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The Path of God and Salvation

Readings: Psalms 50-53

‭Psalm 50:3 – “Our God is coming; he won’t keep quiet. A devouring fire is before him.”

Today’s first two Psalms focus on divine judgment and forgiveness. The second two focus on wickedness and unbelief. Asaph begins with God’s voice and presence. He warns: “Our God is coming; he won’t keep quiet. A devouring fire is before him.” The fire devours evil and it devours the sin in our lives. In Israel’s life one sin is going through the motions. God desires that their sacrifices come from the heart, not from the routine. The Psalm closes by addressing the behavior of the wicked. They hate both discipline and God’s word. They are given a choice: choose the correct path of God’s salvation or “I’ll rip you to pieces.” This is their choice. We too face this choice: life or death?

David chooses the path of salvation in Psalm 51. He has walked about as far from God as one can: lust, adultery, murder. In the opening verses he begs for God to wash him of his sin. He admits his guilt and asks God to purify him, to allow him to “hear joy and celebration again.” David asks God to “create a clean heart… a faithful spirit” within him. From this place of brokenness and contrition David will once again praise the Lord. It is a good and honest and right place to go. It is part of choosing the path of salvation.

Psalms 52 and 53 paint evil for what it is: bragging, deceptive, destructive, corrupt, selfish. It comes from both the words of the tongue and from the deeds of the hands. Evil words and deeds result in shame and in being uprooted by God. This sounds bad. Really bad. Yet at times we do make the choice to sin. When we do, may we remember David’s acts of confession and repentance and may we offer his words of prayer: “wash me… whiter than snow.” Then God’s love and mercy will purify us once again. May it be so.

Prayer: Lord God, the right path is clear. The poor choices are obvious. Yet we stray and sin and fall. Lord, remember your great love, that which is far greater than our sin. Restore us as we confess and repent. Consume the sin in our hearts, leaving us with clean hearts and hands. Amen.


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We Are Messengers

Reading: Malachi 3: 1-4

Verse 1: “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me”.

Malachi closes out the Old Testament with a reminder and a warning and a call. These three are interconnected. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are reminded that Jesus will suddenly come; therefore, we must be ready to stand when He appears. We are warned – Jesus will refine and cleanse, purifying us. Will we make the grade? We also find a call. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are to spread the good news to prepare all people for the coming of the Lord.

The first two are inward. When Jesus comes “like a thief in the night”, will we be ready or will our faith be asleep? Jesus calls for us to be ready. He expects to find it well with our souls. If so, we will survive the refining process. It will only purify us. It will not destroy us. It will be the final cleansing before we enter eternity. If, day by day, we seek to be in a right relationship with Jesus, repenting as need be, then we have no worries.

The last message we hear in our passage is outward. We cannot practice the first two just to live in our own ivory tower, in “holy solitary” as John Wesley put it. That is not God’s purpose for us. Verse 1 again reminds us: “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me”. In Malachi we can read this as John the Baptist. Yes, it does speak of John. But it also speaks of you and me. We too are messengers of the good news. We are phase 2, so to speak. We await the return of Christ. As we wait, we use our voice to prepare the way for the Lord bless in the lives of those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This should lead us to the question: who are they?

In verse 5, Malachi identifies a few and Jesus certainly does as well throughout His ministry. We are called to the widows and the fatherless, to the aliens, to the lost, to the broken, to the poor. If we just look around a bit, we will find them. They are in all communities and in most neighborhoods. We will not likely find them in our ivory towers or at our Sunday morning country clubs. They are across the street or alley; they are on the other side of town.

Messengers are sent to proclaim the news. You and I, we are sent to those who do not know the good news of Jesus Christ. May we engage those who do not know Jesus. May we be the gospel and may we share the gospel with those on the margins, with those on the fringes. In doing so, we prepare the way before Jesus, so that He may enter in.

Prayer: Lord, make me a messenger, as hands and feet of Christ, as well as love lived out loud, drawing all to the Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.