It is exciting, once again, to see a verse in the Psalms that uses the beautiful and meaningful Hebrew parallelism form of poetry.  Four important words for a Christian are highlighted in this verse and viewed as if they were individual people, coming from far places to meet together.  The words are: mercy and truth, then righteousness and peace.  The dictionary defines mercy as an act or disposition of compassion, favor, blessing, or tenderness of heart, that often results in the tempering of justice.  Truth is defined as a "verified or accepted fact...that which is true or actual."  Let’s think of mercy and truth as two lawyers standing before a judge during a trial.  Mr. Mercy defends his client, acknowledging his wrong doing, but pleads for compassion from the Judge with tenderness of heart, weeping as he asks for the tempering of justice.  Mr. Truth clearly presents the case in concise statements, repeating the facts of the case, declaring the client guilty as charged.  He declares the penalty for the crime and leaves the judgment in the hands of the established system of justice, according to the law.  Then before sentence is given, the Judge steps down and joins the hands of the two lawyers.  Mr. Mercy and Mr. Truth are met together.  The client is declared guilty as charged, but the sentence is not imposed, the penalty has been met by the payment of the Judge himself: mercy and truth have been met.  Jesus Christ is the Truth and He is the full embodiment of Mercy as our Lawyer.  But He is also the Judge: For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committeth all judgment unto the Son.  When we came before Him, as our righteous Judge, and pled guilty of sin, but appealed to His mercy and salvation, He applied His payment for our sin on the cross of Calvary to our souls because of His great mercy.  This truth concerning the meeting of mercy and truth is seen throughout the Scriptures.  For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Psalm 108:4.  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity...because he delighteth in mercy. Micah 7:18  ...according to his mercy he saved us... Titus 3:5.  In Jesus Christ, mercy and truth meet together for us.  The same is true of righteousness and peace.  Jesus is called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS in Jeremiah 23:6, and Ephesians 2:14 declares that He is our peace.  The righteousness of God demanded that sin’s penalty was death and separation from a holy God.  When Christ died for us on the cross of Calvary, He gave us access to God by making peace with God available to all who would believe.  The penalty that righteousness demanded was met by Jesus in His death and peace is granted to us when we are made alive in Him.  While we were once aliens...without God...[we were] made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace... having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law...that he might reconcile [us]...unto God... Ephesians 2:12-16  Yes, in Christ righteousness and peace have kissed each other and because of God’s great love for us, He paid the price that righteousness demanded.  What great love has the Lord shown towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8  Righteousness and peace kissed each other the day Christ died and also the day that each one of us received the gift of salvation into our lives.  It was the ultimate proof of love.  Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace joined together in Jesus, the lover of our souls.  Meet with Him today, tell Jesus of your great love for Him.

