Daily Devotion – December 29, 2020 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Psalm 147:12-20
147:12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
147:13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.
147:14 He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat.
147:15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
147:16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
147:17 He hurls down hail like crumbs– who can stand before his cold?
147:18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
147:19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
147:20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the LORD!
OK, here’s a text with some verses Fargoans might enjoy: the psalmist writes about winter weather.
Weather of many kinds, actually.
But the main thrust of this passage is words to the Kingdom of Israel regarding its special status with God. God
Strengthens the bars of their gates
Blesses their children
Grants peace within their borders
Fills them with finest wheat … and
Declares his word, statutes, and ordinances to Israel
When God adopts you as a nation, you have great plenty, you have security, and you have God’s law to keep it that way. No chaos brought about by invasion or greed or corruption. The rest of the world is subject to the whims of weather, but daily life in God’s land is good and dependable.
We might consider this picture of God adopting a nation to take care of it and raise it as God’s own, just as a human parent might adopt a child. There were infant years when faith was new. There were rebellious years as well, and long separations between God and God’s people. But eventually God has Israel back in its borders and decides to finally send the Messiah, to reveal God’s own heart, not just the mechanics of living life as a culture dedicated to God. The Messiah would be God walking amongst humans, showing with every step love and gentleness and true devotion to beloved creatures such as people are. And then this amazing God walking among us died in the performance of his duty on earth. And, as a sign of what God was willing to break out of love for humanity, God raised Jesus from death to new life.
Everyone who believes in Jesus has the power to be, as Luther says, “little Christs” to demonstrate God’s love and adoptive care to their neighbors. What God began by adopting Israel to be God’s own nation, God completes in Jesus and in us, and we carry it on.
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for adopting Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel to be your nation. Thank you for letting your son, Jesus, come to show us how you really are. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit on us so that we believe and are moved to show your love to others.
Amen.
