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Lord’s Day 14, 2009

I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)

Belonging to Jesus

O Heavenly Father.

Teach me to see
that if Christ has pacified thee and
            satisfied divine justice
      he can also deliver me from my sins;
   that Christ does not desire me, now justified,
      to live in self-confidence in my own strength,
      but gives me the law of the spirit of life
      to enable me to obey thee;
   that the spirit and his power are mine
      by resting on Christ’s death;
   that the spirit of life within answers to
      the law without;
   that if I sin not I should thank thee for it;
   that if I sin I should be humbled daily under it;
   that I should mourn for sin more than other
         men do,
      for when I see I shall die because of sin,
         that makes me mourn;
      when I see that sin caused Christ’s death,
         that makes me mourn;
   that sanctification is the evidence of reconciliation,
      proving that faith has truly apprehended Christ;
Thou hast taught me
   that faith is nothing else than receiving thy
      kindness;
   that it is an adherence to Christ, a resting on him,
      love clinging to him as a branch to a tree,
      to seek life and vigor to him.
I thank thee for showing me the vast difference
   between knowing things by reason,
   and knowing them by the spirit of faith.
By reason I see a thing is so;
   by faith I know it is as it is.
I have seen thee by reason and have not
   been amazed,
I have seen thee as thou art in thy Son and have
   been ravished to behold thee.
I bless thee that I am thine in my Savior,
   Jesus.

—from The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, editor (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002).

Psalme 119:105–112
(Geneva Bible)
Nun.
105 Thy worde is a lanterne vnto my feete, and a light vnto my path.
106 I haue sworne and will performe it, that I will keepe thy righteous iudgements.
107 I am very sore afflicted: O Lord, quicken me according to thy word.
108 O Lord, I beseeche thee accept the free offerings of my mouth, and teach mee thy iudgements.
109 My soule is continually in mine hande: yet doe I not forget thy Lawe.
110 The wicked haue layed a snare for mee: but I swarued not from thy precepts.
111 Thy testimonies haue I taken as an heritage for euer: for they are the ioy of mine heart.
112 I haue applied mine heart to fulfill thy statutes alway, euen vnto the ende.