Psalm 37:18-19 “The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care, and their inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.” Today's episode talks about how we are under the Lord's care and that our inheritance if forever. It also reminds us that in times of disaster we will not wither and in times of famine we will have plenty. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Spend Your Days Under The Lord’s Care
Psalm 37:18-19 “The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care, and their inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.”
I picked this verse this morning because of the line at the beginning that says, “The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care. How great does that sound? How much would you like to spend your days under the Lord’s care? As I say that I realize we do spend every day under the Lord’s care. I guess what I pictured when I read this verse was a more personal and intimate picture of living with the Lord. My son Ryan is not feeling well this week. It’s always hard to see our kids not feeling well. When they are really little, them not feeling good equals you spending a lot of time with them. There can be good and bad things to this. One good thing is they usually want to snuggle with you and that isn’t always the case when they do feel good. One not great thing is that you don’t get a lot of other things done because they usually require all your attention. Ryan is 14 so when he doesn’t feel good he just stays in his room and rests and I don’t really see him except to bring him medicine or food. Regardless of the age when your child is sick, or even your spouse, you take special care of them.
This is what I pictured when I read this verse. I pictured lying in a bed and God bringing me chicken noodle soup and sitting with me. He is talking with me and telling me I will be ok and that He won’t let anything happen to me. Doesn’t that sound like a lovely picture? The feelings you get when you think of a parent lovingly taking care of a child gives you a good sense of how your heavenly Father feels about you. He may not make you soup when you are sick, but he does sit vigilantly by your bedside. In fact, he is always with you, not just when you are sick. Also, He is taking care of every detail of your life.
The next part of this verse says, “And their inheritance will endure forever.” This is pretty awesome too. It doesn’t say it will endure until they make me angry. It doesn’t say it will endure until they die. It doesn’t say their inheritance will endure until they spend it all. It says their inheritance will endure forever. It will never run out. Our inheritance is not based on anything we have done or will do. If you think about it in earthly terms, how do you get an inheritance? Do you have to work really heard, do all the right things, be a good person, and then we earn the inheritance. No, that isn’t how it works. We don’t earn an inheritance, we are granted it when someone dies. For instance, your parent dies and so you inherit all of their estate. You didn’t do anything to inherit it, you just get it because someone died.
Our heavenly inheritance is the same. There isn’t anything we must do to earn heaven. We don’t have to check off all the right boxes, we don’t have to do all the right things, we don’t have to make sure we are perfect. We already have our inheritance because Jesus died on a cross for us. He sacrificed for our sins so that we could gain our inheritance. And this verse is telling us that our inheritance is forever. It is not a limited time offer. It is not something that will expire. It is ours for as long as we want it.
The verse ends by saying, “In times of disaster they will not wither.” I think this is important to remember because we may not always feel this way. When we are in times of disaster we may feel like we are withering. We may feel like there is no way out. We may feel like we can’t go on for another moment. We just want it to stop. Whatever that it is for you. If you are in pain or you are sick you may feel like you are withering away and soon there will be no more of you. If you are in a dark season spiritually you may feel like your faith is withering away to nothing. If you are struggling with relationships, you may feel they are withering away to nothing. In these times this verse can be encouraging. It can be encouraging to know that God will not let you wither.
The verse goes on to say that, “In days of famine they will enjoy plenty.” This not only provides encouragement, but also hope. This verse assures us that we will not be left destitute. The rest of the world may be in a famine, but we will have plenty. Does this mean that we will always be raking in the money and have an excess of money to use however we want to? No. Does it mean we won’t ever have money trouble? No. What it does mean is that God will never let us starve to death. He is not promising us that there will always be an abundance, He is saying that He will provide what we need. What we need and what we want are often times two very different things. We want things to be easy. We want to not have to worry about anything. We want to have everything we ever wanted. However, we don’t need all those things.
God knows what you need and He will take care of it. I was just reminded of another verse that explains this so beautifully. Matthew 6:25-27 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” I love this verse for many reasons, but most of all because it reminds us how much God cares for us. It reminds us that He knows what our needs are and He will meet them. It reminds us He really is a good, good Father.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to trust that you will meet all of our needs. Please help us. Lord, help us to know that you are always there with us, right by our side. Help us to believe that when there is a famine we will have plenty. We are so grateful that our inheritance is forever. You are so amazing Lord. We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tomorrow’s witness will be a couple from my Encounter class. They were enjoying nice picnic one day when things changed quickly. There was an urgent need for prayer and they fulfilled it. I know you are really going to enjoy it. I may have one or two other short ones. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!