Being teachable is one of the most important qualities that a Christian can have.  As a teacher, I know that the children in the class that have a desire to learn will succeed.  They may not get the best grade in the class, but they will be the best they can be as individual students.  It is the child that has no desire to learn that always concerns me.  Sometimes their attitude is reflected as foolishness, inattention, or outright rebelliousness, and the situation, unless changed, will always spell failure.  As Christians, the same results will be seen in our lives.  If we have the earnest, heartfelt desire to learn from and about the Lord and His ways, He will grant us success and Holy Spirit guidance.  But if our hearts are cold and indifferent, if there is a rebellious heart of unbelief (which even Christians can have in relationship to life and growth), or if we foolishly think that we know more than God about the way in which we should go, we will surely be failures.  All successful Christians have at one time or another, or even many times, called out to God: "Lord, teach me, show me the way I should go and the things I should do."  Paul said, on the road to Damascus, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Acts 9:6  Perhaps every morning we ought to repeat Paul’s prayer to the Lord.  We need guidance.  I do not know what the future holds even from day to day, but I have confidence in the Lord that He knows all about it.  I need Him to teach me and to lead me so that I will have godly success.  The Psalmist makes God a pledge: LORD; I will walk in thy truth.  When God teaches us through His Word and His preachers, we must be willing to walk in His truth.  The Apostle John rejoiced greatly to hear that the believers were walking in the truth (II John 4 and III John 4).  Think of how much it pleases our Heavenly Father to know that we, His children, walk in the truth.  We must make a firm resolve in this matter.  Walking means each step, every area of our life must be given to the truth of God.  We can not separate out our business life, our home life, our thought life or our habit life, all must be controlled by God’s truth.  I love the last phrase of this verse: unite my heart to fear thy name.  The Psalmist wanted an undivided heart.  When our heart is divided, we can not truly know the purity of total communion with the Lord, we can not be a steadfast, loyal and trustworthy soldier of the Cross.  God tells us the truth of this whole-hearted devotion throughout Scripture. ...thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart (Deut. 6:5), Blessed are they...that seek him with the whole heart (Ps. 19:2), Trust in the Lord with all thine heart (Prov. 3:5), and ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart (Jer.29:13).  The Lord desires success for us, He desires joy in our lives, and He knows the formula for success.  O Lord, help me to have an undivided heart in my love and devotion towards You.  Lord, if it takes deep soul searching to find the areas that I have allowed in my life to divide that loyalty, I am willing to do it with Your Holy Spirit’s help.  Lord, make me willing to remove those areas that are divisive, to rearrange those priorities that steal some of my heart’s unity.  Lord, help me to be a whole hearted Christian, with my heart united to fear Thy name.

As Christians, the Lord Jesus Christ is our source of spiritual life.  In John chapter four, He said to the woman at the well that if she asked of Him, He would give to her living water.  When we came to the Lord in salvation, He gave to each of us that living water to revive our souls that were withered and dead in sin.  Spiritually the only well spring that we can have is the Lord Jesus.  Before we were saved we were like the pitiful man crawling across the desert, ready to perish without water.  Then we came unto Jesus and knew the reason for His pleas in John 7:37, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.  The spring of living water came into our thirsty soul and we were made alive in Christ.  As the redeemed of the Lord, we know that our spiritual life spring is in the Lord Jesus.  But the Psalmist said, all my springs are in thee.  The question we need to ask ourselves today is: are all my springs in the Lord?  If we were looking for an ideal farmland on which to grow the best yield of crops, we would certainly look to see if every part of it was well watered.  We might want to raise corn on one part of the land, soy beans on another, cattle on another part, and so on, but each part would require water for an increase to be seen.  In our lives there are different "plots of land" in which the Lord would like to see an abundant increase and a fruitful crop.  Each of them must find their well spring in Him.  Our intellectual thought life, our business life, our family life, our areas of pleasure and interests, all these are like the different parts of that farmland.  They all should be under the husbandman-care of the Lord Jesus, they all need to find their source in His well springs.  The world can only offer polluted ponds that may supply water to sustain a crop in some of our areas of life, but the stench will linger over that plot of land.  Sooner or later, that pond will dry up because it is not connected to a fresh water spring, and then all around it will surely die.  I want my entire life to be like a well-watered garden for the Lord.  I want Him to be able to "stroll" in that garden into any corner and be well pleased with what He sees there.  I want to be like the Psalmist and say that all my springs are in Him!  Instead of clogged and muddy watering holes, or polluted ponds, how much more lovely my life will be if all the areas are watered by the rivers of living waters that flow pure and clear from the well spring of God.

DAY 137     Psalm 90:16     Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.

