“Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.”

Psalm 90:1

“For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Psalm 100:5

This past week, as I was meditation of the message of the 100th Psalm I came across an interesting set of thoughts contained in the notes in the NIV Study Bible. These were concerned with the connections between the various Psalms in the Scriptures. Psalms 90 through 100 are said, by the NIV Study Bible to be a collection of Praise Psalms which are contained within a framework consisting of Psalm 90:1 and Psalm 100:5. I am certain that there is a lively debate that could be had over whether these Psalms were grouped together in the type of collection that my study Bible suggests but this suggestion did give me some useful material for my meditation on the Scriptures. If one is to focus upon those two “frame” verses they do bring us to understand an essential truth about this life of discipleship to which we as believers are called.

1) The Lord is our eternal dwelling place. He is this dwelling place for all of His people throughout all generations. There is security and comfort in this awesome reality for everyone who believes in the Lord for all of time.

2) The Lord is a good God. His covenant love endures for all of eternity. He will always be found faithful to His promise to us as His people. There will never come a time or place or experience where the Lord will not be seen to be faithfully working our His gracious purposes for us, His people.

There is an invitation and a calling upon us to enter into this precious relationship with the Lord our God by faith. In John 16:33 the Lord Jesus Christ extends the same invitation of grace to us when He says, “In this world you will have trouble (pressure). But take heart! I have overcome the world.” If we come to Him in faith we will discover that He is the one who has overcome every evil that the world can bring into our lives. There is nothing which can stand between us and the love of God which is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The framework for these Psalms encloses wonderful truths upon which our lives of faith are being built. The collection of Psalms begins with a prayer of Moses for God’s people. In the centre of the collection is the 95th Psalm with its warning which references Moses warnings from Deut. 6:13-18. This warning in verses 7b to 11 is quoted in the Book of Hebrews which applies it to the invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ where He calls us to faith in Him. It is a warning for us to heed the voice of the Lord when we hear Him calling us today. This warning reminds us of God’s judgment upon those who failed to heed in the days of the Exodus.

Going on from the 95th Psalm we are led to Psalm 96:8 which once again invites us into the presence of the Lord. “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name; bring an offering and come into His

courts.” We cannot come into God’s courts without the appropriate offering. What is the offering however? In the 99th Psalm we are drawn further along on our inquiry. The Lord sits enthroned on the mercy seat. He is approached in only one way and that is through the sacrifice of atonement which in the Old Testament pointed ahead to a final, once and for all, sacrifice of atonement which took place on the cross of Calvary where the Lord Jesus Christ offered His precious, sinless life for us. As the Lord Jesus Christ stated in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many.” This God calls us to worship Him at His pillar of cloud coming into His holy presence recognising that He is a God who forgives and punishes sin. He forgives because He has punished our sin in the cross.

Given these precious truths the 100th Psalm commands that we come into the presence of God rejoicing in His gracious, eternal intervention in our lives. We come to Him in faith through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and we find that He is eternally faithful to us. What precious truth!