From Pastor’s Desk:
Psalm 103:17 …from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with
their children’s children—
***
“Every promise in the book is mine…” are the lyrics of an old hymn. We love to sing, preach, teach about His promises, but most times we don’t factor in the conditional aspect of them, which are easy to pass over if we’re not careful. This verse is precious in that it holds a Scriptural principle, i.e. God is eternal, and in light of another principle, He is love. Consequently, His love is the same.
Instead of “love” the KJV uses “mercy” as does NKJV, which is originally chêsêd (kheh’-sed) or kindness. NASB uses loving-kindness which seems to conjoin love and kindness. May we say, then, that God extends mercy, or loving-kindness, to us out of His great love for us?
The condition to be noticed is that His mercy is with those who fear (reverence) Him. His righteousness, being what it is and who He is, is the criterion that restricts the promise to those who fear Him. Granted, nothing shall separate us from the love of God. There are some things, however, that God cannot do in the life of a person who does not fear Him.
A person who fears the Lord is one who puts God first in all ways, God’s will always having top priority, above all else.
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