A Hunger for Belonging - Luke 7:36-50

Our story this morning is a story of contrasts: the holy, proud, and inhospitable host who has a strong sense of who belongs and who doesn't, and the prostitute who doesn't belong but’s tolerated for the services she provides, but knows her hope rests in Jesus. She shows she knows her need for Jesus through a humble act of devotion. Belonging’s an important part of being human. There’s a desire in almost everyone to find a place to belong. The first “not good” in the Bible is when God declares it’s not good that Adam is alone, so God creates Eve. God himself is a community, a trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who completely belong to each other, pouring into each other in an endless dance of belonging. Instinctively we know the importance of belonging; this is why one of the harshest punishments we can do is to shun a person. 

Jesus is invited to the home of a Pharisee named Simon for dinner. As they recline around the table, a woman in town who lives a sinful life hears that Jesus is at Simon’s house, so she shows up. One of the interesting customs of the time is that needy people were allowed to visit a banquet and receive some of the leftovers. This has its roots in God’s commands found in Leviticus 19:9–10, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God,” and Leviticus 23:22, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.” God gives laws like this to make sure that even the poor are cared for; reminding Israel that the land belongs to God and they’re simply stewards of it. The Lord provides for all his people, using the law to bind the people to him and to each other. Simon follows the law, but doesn’t have the Lord’s compassion.

Often the host would hold a banquet in the front courtyard to show off an important guest, this is likely why the woman’s able to get close to Jesus. However, some commentators wonder if Simon’s testing Jesus here since he would have assigned servants to make sure something like this doesn’t happen. Simon might be trying to who Jesus really is; sent from God or a fraud; as C. S. Lewis wrote that Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic or the Lord, we need to make a choice what we believe. Jesus is hard to understand; he can heal the sick, he teaches with wisdom and authority, and yet he’s called a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. 

When you study history and observe the world around us, it almost seems natural for people to exclude others; to create groups designed to welcome some and reject others. It’s easy to dismiss some people and keep others out. We choose based on whether we believe they’re good, or in Simon’s case, proper enough to belong. Who do you keep outside your circles, who do you consider unacceptable? God knows this about us; this is why he gave Israel laws that upheld the honour and wellbeing of the poor, the widow, the foreigner and outsider. As you read through the laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the Lord keeps reminding the people that everyone counts, even the slaves. They were all considered part of the family when it came to Sabbath laws, everyone’s given rights and responsibilities, everyone’s to be provided for. Israel’s to be an example to the nations of who God’s kingdom and people are to be; in contrast with the evil and selfishness that characterizes the nations. 

The woman weeps as she kneels down at Jesus’ feet and covers his feet with her tears. She then wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair, kissing his feet over and over again, and then pours perfume over Jesus’ feet. What a beautiful act of devotion and worship that still impacts us thousands of years later! She knows Jesus is truly a friend of sinners and feels safe with him. Luke now turns our attention from the sinful woman to Simon the Pharisee. 

Simon is watching Jesus and how Jesus responds to what the woman is doing. Simon’s thinking in “them and us” ways. You can see a progression in Simon’s logical approach in thinking: first: if Jesus is a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him, second: if he knows what kind of woman she is he would reject her, then third: he’s no prophet so I don’t need to pay attention to him. Simon’s ready to dismiss Jesus from his social circle because he accepts the sinful woman’s act of love and devotion, he accepts her. Jesus knows what’s going on in Simon’s head and challenges Simon with a parable of two people in debt to a moneylender who forgives their loans. Jesus asks Simon a simple question, “Which of them will love him more?” Simon replies, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven,” a logical response.

Jesus’ parable reveals how the sinful woman has more self awareness of her standing with God and need for forgiveness and grace than Simon who studies the Scriptures and law and has dedicated his life to them. Simon’s so proper and yet he shows Jesus great disrespect by not having anyone provide water for washing his feet before dinner and or offer Jesus a kiss of greeting while the sinful woman lavishes Jesus’ feet with her tears and perfume and kissing them. Jesus now drops a bombshell; he forgives the woman of her sins and tells her, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.” In this brief encounter with the sinful woman, we’re reminded that our faith’s a gift from God and forgiveness is unearned. Faith is the basis of our salvation, not anything we do. 

