Psalm 1
Downtown doesn’t look the way you remember. The storefronts seem to change every month. Mehlhaf’s is no longer there to dress you in style. Robnett’s can’t find that random bit of hardware for you. Soon Blackledge will be gone; you will have to shop for designer furniture elsewhere. These are just some Corvallis mainstays that have disappeared in just the last six years. This is sadly true: Here today, gone tomorrow.
Oregon’s largest city hasn’t faired much better. The sign says, “Keep Portland Weird”, but although the city retains many of its one-of-a-kind businesses and restaurants and still homes many uniquely open-minded residents, “weird” is no longer the first word that pops into a visitor’s mind. Many wonder what happened to their quirky city.
Things change. We don’t like it. Those things we love don’t last. Those things that make us feel safe and secure crumble. Uncertainty consumes what we thought was so certain.
Our lives change. Kids grow up and move out. Loved ones pass away. Our bodies grow flabby, creaky and frail. Why can’t anything just stay the same?
Even what we know isn’t stable. Technology advances. Culture shifts suddenly. Some of these changes may be for the better, but often they leave us reeling. We don’t always know where we can safely stand. We don’t know what we can trust. We don’t know what tomorrow might bring. We need some stability.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he changes his mind. Numbers 23:19
Amen, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled. Matthew 5:18
Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights who does not change or shift like shadow. James 1:17
Blessed is the man…whose delight is in the teaching of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and its leaves do not wither, whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:2-3
The Psalms begin by comparing two different lives. The wicked are like chaff, like the grass twisting away in the wind as the harvester passes. They have no pace to stand. They have nothing to hold them secure. Their best wisdom will always fade and fail. They are driven wherever the wind blows. They cannot stand. The “wicked aren’t “bad people”. They are all who live apart from God. Without God to hold you secure, the changes of this world will blow you away.
You want to be, we need to be standing with the blessed. God and his Word never change. His guidance for your life is always true. His promises never fail. He always forgives. He always listens when you pray. He always saves. He always welcomes everyone who comes to him in faith. He always sustains the blessed through all the changes of life.
Our access to information and the constant shouting of the daily news, we feel like things are changing too fast. We worry that the next change could be catastrophic. We aren’t the first. God was with his believers in the past. God will be with his people today, tomorrow, and forever. In him you are always blessed.