Moses wrote Psalm 90 as a prayer to God.  Of all the men who were honored to receive personal knowledge from the Lord, Moses was certainly uniquely blessed.  We do not often think about it, but before Moses penned Genesis, there were probably no written records of the Creation.  God allowed him to view in his mind’s eye the Creation of the universe and of man, the Fall, the Flood, and the lives of the Patriarchs.  In his mind and spirit, Moses saw all the marvelous works of the Lord.  He glimpsed the glory of the Lord, not only in revelation of His word, but on the mountain of Sinai.  In his own life time, Moses saw the miracles in Egypt and the Exodus.  Day by day he saw the Shekinah glory resting on the tabernacle during the wilderness wanderings.  All this Moses had seen, and he could speak with authority when he said: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Psalm 90:2  Though this Psalm is not dated, we can imagine that it might have been written in Moses’ later life.  As he looked around at the people God had given him to lead, he knew that most of them had either been very young at the time of the Exodus or not even born.  For the most part, they had only heard of the mighty miracles and wonders of the crossing of the Red Sea and the giving of the Law.  Now Moses knew they needed a fresh vision of the Lord.  For forty years, even those that had been teenagers at the time of the crossing, had wandered in the desert lands.  The weary years had perhaps dulled their spiritual vision.  So with deep compassion and understanding Moses prays.  Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.  We know that this was answered many times over by the Lord in the lives of these Israelites.  The Jordan River was parted and they walked over on dry ground.  The walls of Jericho fell down and victories were won in the land.  God answered Moses’ prayer and, as long as that generation lived, the people wholly followed the Lord.  In our lives we so often need a fresh vision of the Lord.  We need to see His works and His glory again.  How long has it been since you have sensed the real glory of the Lord in your life?  Do you remember the day you were saved and the knowledge you had of His great work in your life?  How many days can go by without each of us realizing that great work in its real glory?  It is so sad to think of how many children of Christians drift away from the Lord and His church.  Is it because we have failed to see what Moses understood?  Each generation must glimpse the glory of the Lord for themselves.  We need to pray for our children and our grandchildren that they will see God’s works and behold His glory!  It may be one of the most important prayers that we can ever make.  It is not just enough to hear of the Lord’s workings in other’s lives, each individual must understand it for themselves.  We can never expect our children to just live our Christianity, it must be personally theirs.  Of course we should be the example and the ones to tell them of the great works and glory that God has done in our lives, just as Moses so aptly did himself.  But we must also pray that God would personally reveal Himself to our precious children so that they will have first hand knowledge to strengthen them and give them a personal awareness of the reality of God.  The very fact that in the "Bible-belt," where so many earnest Christians stood in years past for the true faith, now church is just a formality to so many of the next generation, sadly proves this point.  We need to cry out and plead with the Lord to let His works appear to His servants in the church, including ourselves; that we would get a fresh reviving from the Lord of His present power that should be seen in our lives!  We should give ourselves most earnestly to prayer that our children would see the glory of the Lord!  Oh Lord, I want my precious children and grandchildren to know You in the fullness of Your power.  I know that if they do, their lives will count in a marvelous way for Your kingdom and Your glory.  I know that I need to pray for them every day in this respect, not just that they would be safe today, and kind and loving, but that their lives would be overshadowed by Your glory!  Lord, let Your work appear to me and those of us in our church.  Revive us again.  And, Lord, let Your glory appear to our children that they can really know You as the Mighty God of Creation and the glorious Lord of their lives.  Be real to them, I love them so!  I want them to be blessed and used by You and to have victory.  Amen.

