Psalm 31

How many times do we, in this world of doubt and trial, need a reminder that the good life for us is found in the way of faith? Sometimes that comes to us in a direct command or warning. “Trust in the Lord!” Often we are to learn from the example of others, whether positive or negative. We need it all, because it is so important for us to find our refuge in God.

It is not only that the Lord is powerful and the only being with absolute sovereign authority that makes Him a great Protector. He is also the only Provider of perfect righteousness through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the best example to us of holy living, but He has gone far beyond that in granting to us His righteousness. The cross is not only the absorbing of our guilt, it is also the place where we somehow become the righteousness of God in the eyes of the One who knows all things. In Jesus, God's righteousness delivers us from the worst bondage. Through faith, the gift of righteousness comes to us speedily, not as a result of a long life of good works, but from the credit of Christ's life applied to us in full in just a moment of time.

Based on this rock of complete justification, we have bold access to God in His Son, who is our stable fortress keeping us from the holy wrath of God that would have been our eternal destruction. God leads the man who trusts in Him. Perfect only in the Messiah, he relies on God to help him through any number of very troubling and dangerous situations.

This is the way to live: Take the fullness of Christ's righteousness in an instant by faith, and then let Him lead you in righteousness as you commit your spirit into His hand throughout your life and at the moment of your death. The Lord Himself committed His soul into the hand of His Father as His body was dying. The man who follows this great Redeemer sees in this pattern a way to live and a way to die.

The only alternative to committing your spirit moment by moment into the Lord's hand is some form of idolatry, worshiping something else as the god of the temple that belongs to the Creator and Redeemer of the world. Idolatry insists that you give yourself over to something bigger and better than God. Of course, the Lord is above all other gods, but when you start paying more attention to worthless idols than to God, life gets cloudy, and people get foolish.

God is not foolish. He is faithful forever. He knows your foolishness and your regrets, and he is bigger than the distress of your soul. When the final day comes, He will not deliver even one of His beloved children into the hand of their enemies. You will be standing in a broad place, away from all distress. You will not have grief in heaven. Every sign of decay and sin will be far away.

The Lord who has gone to prepare a place for you in the land of joy will see you through the troubles that you face now. If you can trust Him with the final chapter of your life, you can certainly trust Him with your whole life story. Even if everyone around you considers you an object of reproach or dread, the Lord will keep you.

Trusting in God, believing that God is your God in some way, knowing God's deliverance of you in this life, all of these great blessings prepare you to be with God forever. Our times are in His hands, just as our eternal destinies are in His hand. We do not need to imagine a heaven of our own making, a heaven without Christ, a heaven for everybody regardless of faith. Trusting in the Lord means embracing the only real eternal life. In that true heaven, some are excluded as enemies of God. In that place where God reigns, Jesus is the very air that we breathe.

Knowing this good news, we look for the face of our Redeemer to shine upon us more and more in this life. We fear the Lord with reverence as worshipers who know that God is so far above us. Yet we also love the Lord who has graciously called us to take refuge in His Son. God has all the goodness that we need stored up for us in Jesus. He does works of grace for us every day out of the storehouse of Christ's merit. Yet what He has for us in the life to come is far beyond what we have experienced on earth.

Any vision of blessedness without Christ is a myth. The real God has demanded our obedience, and He has said that He will be no means clear the guilty. We needed Jesus Christ to do the work of atonement for us. In the offering up of His Son for the guilty we are granted the fullest righteousness and love. Heaven without the Man who is the Cornerstone of eternal joy is no heaven at all.

God has given us His steadfast love. He shows us how we can live for Him, and He leads us in the perfect way. “Into your hands I commit my spirit,” Jesus said. We surrender to love every day, and the Lover of our souls continues to keep us for His eternal purpose.

Do you find yourself in a besieged city? Are you surrounded by enemies on every side? Cry out to the One who will never let you go. Commit your spirit to Him again each day. Even if you die today, and your body must rest in the grave for a time, the Lord knows how to preserve you. Wait for Him in faith and be blessed.