Are there days when you feel like you’ve lost before you’ve even begun? Many of us would say we’ve often felt like that. And it might be that certain passages of scripture make you feel that way, too - facing a task that is not simply unfinished but that you feel barely able to begin or even to contemplate.
The opening words of Psalm 15 might leave you in quiet despair. The questions of verse 1 - "Who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?" - and then the catalogue of virtues from verse 2 onwards make you feel like there’s no point in even starting. This is a hill too steep to climb, too sheer to be possible. It’s time to move on, to accept a lesser life in the lowlands.
But, wait. Try reading this psalm from a different starting point. Try reading it with the Saviour in view, as a description of the complete worthiness of Jesus. A blameless life, marked by righteousness and truth all the way through. No slander, not even when placed under the most extreme pressure. Who would not betray the innocent or play the power games of oppressing the poor. Who kept his oath (to save the lost), even when it cost his very life.
He is worthy, beautifully so. He dwells in the sacred tent; he ascended the hill of the Lord, having first climbed Calvary’s steeps. He is unshaken and governs over and bestows on his people a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:28). Stand back and admire such glory in the face of our Lord.
His sacrifice has taken away, torn forever, the dividing curtain and ushered us into the sacred space of God’s presence. “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:21).
So turn again to the hill before you. Because there is a beauty in holiness that is winsome for those whom Christ has saved and renewed in grace. However much we know we’ll struggle with the climb, to keep up the necessary pace, needing many stops and restarts, there will be the longing to do so, to experience the invigorating clean air, the golden light of purity and integrity. A desire that he births and that he sustains and that he will complete.
When we walk with the Lord, in the light of his Word, step by step up the hill before us, in his company and filled by his Spirit, his radiance lights the way before us and sheds its rays around. Living with these words before us and within us, seeing their realisation in the Lord Jesus, can begin to transform our online conversations, our personal interactions and the quality of all our relationships.
Don’t give up.; in due time there will the harvest that he has planted (Gal. 5:9). Fix your eyes on Jesus; plant your feet in his footsteps.
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Fight the good fight with all thy might;
Christ is thy strength, and Christ the right;
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally.
Run the straight race through God's good grace,
Lift up thine eyes and seek His face;
Life with its path before thee lies,
Christ is the way, and Christ the prize.
Cast care aside, lean on thy Guide;
His boundless mercy will provide;
Trust, and thy trusting soul shall prove
Christ is its life and Christ its love.
Faint not nor fear, His arms are near;
He changeth not, and thou art dear;
Only believe, and thou shalt see
That Christ is all in all to thee.
(John Samuel Bewley Monsell, 1811-75)
