FEEDING ON HIS FAITHFULNESS

Recently I have been drawn to Psalm 37. Each time I read it I am encouraged and then I return to my regular pattern of devotional reading. A few days later I am drawn again to Psalm 37 and then a few days after that it happens again. There is something in this outpouring of King David’s heart that is pertinent for this hour and the Lord doesn’t seem to want me to get very far away from it.

This psalm was written because David was going through a difficult time. The psalm begins,   “Do not fret because of evildoers” (Psalm 37:1, NKJV). The word fret means to be hot, furious, angry, and the psalmist is saying to us, “You must not let this happen! Do not allow the circumstances of life and the evil you see in the land fill you with anger.” God is telling us, “I am still in charge and you are to walk in My peace . . . so fret not!”

The psalm goes on to tell us, “Do not be envious of those who work evil, for they will soon be cut down like the grass. You are to trust in Him and do good works; be fruitful where He has planted you and (this is really important) feed on His faithfulness” (see verses 1-3).

There are at least two ways to look at the statement, “Feed on His faithfulness.”

1. Some commentators suggest that we are to see this as a commitment by God to provide for His people who have faith in Him.

Faith pleases God and He always responds to the faith of His people. Carol and I know this to be true and we have experienced it afresh in just the last few years. But I also think the psalmist was challenging us to see this statement in another way.

2. I believe David was encouraging us to feed, literally to ingest, to have meals of faithfulness, by remembering and rehearsing God’s faithfulness to us and to all His people.

As we feed on (have a meal of) His faithfulness and remember what He has done, we are encouraged to believe for what He is going to do!

So how can we feed on His faithfulness?

It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking this is something complicated—this idea of feeding on His faithfulness—and it is not. It’s really quite simple. I think it may be its simplicity that causes us to often ignore its great potential.

We learn God’s faithfulness and we feed on it by answering our calling to stay in fellowship with Jesus. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). As believers, Jesus is the center point of our life. As we enter into and stay in that relationship, that fellowship, we are fed by the intimacy, by the communion, we have with Him.

His faithfulness is revealed to us when we feed on His Word because the Bible is packed full of powerful stories of God’s faithfulness to His people. You cannot read through Hebrews 11 and not have your faith stirred and encouraged. Read through the book of Acts, or Genesis and Exodus, the first six chapters of Daniel, and see if your faith is not fed and your understanding of God’s faithfulness expanded.

His faithfulness is refreshed in us when we praise and worship Him. Praise is the response of the righteous for what God has done. Worship is the response of the righteous unto God for who He is, the admiration of His person.

We feed on His faithfulness when we give thanks for what He has done in our lives. Give Him thanks for His provision, thanks for all the answers to prayer, thanks for your salvation, thanks for His leading and guiding in your life. Thank Him for the infilling and empowering of the Holy Spirit. There is so much to give thanks for because God is so faithful!

It is as we feed on His faithfulness that we find ourselves “delighting in Him.” Delighting is an outflow of our feeding on His faithfulness.

Here are a few passages of Scripture that speak of His faithfulness.

“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

“His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

“Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds” (Psalm 36:5).

“Your faithfulness endures to all generations” (Psalm 119:90). I love the way the New Living Translation puts this verse: “Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created.”

“God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).