PROMISES THAT ARE FACTS.
By T.
Any promise is no stronger than the ability of the one making it. A promise may be made, and the individual who made it may desire, more than he desires his life, to fulfill that promise; but thru some unforeseen complication of circumstances he may be rendered unable to do it. Then he must go to the one to whom the promise is made, and plead the inability to do what he said he would. But nothing of this kind ever happens in connection with the promises of God. Every one of God’s promises can be taken as a literal fact; and instead of looking at what God has said as something that may possibly be accomplished, we should look at it as the statement of great truths,—great, living, acting deeds of our heavenly Father, that are always in process of fulfilment. God’s promises are alive; they are in motion—in positive action all the time; and just as soon as an individual steps into the current where God is working, he finds, to his everlasting7joy, that what God says is really true, and that His words are working all the time. With these thoughts in mind, let us read together the words of the first of the Psalms. They are as follows:— “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Ps. 1:1-6. These words of the Lord are more than promises. In the first verse the fact is stated, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” This text positively says that the man is already blessed who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. The Lord has pronounced a blessing upon all such, and He has so fixed His laws that as soon as a man comes into the conditions, he receives the blessings that are already flowing there. Our omnipotent heavenly Father has pronounced the blessing, and it can not fail. It has all the power of His ever-living presence to keep it in action. And it has all the infinite goodness of Him who alone is perfect to make Him ever mindful of His promise, so that every trusting child will always find the currents of heavenly blessing when he moves into them. What solid comfort there is in knowing these things! But perhaps you are ready to say that you have tried the plan of walking in the counsel of the Lord, as this text suggests, and you have not had the blessings that you looked for. If such is your statement of the case, you have not been working on God’s plan, no matter how much you may have thought you were doing so. The Lord desires above everything else that we may be just right. And if we are seeking to follow Him and do not find the blessings that we wish, it is either because there are lessons for us to learn so as to fit us to receive those blessings, or else what we are looking upon as blessings are not such in reality, and so a wise Father is kindly withholding them. In the school of Christ we are to accept the facts that our great Teacher gives us in His Word, and study out the principles that underlie them. We are not to make a little temporary trial of them, and because, in our haste, we do not see the workings we expect, then cast them aside. No; by no means should we do anything of this kind. If things are going wrong with us, it is because there is something wrong in us, and the Lord is permitting us to pass thru the trial so that we may be refined and purified. Even Job was not perfect until he went thru his great trial. The Lord would not have permitted all that sore distress to come upon him just to please the curiosity or malice of Satan; Job needed just such an experience so as to make him perfect, and so that we might look back to his example and take courage in the Lord. Notice that the second verse of this first psalm says of the man whom God is blessing, “His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” And then observe the results that follow this course of righteousness. They are described in the third verse and read thus: “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” These second and third verses taken together describe the action of a positive divine law. The man who truly meditates in the law of the Lord all the time will have prosperity. “Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” The Lord has decreed this, and it is decidedly true. This prosperity from the Lord comes as a result of doing the right, and it carries with it also all the blessings and benefits of a righteous reward. “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.” Isa. 32:17. But the individual who thus meditates in the law of the Lord does not do it to get the reward of prosperity. He does it because he desires to do the right, and to stand with God in the right. And the Lord in turn sends him the “effect of righteousness,” which is not only quietness and assurance forever, but is also prosperity. Remember that “whatsoever he doeth” is to prosper. The greatest blessing in all the world is to learn how to realize on God’s promises; and if you are not doing it, you are missing the only thing worth living for.