John 9
Psalm 24
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;Psalm 24:1
On Sunday morning Luke spoke on giving and the first reference he made was to the fact that all we have is not ours – it belongs to God. It is His because He made it as verse 2 goes on to tell us. The question for us is do we really think like this? Take a moment to think and reflect on that. If we did, surely it would change the way we use our possessions and most especially our money?
The Psalm then goes on to ask the question “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?” (vs 3). Is it possible to know God’s presence? That is really what the Psalmist is asking. God has given us the gift of what he has made, but what is far more important is to know God. Owning everything in the world is worth nothing if you do not know God.
The problem is (as verse 4 tells us), we don’t have clean hands or a pure heart. The words that come out of our mouths are tainted with sin. We worship idols – ironically often the very things that God has given us as gifts – money, possessions, family, work and many other things. Instead of worshipping the true God, we worship the things God has made and given to us. It is a reminder that only those who truly repent and seek God with a clear conscience can know and find Him.
Those who truly repent receive “true blessing” from the Lord (vs 5). Not the blessing of possessions, the blessing of eternal life. It is a challenge to us to once again examine ourselves and truly repent. It is a challenge to assess what our idols are and to stop worshipping them and to return to the worship of God alone. Let us earnestly seek God once again.