JESUS, THE EARNEST OF THE GOOD THINGS TO COME

Psalms 106:5 That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.

This expression of longing is introduced to us by David’s supplication for salvation in the preceding verse: Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation. David calls salvation: the favour that God bears to His people.

Our lives are often complicated; it is sometimes hard to make sense of things. Many of us grope in such darkness that we do not even see even one full step ahead of us. We do not understand the injustices, the sicknesses, the sufferings, the conflicts between people and between countries where more often than not, innocent young soldiers and civilians pay the price of political debacle and confusion.

Let us now for an instant turn our eyes and look to the promises David anticipated. He was hungry for salvation because he wanted to see the good of God’s chosen. He wanted to rejoice in the gladness of the nation of God and be a partaker of the glory with God’s inheritance. David knew that the promises of God made to His people were first to be fulfilled through the coming Messiah; that through salvation, he would see goodness and rejoicing with God’s people of all the earth.

So no matter how dark is the night for the child of God in this realm, we have the promise of a glorious dawn at the edge of eternity; of a time when the promises made to the fathers will be fulfilled in the children; of the time when Jesus Christ will reign supreme. He will then teach each of us His Words that tell us how the world should have been run and how to solve problems and differences maturely. He will also teach us that wealth is in the ability to give and not to take; that power is in the ability to command virtue in ourselves, not in the in the control of others, and that God’s love is the motivating principle by which all of creation was designed (Isaiah 11:6; 65:25).

In the meantime, God has given us an advance on these things: He gave us the earnest of the spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22); so even if today we have very little control in the way the world is being run, we can already look to the spirit of God to bring peace to our lives and to that of those around us.

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 John 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.