I’ll use Psalms 8:1, 16:2, and 31:1-4. I think I’ll add 123:1-2.
My Shepherd met me in the prayer closet, considering His goodness, and thinking how I need nothing but what He has done to justify all the service and worship I can render today, or forever.
He led me into His green pastures and laid me down in Revelation 1:4, 8, where Jesus said:
Revelation 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
This is repeated, with a slight variation, in John’s vision of the throne room in chapters 4-5:
Revelation 4:8 ¶ And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
The angels declare His magnificence in a chronological order: was, is, and is to come. But Jesus identifies Himself as is, was, and is to come. Jesus begins with I AM.
GOD tells us His Name declares Him to be I AM (Exodus 3:13-14). His name is יְהוָֹה (Yuh’-Hoh-Vah). Each time God identifies Himself, He begins with I AM (Genesis 26:24; 31:13; Exodus 3:6, with Acts 7:32), to which Jesus bears witness in Matthew 22:32 with Mark 12:26.
Along the still waters, I reflected on the wonderful truth that GOD is ever present; He dwells in the present. This makes the eternal past and the eternal future ever-present in Him. All He has done is present, all He will do is also present. This explains the timelessness of Scripture, as in Revelation 13:8, where Christ is identified as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and +4000 years later, John introduces Him as “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), then, in Revelation 4:8, He is represented in the throne room by the “Lamb as it had been slain.” Jesus reveals Himself to be the Lamb of God in the present, the past, and the future. As He walked toward John to be baptized, He was the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, to be slain on the Cross, buried, and risen, and to be the Lamb as it had been slain.
I occured to me that there is enough in what Jesus “hath” done for me (Romans 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 John 3:1), to be grateful to Him in every present moment of my life from now into and throughout all eternity. I mean to say that He need do no more than He has done to be worthy of my love forever. And yet, I can rejoice in every present moment for the goodness He manifests daily, for example, the mercies that are renewed every morning (Lamentations 3:32-33), and His invitation to cast all my cares on Him because He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7). But then, when I include all the promises He has made regarding my future state, a glorified body like unto His, a home in Heaven with Him, to rule and reign with Him, etc. etc. etc., “What shall I more say” (Hebrews 11:32)?
All of it, all He has done, and all He has promised that He will do, is present in everything He now does. Bring this into your contemplation of the definition of faith: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). It pleases Him when we believe the HE IS. He declares I AM, and He is pleased when we believe Him.
In the valley, kneeling in the shadow of His Cross, I looked at Him Who wears the marks of His crucifixion and bowed before the Lamb of God, wearing the wounds of the Cross in His hands and side, and understood that present in Him is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, represented for eternity as the “Lamb, as it had been slain”! Christ, Who hath loved us (Revelation 1:5), paints our hearts with His love daily (Romans 5:5), will love us eternally (John 14:21).
In Him presently is all he has done historically and all He will do eternally.
He spoke: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). It is reasonable that we should do so (Romans 12:1-2).
Indeed, who is sufficient for these things:
2 Corinthians 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
2 Corinthians 2:16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
At His table, we discussed many things. He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. Goodness and mercy followed us into the harvest.
What a Saviour!
Praying for revival! 🙏
Going live asap:
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