Friday 24 June 2011

The shortest psalm

Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples! For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! - Psalm 117v1-2

People like to play with numbers. Psalm 117 is an example of that. If you count things right it is supposed to be the middle chapter of the Bible and the middle words of the middle chapter are ‘the Lord.’ This is supposed to signify a truth we already know – ‘the Lord’ is the centre of the Bible.

That’s a lot of fun and it is a nice little titbit to throw out there. I guess there is nothing wrong with that kind of thing.

One thing that cannot be questioned though is the simple truth that Psalm 117 is near the middle of most English Bibles and it is the shortest ‘chapter’ in the Bible.

The simple truths in this psalm are wonderful. God is to be praised. He shows us His merciful kindness. His truth endures forever.

I have looked at praise the last couple of days (now to apply it.) I will look at mercy tomorrow. That leaves ‘the truth of the Lord endures forever.

In my short life time a lot of things have changed. Things that appalled us back in the 60s and 70s are commonplace today. Words never spoken in public are used by even decent Christian people. The sense of what is right and what is wrong have taken a hammering. This is nothing new – it goes on generation after generation. It is going to continue because ‘evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse as we see the day of the Lord approaching.

But one thing never changes. There is a truth that we can use to anchor our lives. It is indeed the only truth. God’s truth never changes. No matter how society develops and morphs and changes God’s truth never does.

The world has changed a lot since by salvation in 1974. But the gospel that saved me hasn’t. Praise God for His unchangeable truth!

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