In God I Trust

“This I know, that God is for me.  In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.  What can man do to me?  I must perform my vows to You, O God; I will render thank offerings to You. For You have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.” –Psalm 56:9b-13 (ESV).

We are in the count-down period before our national election, with one week remaining to pray that the results will be pleasing to God and that we will elect responsible and honest persons to fulfill the public offices of our land.  The focal passage for today from Psalm 56: 9b-12 is a very personal affirmation attributed to David, according to the note added probably years later, written when “the Philistines seized him in Gath.”  This lament—as well as the praise it contains—is believed to be related to the events in I Samuel 21:10-15 when David was fleeing from Saul’s wrath and sought refuge in Gath at the hands of King Achish.  David pretended to be out of his mind in order to escape.  We might think:  “To what lengths would David go?”  He lived in a time of much personal danger to himself; if he devised a pretense of insanity to escape, at least David gave God the credit for saving his life:  “in God I trust, I shall not be afraid” (56:11).  Because God is trustworthy, David expected and received recompense on his enemies.

I have just read the November 2012 Decision Magazine published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.  The whole issue, which no doubt reaches recipients days ahead of the beginning of November, is devoted to Americans’responsibility to vote (and in particular Christians in America).  The full-page advertisement by Billy Graham, which I mentioned in the October 24 devotional as being published in the October 21, 2012 Wall Street Journal,  was also reprinted in the November 2012 Decision magazine.  The month’s message from the Rev. Dr. Billy Graham was reprinted from a 1964 message delivered in a crusade held in the United States.  His message was clear then, and still timely for today:  “When a nation departs from God, judgment follows…If our nation at this hour would turn to the Word of God, then I guarantee on the authority of God’s Word that the enemies at our gates could be pushed back; God would intervene and put them to flight” (“America Under Judgment” by Billy Graham.  November, 2012 Decision Magazine, p. 14).

One of the guest writers in the same issue of Decision Magazine is Dr. David Jeremiah, who gives nine developments that undermine America’s strength today.  These, quoted here with due credit to Dr. Jeremiah, are: (1) “The rise of angry atheists;  (2) Intensifying of spiritual warfare; (3) Dethroning of Jesus Christ; (4)  Redefining of marriage; (5)  America’s loss of its moral compass; (6) Growing marginalization of the Bible; (7) Growing irrelevance of the Christian church; (8) Growing influence of rogue nations; and (9) Erosion of America’s loyalty to Israel.”  Dr. Jeremiah warns, “A system that is continually degenerating will pass into oblivion” (November Decision Magazine, p. 11).

To summarize the major theme of the November issue, Franklin Graham, who succeeded his father as  executive director of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, writes pointedly that following 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the only way to turn the tide of America’s complete demoralization and “save the republic” as Benjamin Franklin urged in 1776.  “I know of no other way to keep our republic” (p. 40).

Prayer:  Lord, awaken Americans to our downward spiral.  Open our eyes to our sinful position that we may repent and turn to You.  Give us the courage of our convictions to demand that our leaders be accountable to You and to the principles of justice and mercy.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The Book of Remembrance

“Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another.  The Lord paid attention and heard them and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name.  ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘in the day when I make up My treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves.  Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.’” –Malachi 3:16-18 (ESV).

In the prophecy attributed to Malachi which was probably written about the middle of the fifty century B. C., there are six different disputations, or six wake-up calls to the people to renew their covenant relationship with God.  The sixth disputation is found in Malachi 3:18-4:3.  Herein Malachi warns that his grumbling contemporaries and the evil doers who seem at the present to escape the judgment of God, will, in essence be judged.  But he states, assuredly, that the Lord will deliver those who fear Him. Even though it seems at time that the arrogant and evil doers are prospering, the time will come when they will face judgment.  The judgment, the prophet states, is surely coming [Read Malachi 3:13-4:6].

But those who fear the Lord and trust in Him have their names in the Book of Remembrance (v. 16) and they will be a part of the Lord’s ‘treasured possession,’ and spared from the wrath to come.  The Book of Remembrance as mentioned in Malach is referred to as The Book of Life in various places in the Bible.  It is a heavenly record written ‘before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain’ (Revelation 13:8).  One of the first references we have to this Book of Life is in Exodus 32:30-34.  Following the Israelites’ worship of the golden calf, Moses approached God begging forgiveness of the sins of the people.  He was so intense on securing pardon for them that he asked God to blot his own name out of the book He had written if He could not forgive the people’s sin.  What a price in terms of his own redemption was Moses willing to pay to have his people forgiven their apostasy!   Likewise, Paul the Apostle stated that he would be willing to be accursed himself if only his kinsmen (the Jews) would come to saving faith in the Lord Christ (Acts 9:1-3).  But the Book of Remembrance is written in God’s presence and names the faithful believers.  Did He not say in Psalm 56:8:  “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.  Are they not in your book?”

In the judgment before the great white throne, we learn what will happen concerning the opening of the Book of Life and the subsequent judgment:  “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Then another book was opened, which is the book of life.  And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done…And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:12, 15, ESV).  We can be certain about the Book of Remembrance, also known as the Book of Life.  Only the saved have their names written in the book.   And although we have seen how that God knew before the foundation of the world the names written there, His omniscience (all-knowing power) gave Him the foreknowledge about those who would choose to have their names written in it by depending upon the grace offered through the Lord Jesus Christ to justify their name in the book.  As a book of remembrance, it will have recorded what we have done in Jesus’ name to help others along the way.  We need not fear the great white throne judgment and the opening of the Book of Life/the Book of Remembrance, for Jesus has written beside each saved child of God the password through judgment and entrance to heaven:  “Forgiven!”  And we will be privileged to enter joyfully into our reward.  Praise be to God!