This is the difference between Simon and the sinful woman; she receives forgiveness through faith, receiving forgiveness because she accepts Jesus, while Simon, who’s working hard at keeping the law as his way of pleasing God and receiving salvation through obedience to the law, is questioned by Jesus about his lack of acceptance of Jesus. Salvation comes to the sinful woman because she acknowledges her sin through her tears and anointing of Jesus’ feet, she knows she has nothing to offer except her devotion. To Simon, the woman doesn’t belong, in Jesus’ eyes the woman belongs. 

The sinful woman knows how much she owes Jesus while Simon has a hard time believing he owes Jesus anything, or that Jesus is a prophet or sent by God. Yet it’s not her love that saves her, it’s her faith; her forgiveness by Jesus produces her love. Jesus ties the depth of a person's awareness of their need for forgiveness to the ability to love. There are different degrees of sin between Simon and the woman, yet both need Jesus’ forgiveness. Simon has a choice to make, either he believes Jesus is a blasphemer, or he’s God in the flesh. The woman receives Jesus’ declaration of salvation due to her faith in him; the Greek word Jesus uses shows that her salvation is an accomplished act, she can’t lose her salvation since it’s rooted in faith. How do we come to eat with the Lord? Do we come with pride in our own lives, proud of how good we are, or do we come in humility and with tears of gratefulness for who Jesus is as the Son of God, the Redeemer of the World, the washer away of our sin? Do we come with adoration in faith? 

In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, faith is the only source of salvation. Faith is the way God’s grace in Jesus and the blessings of salvation is received. Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith emphasizes the centrality of faith in the Christian life. Paul teaches in Acts 13:38–39 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.” To the church in Rome 10:9–10 he writes, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” The wonder is that faith is a free gift of God given to us!

When you place your faith in Jesus, you become part of God’s family, giving you a place and people you belong to. John makes this point in John 1:12, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Jesus knows your desire to belong; he invites you to place your faith in him, and gives you the faith to needed. Come, worship, and bow down before Jesus and hear his words, “Welcome, your sins are forgiven my child, go in peace.” 

A Hunger to be Seen - Psalm 25

Psalm 25 begins with a deep expression of trust in the Lord and ends in lament. David begins by expressing his deep faith and gratitude in the Lord. David puts his hope in who the Lord is, turning to the Lord to show him his ways, to teach David how to walk his paths, to guide him, and to teach him the Lord’s truth. David then asks the Lord to remember his great mercy and love while forgetting his sins. The context of the psalm is that David feels under pressure from enemies and doesn’t want to be shamed, which is why David places his hope in the Lord. Shame often flowed out of guilt or humiliation, usually because of sin or failure; shame also came when you placed your trust in someone unworthy of trust, someone who’s betrayed you. 

This psalm is a prayer rooted in a maturity of faith in the Lord, a calm assurance that the Lord is for him. David’s confident that the Lord is trustworthy; knowing that faith and trust in the Lord is a solid foundation for life. Those who trust in the Lord will not be shamed. This is why David’s not ashamed to turn to the Lord for instruction in life and for forgiveness for his sins. 

We trust in the goodness of the Lord; we turn to him for instructions on how we should live to please him: we study his Word to learn how to be a godly follower of Jesus. God gives Israel instructions on his ways, teaching them his wisdom, giving them a pattern for life that leads to flourishing and being who he’s calling us to be, allowing us to experience his presence as we keep the demands of his covenant. David’s likely thinking of Mt Sinai where God led Israel after freeing them from slavery and gave them the 10 Commandments, laws on how to organize themselves as a nation, and the tabernacle. David’s confidence in the Lord is a powerful affirmation to the people that God is trustworthy, good, upright, loving, merciful, and faithful to his people.

