God's steadfast loyalty, his steadfast loving loyalty to his covenant, that covenant that he makes with his people, he makes with mankind even, and he is steadfastly loyal to that.

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For example, God made a covenant with the earth and all creatures on it that he would never again send a global flood like he did in the days of Noah, and he is steadfastly lovingly loyal to that covenant.

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Psalm 136 keeps repeating this refrain, for his steadfast love endures forever, but the beginning of each verse emphasizes some different idea, and many of these are interrelated.

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Let me just show you, for example, to him who alone does great wonders, verse 4, for his steadfast love endures forever.

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One evidence of God's steadfast love is the great wonders that he does on this earth.

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Then he talks about some more in more specific detail, he made the heavens, he made the earth and everything in it, he made the great lights, the sun to rule by day and the moon and the stars to rule by night.

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If you stop and think about it, all of that creative work of God is an expression of his steadfast loyalty to his covenant with creation.

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He's created these things for the sake of this planet, the earth, and those who dwell in it.

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The sun, for example, we couldn't survive without the warmth of the sun. The moon and the stars to give guidance and so forth and navigation, etc.

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These are all expressions of God's steadfast love. But the bulk of this psalm centers on God's expressions of his covenant loyalty, his steadfast covenant loyalty to his people.

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Verses 6 -22 talk about how he rescued his people, he struck the firstborn in Egypt, he brought

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Israel out of Egypt, and so forth. The next several verses just recount all that God has done for his covenant people, in rescuing them, in preserving them, and particularly this focuses on the

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Exodus and the wilderness wanderings, and then bringing them to the land of Canaan, this land, verse 21 speaks of it, the land as a heritage, a heritage to Israel, his servant.

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God has been very faithful in his covenant that he made. He made this covenant to Abraham that he would give to his descendants the land of Israel, and he's been very faithful to do so.

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Rescuing them from Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness, and bringing them into that land.

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But then the psalm closes with an expression of God's steadfast loyalty in his rescuing of his people in their lowliest state.

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Verse 23, he remembered us in our lowliest state and rescued us from our enemies, and God in his loyalty to his covenant does just that.

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He rescues his people. And then finally, this psalm ends, again, in a very broad way, and says he gives food to all flesh.

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To all flesh. To the animals, to the fish in the sea, the mankind walking on the earth.

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To whom do we owe the provision, even of our daily bread?

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But to God, who in his steadfast loyalty to his covenant provides food for his creation, for his creatures.

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The psalm ends with this statement, oh, give thanks to the

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God of heaven for his steadfast love endures forever. Let's do just that, shall we?

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Our Father and our God, we do thank you today for your steadfast, loving loyalty to your covenant.

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The covenant that you've made with the earth, the covenant that you've made with creation, the covenant especially that you've made with your people.

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We thank you for your deliverance. We thank you for rescuing us. We thank you for bringing the lowly up in our lowly estate and remembering us in that estate.

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We thank you for the gracious gift of redemption and for the eternal security that we have in Christ because you are faithful and loyal to your covenant.

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Thank you in Jesus' name, amen. I hope you have a wonderful start to your week, and may the