Thurs., 9/28/17 Devotion (Ps. 79:1)

Today's encouragement comes from Psalm 79:1, where we read these words:

"O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple they have defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps."

In this particular Psalm (79), Asaph, the author, is bemoaning the fact that the "nations have come into [God's] inheritance." The reason? Because they came at that time to destroy the temple, and to lay waste the promised land of old. But in the New Covenant, the blessed promise is that the Gentile nations would enter into Christ and His church—not to destroy; but to beautify it.

Many of the other Psalms (like Ps. 22:27) actually speak of this happening. Most of us reading this devotion today are the fulfillment of this promise and prophecy. We, the ones who used to be of the idol-worshipping peoples, are now the true children of Abraham, by faith in Jesus. For this blessed fact, we will forever give God praise.

[Puritan quote of the day: "Surely God deals familiarly with men; His conde-scensions to His own clay are astonishing.” —John Flavel, in, "The Mystery of Providence"]