Behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Psalm 73:27-28
Psalm 73 ends with Asaph making a clear commitment to live near to the Lord, and to tell his story of what God has done.
Some folks think Christianity is about commitment. If you’re disciplined about your commitment, then you’re the real deal. Their focus is entirely on personal effort, discipline, and behaviour—doing certain things in the hope that it will make you a real Christian.
It never works. Faith is never the fruit of commitment. It is always the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). Faith is a gift that comes down, not an effort that is worked up. How does the gift come to us?
Asaph tells us that it was not the result of his own effort. “When I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task” (Psa. 73:16). “Faith was restored when I came into the sanctuary,” he says. “When I remembered God’s truth, He turned on the light for me.”
“Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Jon. 2:9). God turns on the light in your mind so that you see your sin and confess your need. God brings you to faith and restores your soul. This is what David grasped in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul” (23:1-3).
If you are broken today, you need to know that the Lord will restore your soul. If your feet have almost slipped, you need to know that the Lord will hold you by your right hand.
Are you pursuing Christian faith as though it were something to earn by your own effort or as something to receive from God as a gift?