David’s confident that he’ll never be put to shame for trusting in God, and this confidence carries on in verse 20. David expresses this trust even as the tone in the psalm changes from praise to lament and a plea from David for God’s presence and deliverance. In verse 16, David asks the Lord to turn to him and be gracious to him, for he’s lonely and afflicted. The words David uses here also mean deserted, abandoned, and wretched. David’s feeling like the Lord’s turned away from him so that he’s no longer seeing or looking at David. 

David identifies two reasons for God turning his face away for a time: the first reason is that he’s surrounded by enemies. David regularly faced foreign enemies in the nations around Israel. David faced enemies within his own family, his son Absalom rebelled against him to try to take the throne of Israel for himself. David also created enemies within Israel through some of his sinful selfish decisions at different times in his life, leading to times where he felt abandoned and alone.

Scripture reminds us that we have enemies we often don’t recognize. The world’s our enemy; James points this out in his letter while calling the people to submit to God; James 4:1–6, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” 

We’re easily seduced by the world. It takes submission to God to resist its allure. Jesus has some tough words to Jews who believed in him but believed being Jewish saved them; John 8:42–47, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” Our identity and salvation don’t come from our ethnic background, it comes from faith in God! 

Jesus shows them that the devil’s actively working against them to make them deaf to the truth. 1 Peter 5:8 warns, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Even our own hearts can be an enemy; Solomon writes in Proverbs 19:3, “A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord.” Solomon knows that we’re sinners at heart, even though we try to fool ourselves that it’s good enough to simply be a nice person. 

The second reason for David feeling as if God was turning his face away, is his sin. He identifies the sins of his youth, but he knows that even as an adult, his iniquity, or sin, is great, “Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good,” “For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.” Sin separates us from God, we see this already in the Garden of Eden, the first thing Adam and Eve do after they sin is to hide from God. God’s holy and detests sin and separates himself from sin, throwing Adam and Eve out of the garden. Right after they disobey God, God promises to send someone to crush the serpent’s head and restore the relationship between God and humanity. Yet we don’t receive it without a response on our part. It’s like being given a gift and then putting it aside and never opening it. You may have the gift, but you’ve never accepted it or the relationship and so in reality it’s not yours. Sin separates us from God because in our sin we reject God. This leads to David’s feelings of loneliness. This is why the promise of God’s presence is so powerful; it shows that God’s mercy and grace is real, but we won’t really understand grace and Jesus’ sacrifice in the cross for us until we understand the weight of our sin.

David recognizes his need for God’s presence, grace, and mercy, and especially God’s forgiveness. David knows he has to be honest with himself and God about his sin and confesses it. Understanding our sin leads us to really understanding the grace and mercy found in Jesus. The psalm strongly links our prayers for deliverance and guidance to confession of sin. David likely wrote this psalm when he was older; as we grow older and get to know ourselves and God better. When we’re younger, we often aren’t aware of our sin or how sinful we can be. David turns to God and asks for forgiveness, but he also has the desire to change; this is why David asks for the Lord to instruct him, guide him, and teach him God’s ways. Repentance is the desire to change, this is Jesus’ main message, “repent and believe, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

We choose trust in God because of Jesus’ grace and mercy, in the forgiveness found on the cross and the empty grave. We see it in Jesus’ birth and God crossing that chasm between us that sin creates. Like David, we place our trust in God, knowing he sees us. Henri Nouwen writes, “To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. This requires not only courage but also a strong faith. As hard as it is to believe that the dry desolate desert can yield endless varieties of flowers, it is equally hard to imagine that our loneliness is hiding unknown beauty. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is a movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.” Moving from loneliness to solitude comes from moving towards God in confession and repentance, trusting his mercy, humbly seeking his presence and grace. When God turns to us and sees us, our loneliness fades and hope is restored.

