Fear the Lord, You His Saints

[Christsfreeservant]

Psalms 34:8-16 ESV

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!​

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!​

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,​

for those who fear him have no lack!​

The young lions suffer want and hunger;​

but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.​

​

“Come, O children, listen to me;​

I will teach you the fear of the Lord.​

What man is there who desires life​

and loves many days, that he may see good?​

Keep your tongue from evil​

and your lips from speaking deceit.​

Turn away from evil and do good;​

seek peace and pursue it.​

​

“The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous​

and his ears toward their cry.​

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,​

to cut off the memory of them from the earth.”​

Although this is Old Testament, this is taught again for us in the New Testament, under the New Covenant, perhaps not in these same exact words, but with the same message that we have here.

If we are genuine followers of Jesus Christ, via dying with Christ to sin and being raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to righteousness, in obedience to his commands under the New Covenant, then we are the saints of God, his holy ones who are living separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being made by God to be like Jesus Christ in character and in deed.

So we should also be those who are walking (in conduct, in practice) in the fear of the Lord, in reverence for him and for his word, and in obedience to him and to his commands. We should be those who take God and his word seriously, who take to heart all his promises, and agree to their stipulations (conditions), and who take to heart his warnings against walking in sin, and all his encouragements and urgings to us to live holy lives, pleasing to God.

We should be the sheep of his pasture who are listening to the Lord, not just with our physical ears, but with our hearts, attentive to what he has to say to us, and with hearts willing to do what he says we are to do, and who are walking in obedience to his commands (John 10:27). We should want to be taught by the Lord, and we should desire the truth of his word, and we should want to obey his word, too, and not try to find ways around that.

We should not be liars and thieves and manipulators and adulterers and all those who practice idolatry and immorality and all that is evil in the sight of the Lord. But we should be truth tellers who love God and who love his truth and who want others to know the truth, too, so that they can walk in the truth and not in sin, and in righteousness and not in wickedness. For we should be dying daily to sin, by the Spirit, and living to righteousness.

And we must know here that the righteous are those who are living in (practicing) righteousness (1 John 3:4-10), not those who are just claiming it in status because they have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ. The righteous are those who are approved by God. But those who are still walking in (practicing) what is evil (wicked, sinful) will be cut off from God. They will not have eternal life with God regardless of what they profess.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Seek the Lord

An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”

 

[Beslowtoanger]

Amen

My feelings are that I must consider everything that is holy on a daily basis and put clear distance between myself and evil. That takes a lot of effort, but this is the carrying of one’s own cross. I fear God so much, more so with understanding, but I also know that he is merciful and loving so make sure I/we have an all or nothing approach to dedicating our lives to his holines. Rinse and repeat daily until I die.