Prophet’s
Reading Plan: Ezekiel
46-48
The Nature of God: Our
Righteous Lord
Read Psalm 11
In this Psalm, a crisis situation is being described: The
wicked are trying to destroy the righteous who feel that there is nothing they
can do but run and hide. They ask a relevant question: if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? This
situation resonates with us today. Christianity is being attacked all over the
place, including in Canada and the US. When our beliefs about marriage,
sexuality, discipline, human life, etc. are attacked, sometimes it feels like
there is nothing to do but hide under a bush and stay quiet; we ask the same
question: “When the Christian foundations
of our society are being destroyed, what can the Christians do?”
Thankfully there is great encouragement given. We cannot
forget that no matter what is going on in our lives, the Lord is in His holy
temple, the Lord almighty is STILL
ruling from His throne! Verse 5 is interesting: “The LORD tests the righteous, BUT His soul hates
the wicked…” This would imply that the Lord tests those He loves! So when
we are feeling tested, we can trust in His love!
This passage reminds us that there is justice for the
righteous in the judgement of the wicked. And verse 7 highlights the trait of
God that we can lean on in this time: “For
the LORD is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall
behold His face.” Because our God is righteous we can trust Him with our
enemies. Because He is a righteous Judge we can trust Him to reclaim us, to
fight for us, and to reward us.
Overview
Verses 1-3: The
wicked are pursuing the righteous
Verses 4-7: The
righteousness of the Lord gives comfort
PRAYER AND MEDITATION
1) How do you relate to the situation in
this chapter? How do find encouragement from the proclamation about the Lord?
2) Thank God for His righteousness – that
He loves what is good and right. Think about what His righteousness means for
your life. (Ex. You can trust that all He does is good)
3) Spend some time interceding for your
situation or a difficult situation in someone else’s life.