A Hunger for God’s Blessings - Genesis 12:1-3

Blessings are God’s gifts and can be material or spiritual, while to bless is to speak God’s presence into a person’s life. Over the past few years, I’ve met people who’ve feel as if God has forgotten them, or is angry with them. It often feels like we live in a time more filled with curses than blessings, and as times have become more difficult, they feel like they’re falling further behind every month. They wonder how they can get back into God’s good graces and experience better times again. They’re expressing a feeling that’s not uncommon, even in biblical times: that if times are hard, it means that God’s unhappy and holding back his blessings. 

They look at Abram whom God promises to bless, and then look at people whom Jesus offers blessings to, and wish God would bless them. The Lord offers to bless Abram, “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” The Lord’s putting into action a plan to redeem and restore all creation, beginning with this old couple. This promise of blessing comes with fears. The blessing is powerful since Sarai is barren and children are a great blessing, but in the culture of Abram’s time, one of the big fears of people was to die away from home, away from your land and being forgotten. This is likely one of the reasons why Joseph, years later, asks for the people to bring his bones back to the Promised Land when he dies instead of being buried in Egypt. 

Abram and Sarai choose to trust in the Lord and his promised blessings. They leave family and friends behind and leave for the land and blessings promised to them. The Lord does bless them as they leave everything familiar behind. This doesn’t mean everything was easy. In the Bible, those who God uses in his plan of redemption often find life becomes harder than expected. They face opposition and a life spent as nomads in this new land without a true home. Becoming a great nation begins with a false start and an Egyptian slave girl and a great deal of grief for everyone. About 24 years after leaving Haran, Sarai gives birth to a boy. Many of the promised blessings lay far in the future, after their deaths. It takes trust and faith to wait for the blessings to work their way out through following generations; sacrificing today for the generations yet to come. 

God’s faithful to Abram and Sarai’s descendants, making them into a great nation. They experience both blessings and hard times. They know they’ve been chosen as God’s people; however, they often forget the second part of the blessing given to Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” God’s chosen them to reveal to the nations who God is and how God calls us to live with him and each other. God blesses Israel with the Torah, all the laws given at Mount Sinai, including the 10 Commandments, to help them be a blessing to all people. They’re blessed to be a blessing, to reveal to the nations who God is. 

We see a God who makes promises to his people, promises to impact all people. We see a God who keeps his promises even when his people fail to live into those promises. We encounter a God who remains present with his people, guiding them, chastising them, and allowing the consequences of their sinful choices to open their eyes and guide them back to him. God reveals himself as a jealous God, jealous for his people, for their faithfulness to him alone, a God who refuses to share his people with other gods. He's a God who punishes and forgives, a God who continues to bless and be with his people. 

Hard times doesn’t always mean that God’s angry with us, or ignoring us. Often hard times come because, as God’s people, we don’t fit with the gods of our times. We’re not exempt from the hard times that all people face, like economic downturns, pandemics, natural disasters, wars, or poor government. We can trust that God’s with us through it all. The lack of the experience of blessings doesn’t mean a lack of God, sometimes it’s merely silence; it may also be that we don’t recognize how God is blessing us; many blessings are smaller daily moments, sometimes easily overlooked.

After many years of silence, an angel appears to a young woman who tells her, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” A new chapter in God’s relationship with the world is beginning, a new level of blessing is here. This young girl is Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Son of God; the one through whom God is going to bless all people; the promised Messiah who has come to save all his people, working out his plan of redemption as shown to Abram, “all peoples will be blessed through you.” It’s a great blessing to be the mother of the Son of God, but it comes with a soiled reputation for becoming pregnant before marriage, seeing her son rejected, watching Jesus die. Mary understood that those whom God uses in his plan of redemption often find life becomes harder than expected and accepts it.

Matthew records Jesus beginning his ministry by preaching, teaching, and healing people throughout the area of Galilee, and begins calling a number of disciples to follow him. These are the people in the crowd as Jesus preaches his great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Jesus understands the people, having spent time with them, seeing and hearing what’s happening in their lives. He begins his great sermon with blessings for regular ordinary people; he sees them and their hearts, reaching out to bless the people in their places of need. The beatitudes are, as Dallas Willard writes, “explanations and illustrations, drawn from the immediate setting, of the present availability of the kingdom of heaven through personal relationship with Jesus.” 

