Week 36
Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.”
Although we commonly think of a geo-political designation when we read the word, “nation”, as it is used in this passage. But the word really means people, or the group of people whom God has “chosen for His own inheritance.”
As Christian people, it is good and even necessary that we stop occasionally (regularly) and ponder how blessed we are that God has chosen us for “His inheritance.”
First, we must contemplate with total amazement that God would choose us as His inheritance. What an extraordinary reality that God would choose us, sinful and vile people, as His inheritance. Could He not find more worthy people than we are? No, our vileness magnifies His grace and mercy in our choosing. He did not choose us because of beauty, intelligence, or inherent righteousness or goodness (of which we have none), but He chose us by His own free will and for His own glory and honor. And to think – He wants us as His inheritance! What a magnificently comforting reality…God wants us, loves us, chooses us, and embraces us as His own. He pours out on us His holiness, His beauty, and His purity.
Second, let us think together what it means to be blessed, that God has chosen us in this fashion. We are blessed to know God in a personal way through Jesus Christ our Lord. This relationship with God the Father is intimate, sweet, caring, loving, and satisfying to our souls. We are also given the moral framework for understanding right and wrong through the clear moral teaching of the Scripture. We are also given the intellectual context for grasping the meaning and nature of reality and the significance of human life. And, of course, we are granted eternal life through salvation in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Without these blessings we would be grasping at ethereal ideas and thoughts about life and the meaning of life. We would be stumbling around in the darkness of hypothetical supposition and postulation. But in Christ, through the grasping of the clear teaching of the Scripture in Christ, we have certainty, confidence, and security as we live out our days on this earth.
Christian friend, let us take the time to regularly give thanks to God for these and other blessings that we have in Christ. And let us give praise and thanksgiving to our God for His mercy and grace in such matters. Truly, how blessed are the people whose God is the Lord, a people whom the Lord has chosen for His inheritance.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for Your mercy and grace in my life. Thank You for choosing me, saving me, and making me Your own child through faith in Christ. Help me to live a life of joy and gratitude for this blessing in my life. Lighten my heavy burdens with the joyful knowledge that I am blessed to belong to You.