PSALM 121:8
the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
TO PONDER
If this Bible verse is sounding familiar to you it is probably for one of two reasons. Firstly, Psalm 121 is a favourite for a lot of people and many of those people ave memorised it. You probably recognise the opening verse of the Psalm more easily, "I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth." But secondly, at least in the Lutheran church, it is regularly used in baptisms.
This psalm is what Bible scholars call a 'psalm of ascents' and was a psalm sung by pilgrims or travellers to Jerusalem who were on their way to the temple, in other words, approaching the place where God was.
As children of God who live in the world after Jesus death and resurrection, we know that God's dwelling place is no longer just in a temple made by human hands in Jerusalem, but as the apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, that the Holy Spirit of God now resides in us, his people making each of us a temple where God dwells. This is part of the promise we recieve in baptism, God's indwelling presence with us by the Holy Spirit.
That means that part of the answer to the question, "Where is God in our communities?" is that he is wherever his people are. Too often we only talk about how God comes to us to save and reedeem us - and this is certainly true. However, in redeeming us, he also gives us and our lives a new purpose, or more correctly, he restores us to his original purpose - that we might be his image bearers to the world he created and that his work of re-creating and redeeming the world might continue through us as we engage with him and become more like Jesus.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I thank you that you watch over me in all my coming and going. I ask that as I come and go today and tend to all the things you have in mind for me to do, that I would carry your presence with me and that others might see you at work in my community as you work in and through me. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle