Unmoved

Friends, thank you for participating in this daily study of the Word. Please feel welcome to post questions or comments, so that we can learn from each other and grow together. Remember, the most important part of this blog is that we continue to read God's Word and take it to heart. May God bless our study today!

Read Joshua 21

This chapter is again a little difficult to read with all the names and places and very thorough details. But it is one that has benefit for us. We continue to see (indeed it is drilled into us through the last few chapters) that what God promised regarding inheriting the land and its cities, regarding places of refuge and pasturelands, regarding the people and the priests who serve them have all come true. What is notable is the last verse of the chapter, "Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass."

How many promises has God given us? Will they fail? Or, can we count on them to come to pass? Of course, not one good promise to us through Jesus Christ will fail. Therefore, we find much encouragement and strengthening of faith as we read Joshua. Praise God, who keeps his promises!

Read Psalm 112

Are we afraid of bad news? Are we frustrated by the conflict, struggles, and hardships in our life? Does our experience proclaim the opposite of this psalm?

Then let me ask you: what is more real and more powerful - your experience, or God's Word? God's Word is real, true, and powerful. So if God's Word declares that we who are righteous through Christ will "never be moved," then we are unmovable. If it declares that we who are forgiven our many sins are also "upright" and "steady," then we are certainly righteous, gracious, and merciful as well. Even if it appears to our eyes that we perish while the wicked succeed, we know the opposite is the case. We are blessed, rich, held firm, and given triumph.

Therefore, Luther encourages us from this psalm: "The pious, who fear God, are praised for their good life and are promised eternal comfort against all trouble. They are especially commended to a sincere confidence and trust in God's grace, so that they may be undismayed and undaunted (which is the real, true faith) until they see the destruction of the godless and their foes." (Reading the Psalms with Luther, CPH).

So, my friends, let us all stand unmoved, undaunted, and undismayed, for God is faithful.

Praise the Lord!

Ask Yourself:

What bad news do I fear? What hardships drag me down today?

What promises of God bring me comfort? How can I better remind myself of them?

Pray: (or sing)

Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that has life and breath, come now with praises before Him!
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again;
Gladly forever adore Him!

(LSB 790:5, Public Domain)

Study with me tomorrow,

Pastor Jon

Soli Deo Gloria!