Psalm 103:9, 10
The child of God may be thankful and bless God's name when God is angry with him and chides him in His anger. Anger does not always mean hatred. Parents who love their children become angry, when the children walk in sin, exactly because they love them. Anger can very well mean that you love the person whom you chide. Listen to what David wrote in Psalm 103:9: "He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger forever." Take note also of our versification that sings (PRC Psalter):
Yea, the Lord is full of mercy
And compassion for distress
Slow to anger and abundant
In His grace and tenderness.
He will not be angry alway,
Nor will He forever chide;
Though we oft have sinned against Him
Still His love and grace abide.
You see, to chide is to reprove, rebuke, or admonish, and it is that work of God's mercy whereby He corrects us and improves our spiritual lives. He is angry when we sin. He is displeased. But because of what Christ did for us "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us after our iniquities" (verse 10). He does not chide us because He hates us. His love for us moves Him to chide and correct us.
But get this and let it comfort you when He rebukes you in your sins: The day is coming when He will no longer chide us, for He will have brought us, with a body completely delivered from the power of sin, before His face in glory. Now already He has blotted out all our sins; but He will also take from us our old man of sin, with which we fall so easily into sin. That makes rebukes necessary. But the moment we die, all need for chiding is gone. Then we will never see His anger again, and instead will see the smile on His face. And fully we will experience all this in a resurrected, spiritual body that has no sin. He will not always chide. We will be sinless and pleasing in His sight.
Our sins were blotted out in His love. Bless Him for that! But bless Him also for rebuking you when you fall into sin. It means that He intends to bring you to sinlessness and a richer taste of His love in a sin-free creation.
Read: Psalm 145
Psalter versification: #280:3
(Words and Music of the Psalter)
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
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Song for Meditation: Psalter #125
Why not sing along??
Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Isaiah 48:12-22; Isaiah 49; Isaiah 50:1-11
Ephesians 4:17-32
Psalm 69:1-18
Proverbs 24:5-6
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Quote for Reflection:
The Power of Sin: “…the sun shining into a neglected room does not create the dust and cobwebs, but simply reveals them. Thus it is with the Christian. The more the light of the Spirit is turned upon him inwardly, the more he discovers the horrible plague of his heart (1 Kings 8:38), and the more he realizes what a wretched failure he is. The fact is, dear discouraged soul, that the more you are growing out of love with yourself, the more you are being saved from the power of sin. Wherein lies its fearful potency? Why, in its power to deceive us. It lies to us. It did so to Adam and Eve. It gives us false estimates of values so that we mistake the tinsel for real gold. To be saved from the power of sin, is to have our eyes opened so that we see things in God’s light: it is to know the truth about things all around us, and the truth about ourselves. Satan has blinded the minds of them that believe not, but the Holy Spirit hath shined in our hearts "unto the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:4, 6).” -Arthur W. Pink
Additional Info
- Date: 26-September
Heys, John A.
Rev. John A. Heys was born on March 16, 1910 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was ordained and installed into the ministry at Hope, Walker, MI in 1941. He later served at Hull, Iowa beginning in 1955. In 1959 he accepted the call to serve the South Holland, IL Protestant Reformed Church. He received and accepted the call to Holland, Michigan Protestant Reformed Church in 1967. He retired from the active ministry in 1980. He entered into glory on February 16, 1998.