Psalm 90:17
The temple that Solomon built was a picture of the house that God is building and wherein He will dwell. That house is His church of which Christ is the chief cornerstone, Ephesians 2:20. That house will be finished the day that Christ returns. Today God is cutting, shaping, polishing, and assembling the material He is pleased to use in building this house.
This cutting, shaping, and polishing hurts. As Moses wrote in Psalm 90, we are filled with sorrow and fly away. For to no degree are we fit to be stones in God's holy temple. By nature we are not fit even for the lowest place in that house. Our bodies with their old man of sin must therefore be returned to the dust in order to be changed. It is in His mercy that God is changing us to bring us the glad days of life with Him in heavenly glory.
However, we must bear in mind that in this house we will be lively stones, not dead, senseless, irrational beings. I Peter 2:5. The beauty of God is going to shine through our thinking, willing, and acting. Our speech will reflect God's glory. But our hands also will glorify God. All we do in the new Jerusalem will show forth God's glory and beauty. That is why what Moses wrote may be versified thus (PRC Psalter):
So let there be on us bestowed
The beauty of the Lord our God;
The work accomplished by our hand
Establish Thou and make it stand
Yea, let our hopeful labor be
Established evermore by Thee.
Moses wrote it thus: "And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it." Psalm 90:17.
Our works are going to be made firm. All that which we will do with our resurrected bodies will glorify God. All that which we will do in the new Jerusalem is going to glorify God consciously and willingly.
How important it is that we make this our prayer as Moses made it his.
Read: I Peter 2
Psalter versification: #246:3
(Words and Music of the Psalter)
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
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Song for Meditation: Psalter #420
Why not sing along??
Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Jeremiah 44:24-30 ; Jeremiah 45 ; Jeremiah 46 ; Jeremiah 47:1-7
2 Timothy 2:22-26 ; 2 Timothy 3:1-17
Psalm 94:1-23
Proverbs 26:6-8
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Quote for Reflection:
It is the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man that prevails. But what renders prayer “effectual”? Not its length, nor its vehemence, nor its eloquence, nor its passion, but simply the living sympathy which is established between the soul pleading in the closet, and the Savior interceding in the heavens.
This is secured through the intervention of the Divine Spirit. He takes the desires which are in the heart of Jesus Christ, and works them into our hearts so that they become our desires. He takes the plea which is upon the lips of the great Advocate above, and seals it upon our lips as our prayer in Christ’s blessed name. It is this sweet, but secret, correspondence between our head and ourselves that makes true prayer at all. Aside from this, all is mere posture and the mutter of incantations.
Additional Info
- Date: 24-October
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.