The faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him
and keep His commandments to a thousand generations-Deut. 7:9.
You cannot trust a God that has not given you an inkling of His character or
disposition, but if He has spoken, then you know where to have Him. How can
a man be encouraged to fly into a refuge unless he is absolutely sure that
there is an entrance for him into it, and that, entering, he is safe? And
that security is provided in the great thought of God's pledge. "Thy
righteousness is like the great mountains" [Ps. 36:6]. "Who is like unto
Thee, O Lord [Ex. 15:11]; or to Thy faithfulness round about thee" [Ps.
89:8]?
That faithfulness shall be our "shield," not a tiny shield that a man could
bear upon his left arm, but the word means the large shield, planted in the
ground in front of the soldier, covering him, however hot the fight, and
circling around him, like a tower of iron. God is "faithful" to all the
obligations under which He has come by making us. That is what one of the
New Testament writers tells us when he speaks about Him as "a faithful
Creator" [1 Pet. 4:19].
Then, if He has put desires into our hearts, be sure that somewhere there is
satisfaction; and if He has given us needs, be sure that in Him there is the
supply; and if He had lodged in us aspirations which make us restless, be
sure that if we will turn them to Him, they will be satisfied and we shall
be at rest. "He never sends mouths but He sends meat to fill them." He
remembers our frame, and measures His dealings accordingly. When He made me
He bound himself to make it possible that I should be blessed forever. And
He has done it. God is faithful to His word, according to that great saying
in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the writer tells us that by "God's
counsel," and "God's oath," "two immutable things" [Heb. 6:17, 18], we might
have "strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope
set before us." God is faithful to His own past. The more He has done the
more He will do. "Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me"
[Ps. 27:9].
Therein we present a plea which God Himself will honor. And He is faithful
to His own past in a yet wider sense. For all the revelation of His love and
of His grace in times that are gone, though they might be miraculous in
their form, are permanent in their essence. So one of the psalmists,
hundreds of years after the time that Israel was led through the wilderness,
sang, "There did we"-of this present generation-"rejoice in Him" [Ps. 66:6].
What has been, is, and will be, for Thou art "the same yesterday, and today,
and forever" [Heb. 13:8]. We have no God that lurks in darkness, but one
that has come into the light. We have to run, not into a refuge that is
built upon a "perhaps," but upon "Verily, verily! I say unto thee." Let us
build rock upon rock, and let our faith correspond to the faithfulness of
Him that has promised.
In Celebration of Life in Him,
Dr.Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
