LORD Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in You’ (Psalm 84:12)
I remember when I first told my friends that I had become a Christian.
It took me a few minutes to find a way of blurting it out, and when I did they laughed, as if I had made a foolish mistake, and would soon change my mind. I got the impression that they were genuinely sorry for me, a poor deluded fool. By their reckoning I was going to miss out on a lot of fun.
Now nearly forty years on, I am more certain than ever that no mistake was made on my part (I speak from a human perspective: I am well aware that I did not choose God, but that He chose me).
Through trusting in Christ, my life has been blessed beyond everything I could have imagined. At a human level, that decision has taken a chronically shy young man, (to the point of severe social handicap) with a coping strategy of lies and drunkenness, and given me hope and purpose, a beautiful wife and children, a calling and a newfound confidence in Christ. Through His Spirit in me He has enabled me to overcome many of the fears which paralysed me then.
I am hesitant to recount my blessings. I am very aware that the Lord has not blessed everyone in the same way (though we have all been blessed by Him in different ways). And of course, at a spiritual level, we have all received ‘grace upon grace’ from the fullness of Jesus Christ (John 1:16).
As Ephesians 1:3 says, ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.’ Redemption, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, adoption, sanctification, glorification, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. So even if every earthly blessing was taken away, we would still be blessed beyond all imagining in Him.
As the psalmist recognises in Psalm 84:10, ‘Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.’ Why? Because the LORD is the true source of all blessing. He greatly blesses all who look to Him. In Him we have every spiritual blessing.
‘For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favour and honour, no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless’ (v11)
Okay, so we are not ‘blameless,’ but we are justified in God’s sight through faith in Jesus Christ, our spotless righteousness. He, the anointed one, is our shield (v8,9) And in Him we are truly blessed. He is our light, warmth, joy, security, our strength, grace and glory. If we belong to Him we are richer than anyone who trusts in the fleeting pleasures of this world.
Saviour, if of Zion’s city
I, through grace, a member am,
Let the world deride or pity—
I will glory in Thy name.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s members know.
Let the world deride or pity—
I will glory in Thy name.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s members know.
‘LORD Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in You’ (v12)