What a fantastic prayer for the believer this verse is!  Let’s personalize it and see how really marvelous a verse it is: "Lord, I pray that the beauty of the Lord my God will be upon me and my life.  I ask You to establish all the works of my hands and make them beautiful in Thy sight.  Make them the works that You would do through me."  There are so many times during the day that I could stop and realize that I am not acting in a beautiful way.  Every time that I lose my temper or fail to use wisdom in the way I speak or lack grace in dealing with others, I know that the beauty of the Lord is not being seen in me.  When I pause to consider what the beauty of the Lord must be, I am truly astounded that I could pray the prayer of Psalm 90:17 for my life.  The picture the beauty of the Lord in our mind’s eye is an awe inspiring task.  Take a moment to consider this: Heaven’s palaces, shining and richly gleaming in the rays of the sunlight of God’s perfect majesty.  Seated on the throne, resplendent in all His glory, is the wonderful Lord Jesus.  Peer into His loving eyes and see the beauty of holiness and perfect love there.  View all the perfection around the throne: the crystal clear river of life flowing by, the beautiful greenery of the tree of life, the marvelous angels...and picture the "beauty of the Lord."  It almost takes your breath away just to think of it!  Now consider again the prayer we just made: let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us...  It is no longer a light prayer, but one of outstanding proportions.  We have asked the Lord of all glory to let His beauty be seen in and on our lives!  Truly, I desire that to be so in my life.  I want to exchange the common place, mortal image of me in all my faults and sin for the glorious, perfect beauty of the Lord.  I want others to look at my life day after day and see the Lord Jesus reflected there.  I want all that I do to be an honor to His name.  But what an awesome responsibility that gives to me.  To allow the beauty of the Lord to be seen in my life, I may have to allow Him to change some things.  There may be some habits that I will need to give up.  There may be some things that I will have to do differently.  There may be some words that I will have to choose not to speak and others that I must learn to be brave enough to utter.  If God’s beauty is to be seen in my life then I must ask the Lord to cleanse me of my sinful ways and replace them with His righteous acts.  I must walk the way Christ would have walked here on earth.  This is a prayer and a task for a life time!  And then, with Moses I need to pray that the Lord would establish all my works.  Whatever I do, it needs to reflect the power and glory of the Lord.  Whether it be inside my house or in the world or in my church, all my works should be under the leadership of Christ.  Oh, Lord, let me pray the prayer of this verse again with understanding.  Lord, I do so want Your beauty to be seen in my life.  I am willing to let the Holy Spirit reveal to me the areas that I must allow Him to change in order for Your beauty to shine forth.  Lord, Your beauty is so overwhelming that it is amazing to consider that a mere human could allow their own "ugliness" of sin and self to overshadow that beauty.  Lord, I don’t want that to happen in my life.  Make me a more beautiful person, remold and remake me in Thy image, Lord.  Help me to be and to do all the things that will bring honor and glory to Your name.  Let Your beauty be seen in me.

The entire Psalm 91 is the believer’s answer to fear.  The Psalmist admonishes us to trust in the Lord and to remember Who our Lord really is, His might and His power.  In this trusting, the promises are given: Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night.. (verse 5), There shall no evil befall thee... (verse 10), and God will deliver... (verse 15).  There are also the precious personal promises of God to the believer in this Psalm that we should ever keep close to our hearts: A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. (verse 7)  And he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. (verse 11)  With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation. (verse 16) and the ultimate promises of joy and security found in verses 14 and 15: Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.  He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.  What a marvelous Psalm.  We should each have this chapter of the Bible engraved in our memories!  It is a jewel tucked away in the midst of the Book of Psalms that the devil certainly would not want us to claim as our own, and yet we have discovered it and we can make it our personal possession, a jeweled locket to wear close to our hearts.  As our minds and spirits are more and more given over to the Lord and to His Word, we can be real partakers of the meaning of this verse.  Abiding in Christ truly means finding that secret place of the most High.  There is a beautiful old hymn of Ira Sankey’s called "Hiding in Thee."  It clearly states the way of dwelling in the secret place of the most High God.

    O safe to the Rock that is higher than I,

    My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly,

    So sinful, so weary, Thine, Thine would I be.

    Thou blest ‘Rock of Ages,’ I’m hiding in Thee.

    In the calm of the noontide, in sorrow’s lone hour,

    In times when temptation casts o’er me its power;

    In the tempests of life, on its wide, heaving sea,

    Thou blest ‘Rock of Ages,’ I’m hiding in Thee.

    How oft in the conflict, when pressed by the foe,

    I have fled to my Refuge and breathed out my woe;

    How often, when trials like sea billows roll,

    Have I hidden in Thee, O Thou rock of my soul.