As Jesus looks out over the crowd, he recognizes the poor in spirit, those who are drifting spiritually, who you would never think of asking when it comes to spiritual things or knowledge, to say a prayer, or lead a Bible study. Many experience church as just religion, often feeling unseen or unknown by God. Jesus sees them and blesses them with a place in the kingdom of heaven, letting them know that God does see them, that they do belong and hears their often-quiet spiritual desperation. Jesus sees those who are mourning. They may have lost spouses, children, oppressed, or are struggling; so many things to mourn over. Jesus blesses them, revealing the presence of the kingdom of heaven. He sees the meek who never stand up for themselves and let others walk over them. Jesus blesses them with inheriting the earth in the kingdom as they’ve never been strong enough to claim it for themselves here. Jesus looks out over the people and sees those who burn for things to be right, to be the way they’re supposed to be. It may be that they know their own hearts and want to be who they’re supposed to be, or perhaps they’ve been wronged and want justice and Jesus blesses them in the kingdom of heaven with the fullness of righteousness. 

Jesus recognizes the merciful, knowing how they are often looked down on because they’re not tough enough, but Jesus assures them that they’ll be shown mercy in the kingdom. The pure in heart, those who recognize how unpure they themselves are and turn to God to wash them whiter than snow, they’ll see God. Jesus sees the peacemakers and how they’re often not really trusted or respected by either side and he blesses them by calling them sons of God; maybe an echo to Jesus being the Prince of Peace. Then there are those who are persecuted because they stand for what’s right. We know that this can often be dangerous, but like the poor in spirit, Jesus offers them a place in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus sees us and our hearts and reaches out to bless us where we most need his blessings; understanding our need for his blessings, having lived in difficult times, with difficult people. Paul recognizes God’s blessings even in suffering in his second letter to the Corinthians, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” Jesus is the source of our comfort and blessings, he’s with us through the difficult and joyous times, encouraging us through the Holy Spirit, equipping us to walk with others and letting God’s comfort and blessing flow through us. Jesus’ greatest blessing to us is found in the cross, in forgiveness and adoption as children of God, and a place of belonging in his kingdom. These blessings call for a response from us to be a blessing, using our life experiences to bless others, pointing to the presence of Jesus. In being a blessing, we also experience God’s blessings.

From Everlasting to Everlasting - Psalm 103 - New Year's Day

Verses 1-5: Forget Not All His Benefits

Psalm 103 celebrates who the Lord is and begins by calling us to praise the Lord three times in the first 2 verses alone. In the first 5 verses we’re reminded that the Lord is the forgiver of sins, the healer of diseases, our redeemer who lifts us up out of the pits that our sins have thrown us into, the Lord who crowns us with his love and compassion, a reminder that since God is our father, you’re princes and princesses in the kingdom of heaven, and that the Lord satisfies our desire with good things, echoing Paul’s beautiful words of hope in Romans 8, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified…. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

As we look back at the past year, I encourage you to look for how the Lord has used both the good and hard times for your good, or to see how during the hardest times, the Lord was with you and give you what you needed to get through those days and continues to be with you. Psalm 103 is all about not forgetting the Lord, a call to remind ourselves of who God is. This helps us then to recognize his presence and help. Let us take some time to remember. 

