That Absolutely Necessary Gift

What do you want? Yesterday we considered what God promised to give us, namely, new hearts. Without that new heart there will be nothing spiritually new in our lives, but sin will continue and abound. But there is something of deeper need than a new heart, and David presents that in Psalm 23 .

In Psalm 23:1 he wrote, "The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not want." We need Christ as our shepherd so badly. For our new hearts to beat in love of God we need Christ as our shepherd. For we are God's sheep, and we are greatly in need of a shepherd. Let us go back to that first promise that God gave us the day we fell into sin in Adam.

In Genesis 3:15 the whole human race is presented as consisting in two spiritual parts. One is the seed of the woman, and the other is the seed of the serpent. What is more, the seed of the serpent will do all in its power to try to kill the seed of the woman. That does not mean merely to kill physically, as Cain killed his brother Abel. But the seed of the serpent is Satan's tool whereby he tries to kill us spiritually and make us hate God and His Christ.

From that point of view let it be understood that although the seed of the woman are sheep, the seed of the serpent are wolves who attack and try to eat up the seed of the woman. Do not overlook the fact which we find presented in Matthew 7:15 , where we are told to beware of false prophets, which come to us in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

Appreciate then that truth which our God gave us through David. We have been given a shepherd Who will keep us safe. Take hold of that truth in your celebration of Christ's birth. What a wonderful, but also very necessary, gift. That gift is far more important than all the gold and silver in this world. This is a gift which assures us of being kept safe, and sure of entering Christ's kingdom of heaven. He will keep our new hearts in us, and keep the seed of the serpent from stopping those hearts.

Read: Psalm 23

Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Amos 4; Amos 5; Amos 6 
Revelation 2:18-29; Revelation 3:1-6 
Psalm 130:1-8 
Proverbs 29:21-22 
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Quote for Reflection:

"Not creation, not the fall, not the church, not the predestination of the elect, not even the incarnation, not the cross, are first in the good pleasure of God; but the firstborn from the dead, the glorified Christ, is first. He is the firstborn of every creature ..."   ~ Herman Hoeksema: (Reformed Dogmatics, p. 333).