We can dwell in that secret place of the most High by coming to Him in heartfelt prayer when we have great needs or small concerns.  He is always available to us.  We must "dwell" and "abide," both of which words give the idea of constancy and consistency.  "Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine" rings out another hymn.  If we dwell, we shall abide!  The verse is clear.  I desire in my heart to have all the promises of this marvelous Psalm as my present possession.  I want the assurance of knowing that I can have freedom from fear in all areas of my life.  I want God’s honor and deliverance, His blessing and answers to prayer.  And in the Psalm, I find the methods of obtaining all this: I must set my love upon Him (verse 14), I must trust in Him (verse 2), I must call on Him in prayer (verse 15), and I must choose to make Him my refuge and dwelling place.  I must abide in Him.  Lord, teach me how to abide in You.  Help me to make Your word and Your truth my shield and buckler.  Lord, as I learn more and more to come quickly to You and dwell in that precious and secret place reserved in Heaven for me, I know that You will overshadow me with Your love and care.  Thank You for the jewel of Psalm 91 and its truths.  Help me to claim them as my own.

Psalm 92 is labeled in my Bible as a "Song for the Sabbath day."  In this song for the worshipers of Jehovah, the writer is encouraging them to give God the proper praise as they enter His place of worship.  It would do us good to pause and consider the things set forth in this Psalm as we come to the Lord in worship.  It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night.  Our hearts should be prepared to give thanks to the Lord for all His bountiful benefits to us.  Truly it is good to offer thanks unto the Lord.  We need to do it more often, it seems.  Sometimes we become almost like an ungrateful child, seemingly expecting the Lord to give to us, but never adequately expressing our gratefulness to Him.  If we would but stop to remember where we came from and all that God did for us in salvation, we would be humbled to remember that He is the One who made us His child and that all our devotion and service belongs to Him.  Then we would become more like the treasured child that shows love and gratitude to the loving parent.  As a young child, my favorite fictional character was Heidi.  Well I can remember the sweetness of that little orphan girl who was always lovingly grateful to those that provided for her.  Adults were amazed at her sincerity and all learned from her love in action.  We need to be that way in our lives as Christians, as orphans given the honored place of adopted children in the family of God.  Then as a goal for our lives, we need to implement verse two, and show forth God’s lovingkindness in the morning, and His faithfulness every night.  Let’s bring it down to the practical everyday.  As the best representatives of the Lord and His grace in our lives, we should never be the kind of person that you can’t get a civil answer from first thing in the morning, or until they have had that first cup of coffee!  No, in place of grouchiness and snapping to everyone, our mouths should show forth God’s lovingkindness in the morning to all that we meet.  This can only be true if our hearts are in tune with the lovingkindness of God and we have been truly changed individuals.  Think of the bright, shiny person you wish you could be at all times and on all days, even first thing in the morning.  Truly all would realize that you had been touched by the mighty love of God.  And in so realizing it, they would also be affected by that love spilling out through your life.  What a glory that would be!  Then, in living the truth of this verse, we would be able to go to bed at night knowing that God’s faithfulness had been demonstrated through our lives that day.  What a marvelous ambition, what a peace would be ours!  Notice the colon at the end of verse one.  That little mark teaches us a very important lesson.  The way to give thanks and sing praise to the Lord, the Most High God, is to show forth His lovingkindness and faithfulness in our lives everyday.  We are to live our lives as a praise and thanksgiving offering unto the Lord Who is worthy of all honor and glory.  Lord, I love You so much and I am so thankful to You for all that You have done for me and for all that You continue to do everyday.  Lord, I want to honor You in my life and live as an offering wholly given to You on the altar of my life.  Help me to remember that each day is to be lived in this way.  Help me to show forth Your lovingkindness in my life.  Make of my life a blessing to others.  Replace any selfishness or bitterness with Your love.  Let my actions and words be those that You have put in my life to show Your loving character.  And, Lord, when I go to bed each night, help me to have this testimony to my heart, that my life has shown forth Your faithfulness this day.  Help me to be a humble and grateful child to You and to carry the family name of Christian with honor.  I love You so much, Lord, help me to live my life in demonstration of that love.  Today, let me start afresh.  Teach me today what it really means to have lovingkindness in my life and to show forth Your faithfulness.