A Proven People

Psalm 147. 11 11 …the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. NIV

Yesterday, we considered the partnership of God and what it is in our lives that we might need Him to remove. Today, let’s consider the delight of the Lord. The Lord doesn’t delight in power, He delights in people. His entire creation – the vastness of His universe – is for His pleasure, but He delights in people. And He really delights in those who fear Him and put their hope in Him.

Fear of the Lord is not terror but respect. Respect for God is honoring Him by believing that what He says He’ll do, He does. Respect for God is shown by obedience to what He says, the rejection of craven fear, and living as He lives: full of love for others. Respect for God is proven through patience endurance and persistent perseverance. And God delights in those who do all this. It isn’t earning merit badges it’s the proof of who we really are in the world in which we live.

God could’ve made a world without all the tests and trials we endure. God could’ve made life in the manner of just-follow-the-formula. But He didn’t, and despite sin and the fall of man, God has never lost sight of His goal of ruling and living among a proven people. So we must experience what we must experience and endure what we must endure because in the midst of it with God so that we’ll become that proven people and not just a pack of Pavlov’s dogs, cultured in conditioning. Our lives consist of loving God in present pain so that we may live with Him in future reward: eternal life in His presence. And there is the presence of hope.

Hope is that very real belief that causes us to live each passing present day as if we are already in the eternal presence of God; we don’t need to wait for eternity. God’s love and presence today are just as real as His love and presence tomorrow… we understand and accept that through our living today. That is how we hope.

Hope is real and hope is sure if we hope in the right things and live accordingly. I can hope in people, in the human spirit, but that hope will disappoint because people disappoint. I can hope in politics that man will get his act together and we will all learn to live together in peace, but again, with the human element, I am destined for disappointment if I do. I can coexist but that is dependent on others coexisting as well and I am right back to my first argument.

But hope in God never disappoints because God never disappoints – that is as long as I trust Him no matter what. It’s the result of the no-matter-what part that proves who I really am. God is delighted with those who fear Him and put their hope in Him, no matter what.