Page 68 - Living light - The Psalms

Tuesday August 20 - The Lord is holy
Let them praise your great and awesome name – he is holy. Psalm 99:3
Psalm 99 declares that God is holy, not once but three times (vv 3,5,9), echoing the seraphim’s worship in heaven (Revelation 4:8). Holiness, at its root, involves the idea of ‘apartness’. It describes someone, or something, set apart by God for his purposes. God himself is set apart; he is set apart from creation, in that he is not a creature; he is set apart from humanity, in that his essence is divine, not human. God’s power is a holy power; God’s love is a holy love; God’s wisdom is a holy wisdom. Holiness is the essence of his entire being.
If God is ‘apart’ from all else, does that mean he is detached and somehow disinterested in us? Far from it! He loves mankind so much; he longs for us to know him as our heavenly Father. I pose another question: how can a holy God be in relationship with an unholy people? Answer: by making the people holy! He does this by removing sin from our lives and imputing his holiness through the power of the cross. In
2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul explains it this way: ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ This is why today you and I should ‘praise his great and awesome name’!
Heavenly Father, it is my desire to be holy, as you are holy. Please forgive me, cleanse me and fill me afresh with your holiness, for your glory. Amen.
Wednesday August 21 - The Lord is just
The King is mighty, he loves justice – you have established equity...
Psalm 99:4
God is sovereign, almighty, and holy; today we acknowledge that he is just. As king, God rules with power and authority, but always with justice. Isaiah describes it thus: ‘He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions...’ (11:3-4).
We all too regularly hear of injustices, perhaps none more so than earlier this year when the full extent of the Post Office scandal came to light. Not so with God, whose judgements are just. Because he is just, he cannot ‘turn a blind eye’ to our sin. We all stand guilty before God without defence. But “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). In order to fulfil the just requirements of the law, the full penalty for our sin was laid upon Jesus. The only plea we can make is to confess and ask for forgiveness. This is the reason we can celebrate the justice of God. If you are yet to accept Christ as your Saviour, please consider afresh Jesus, who ‘came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15).
Dear friends, this is the heart of the gospel and the love of God; free salvation, but bought at such great cost!
Father, I am eternally thankful that Jesus died for all mankind, and that Jesus died for me. Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
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PRAYER FOR TODAY