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Bible Study........................................................................Pages
from His Grace Magazine
by His Grace
Page 20 Our 3rd Anniversary! July 2021 Bible Study...Psalm 84:11
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Psalm 84 is regarded as one of the sweetest psalms of peace. It was written by the sons of Korah who were Levites. Korah led a rebellion of 250 community leaders against Moses during the wilderness days of the Exodus (Numbers 16). God judged Korah and they all died, but the sons of Korah remained (Numbers 26:9-11). Perhaps they were so grateful for this mercy that they became known in Israel for praising God.
This psalm reveals that the future kingdom of Christ will be saturated with the spiritual qualities of loving kindness, truth, righteousness and peace, and these attributes will relate to each other in perfect harmony. God’s favor and friendship will be better than life itself as we know it.
This current world, however, is in darkness; but if we choose God to be our Lord, He will be our sun, our source of light, joy and happiness. The love of God for His people is one of the most fundamental teachings throughout the scripture. The psalmist explains the goodness and blessing that come to those pilgrims who love and long for the house of God. The pilgrim nation found both sun and shield in the fiery, cloudy pillar, which was the symbol of of the world that dispels darkness, enlightens His people with the light of His grace. He warms them with the beams of His love and cheers and refreshes their souls with the light of His countenance. The prophet Malachi tells us that those who fear
the Lord will feel His warmth with healing in His light. This not only means recovery from physical harm done by the wicked, but it refers to sickness linked with sin. This healing comes only through the suffering of our Lord and Savior.
God will be our shield, protecting us from danger lurking about us. He is the shield of faith against the temptations of the devil; He is the shield of salvation which shelters from divine justice and from the wrath to come.
God promises His grace to those who seek Him. He gives converting grace, sanctifying grace; He freely gives justifying, pardoning, adopting and persevering grace. Grace is the knowledge and love of Him made known to us through His Holy Spirit. We gain access to God through faith in Jesus, allowing us to commune with Him and abide in His presence. Christ has made it all possible by giving us of His Spirit.
However, there are many Christians who grieve the Spirit and do not allow the fullness of the Spirit to reign through them. There is a divide between those filled with the Spirit and those occupied with their desires of the flesh. Believers filled with the Spirit are filled with joy and peace, but those refusing to follow the Spirit have no joy, peace and love because they carry out the deeds of the flesh (Gal 5:1625). Our desires and wants should not lead us, but God’s Spirit should.
God’s presence. Today, we Christians have both light and shelter in the Lord our God…a light to show the way and a shield to ward off its perils.
Malachi 4:2 says, “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” Christ is the “sun of righteousness,” the light
July 2021
Our 3rd Anniversary! Page 21 Bible Study...Psalm 84:11
Romans 7:18 says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” Believers can miss the full blessing of His will if we do not walk uprightly. Even when we faithfully seek the Lord, there will be times when bad things will happen to us. But God will constantly oversee our lives through these trials, helping us to triumph through the pain and trouble that we often experience. Jesus suffered and was crucified, yet He triumphed over death. God keeps our faith steady by His promises, reminding us that all is well, even if life throws us lemons at times.
The gift of eternal glory is a gift of God through Christ. As He gives grace to those who wait on Him, He encourages and increases their hope of glory. As we are transformed into Christ’s image, His glory is the fullness of being made like Him.
When we strive to walk uprightly before Him every day in truth and holiness, and when we walk by faith, the Lord will not withhold any good thing that He has purposed for us, promised to us; no spiritual good thing and no temporal blessing will He deny us.
The nature of this beautiful promise is appropriate under the Old Covenant, where God promised direct blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Under the New Covenant, the believer receives God’s good things on the basis of Jesus’ goodness, and then goes on to walk uprightly. God’s greatness and goodness lead the psalmist to experience and declare the blessedness of trusting in God.
Psalm 84:11: "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly."
