Today's Scripture Reading (October 15, 2025): Psalm 118
I used to play golf, if what I used to do could be termed
playing golf. Now I seem to lack the time and money to pursue the sport. And to
a certain extent, I also lack the motivation to play. The problem with golf is
that it is a sport in which you have to be regularly involved if you want to
get better at it. That principle applies to almost every aspect of our lives,
but the results are possibly a little more apparent in the game of golf. There
was a time when I tried to get out on the golf course a few times a week. When
I could play that regularly, I felt that I was improving, but as soon as I was
unable to maintain that level of commitment, my golf game slid backwards.
The secret to the game of golf is actually consistency. And that
little secret is also why the game can be so frustrating. When I was playing
well, I could remember stretches when I would be able to play a few holes of
golf under par. But then, to me seemingly without reason, my game would
deteriorate. All of a sudden, my drives were no longer hitting the fairway, my
chips were missing the green, and my putts consistently missed the hole in the
green toward which I was aiming. Far from the pars and birdies that I had started
the game with, it was now a good thing if I could even bogey a hole, and
sometimes even that score was simply out of reach. However, the nagging feeling
remained: I could really excel at this game if I could only find a way to be
consistent.
The Psalmist begins and ends this psalm with a note of
thanksgiving, emphasizing that "God is good." What the little word "good"
really means is that God is "consistent." He works out of a character
that never changes. As much as we might want to argue otherwise, what God views
as right, he has always declared right. And what he despises, he has always
despised. The Psalmist follows up the idea of God's consistency with an example
– "His love endures forever." It does not matter in the eyes of God
what has transpired before. Because God is consistent, and because one of the
key areas of this consistency is found in his love, his love can be applied to
us in every circumstance and at every time. Israel may have wandered away from
God, but God had never wandered away from Israel, and God had never stopped
loving the nation that he chose. The promise that God made to Abraham was still
in force.
It is a promise that we need to recognize today. If we serve a
good God or a consistent God, then he still loves the people of his promise.
Israel still stands in his favor, as do the descendants of Ishmael, and by
faith and adoption, the Christian Church. All of us stand in dependence on the
goodness and consistency of God. And we stand in the knowledge that his love
truly does endure forever.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Psalm 119:1-48
See also Psalm 118:1
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