Verses 8-12 He Does Not Treat Us as Our Sins Deserve 

These are powerful verses! The Lord doesn’t have to be compassionate and gracious; he could just punish us for our sin and selfishness, he could give up on us and start over again with someone else. The Lord even threatens to do this after Israel worships golden calves while God’s giving Moses the 10 Commandments in Exodus 32, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

 Many of us have grown up expecting punishment for when we do wrong, for anger and frustration towards us as we fail God again and again. Yet, even in his anger, the Lord reveals that while he does get angry at us when we sin, he’s still abounding in his love towards us. Moses seeks the Lord’s favour and reminds the Lord of his covenants with Israel, and the Lord turns away from his anger

We go into the new year knowing that we won’t be perfect. There will be times when we’ll sin and disappoint God, family, friends, and others, and yet we go into the year with the reassurance of knowing that we live in God’s grace and love. What a love that is, “as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” We see how great is the Lord’s love for us when Jesus chooses to go to the cross so that our sin can be removed from us and our relationship with the Lord is made right and whole once again. In response, we humbly turn back to God, confess our sin, repent and recommit ourselves to strive to do God’s will and be the people he’s called us to be.

Verses 13-16 As For Us, Our Days are Like Grass

In these verses, David reminds us that our God is a compassionate God who loves us as a father loves his children. The Lord is not just our God, he also reveals himself as our Father, one who cares for us like a mother. Our parents may punish us when we mess up, but their prayer is that we learn and grow from it, they punish us because they love us, even if it doesn’t always feel like it at the time. Our parents love us, even though they themselves are sinners, now imagine how much more our sinless perfect Father loves us. 

We hear an echo back to creation when God created Adam from the dust of the earth and gave him life by breathing his Spirit into Adam. Jesus, in a passage where he calls us to not worry, echoes these verses, acknowledging that this part of our lives, these bodies are temporary, and calls us to trust in God above all. Matthew 6:28–34, “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” This is an invitation to enter the new year with a sense of peace, a reminder that God provides for us. All Jesus calls us to do is to seek first the kingdom of heaven and the Father’s righteousness as we walk through the year ahead. 

Verse 17-18 God’s Everlasting Love is With Those Keep His Covenant

At the heart of this psalm is God’s “hesed,” the Hebrew word translated as love, but it’s so much more, it means mercy, favor, loyalty, or steadfast love and is found about 250 times in the Hebrew Bible. It often refers to God’s covenant loyalty to his people. The psalmist uses this word as love in verses 11 and 17, and here in 17 it’s for those who fear him, those who also experience his compassion in verse 13. This combination of deep compassion and loyal steadfast love is the foundation of God’s covenants with us, it’s what sustains the covenants when we fail to keep them. God’s hesed love freely forgives our sins, extending God’s grace when we’re graceless, it leads Jesus to the cross for us to draw us back to the Father. Peter and John acknowledge this as the heart of the gospel news, 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” And 1 John 3:16, “By this we know love, because [Christ] laid down his life for us.”

This love and compassion is from everlasting to everlasting. This love has its roots from before creation and will carry on beyond Jesus’ return. God’s love is different from the love we often experience here. God’s love is a deep forever commitment while our culture often sees love as for a time and then moving on. Love is even used as a weapon to keep others in line with threats to withhold your love until they measure up. God’s love is seen in Jesus’ commitment to us in that he went to the cross for our sin while we were still sinners. It's because of God's committed covenantal love for us, that we find the courage to examine our hearts and be honest with ourselves and God and confess our sin, knowing that we’re safe in his hands, giving us the strength to repent and commit ourselves to living fully for and in Jesus in the year ahead. 

God’s love is “with those who fear him.” We’re called to keep covenant with God, and when we sin, we’re called to remember God’s ways and to obey again his precepts. This is our response of gratitude that flows out of his everlasting love. We come to Jesus with empty hands of faith, seeking to receive the rich blessings of the Father through the blood of Jesus. We return to the heart of Jesus’ message as found in Mark 1:15, “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” We’re called in the year ahead to keep Jesus as the center of our lives. As repentant and trusting children we fear him, holding him in awe and honour. Paraphrasing a theologian, “We’re not forgiven because we fear the Lord; we fear the Lord because we’re forgiven.” As we journey into this new year, may it be our resolution to live into God’s hesed love, praising him alone as our God, and keep asking, “Help us to be who you’re calling us to be, and use us according to your will.”