FOREVER SUNDAY
Psalm 92: 12-15
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A PRESBYTERIAN PSALTER - by Pastor Max A Forsythe |
At this time of year, countless school children and even teachers eagerly look out the windows early in the morning when they get out of bed. Just maybe there will have been enough ice or snow to be declared an act of God so that school will be canceled! In our area, there is a special number provided by the News Paper for people to call. With the appropriate extension they will hear the news about their particular school. Most of the time, that number is busy, so they have to listen to the local radio station, which is a special torture in itself. Will there be school or not?
I remember when I was little, the local superintendent called my dad to find out how things were in our neighborhood. Once I answered the phone and blurted out that I thought it was terrible outside. My dad thought otherwise. At school, the superintendent saw me in the hallway and chided me with "nice try, but I think your father knew better".
Well, we all would be satisfied with another holiday in any given week, so the school authorities are usually very careful and responsible. Most likely it is the County Sheriff or Highway Patrol who give road condition advice today. And very often, they just advise that the school wait until after first light to make a decision. So in our area school delays are much more common than cancellations.
Recently someone asked me when the second coming would occur, since they had read about a specific prediction. I cautioned them that while no man may possibly know the day or the hour, we could live in hope and wish that the end of the universe could come quickly so that Christ might take us to be with Himself for eternity. I guess, I've been really ready for a few years now and while I have no idea when Christ shall come, I certainly look forward to that Great Day when all Heaven breaks loose! Just as so many children wish for an extra holiday from school, so may those of us who belong to Christ hope for the end of the age. However, like school children, we must get up, dress and prepare ourselves for our daily duties. And until that Great Day we must content ourselves with the One Day in seven in which the Lord allows us to taste a foretaste of glory where it will finally be Forever Sunday.
This week as we close this Sabbath Psalm, Psalm Ninety-two, we pick up the last nuance of meaning in the four short phrases which give us a hint of eternal glory. Look at the richness in the images in these short phrases:
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
When we rented space on Hamilton Road, we were given some potted plants for decoration. One plant looked something like a palm branch and boy did it grow in the few short years we spent at that location. Another plant had a woody bark on its stem and we were close to running out of height and pot size when we had to cut short its growing. I know that we transplanted both plants several times and every so often we added potting soil and fertilizer, besides the weekly watering. Those plants were pampered and spoiled in their almost green house environment.
Last summer when Sherry and I were traveling in Omaha we stopped in at the city zoo. Inside a gigantic structure the zoo had a green house rain forest through which people could wander and wonder. That is the largest greenhouse I have ever been in and the plants were very prosperous and quite a few species of birds and animals were content to live within this edenic paradise under glass.
Out in the far west, there was a brief experiment with a biosphere where scientists were trying to create their own little self-sustaining world under glass. The purpose of the experiment was to prepare people for living in space where such arkish spheres would have to be the normative means of balancing life within an artificial environment. The experiment ended in scandal and discredition because specific species needed to maintain the sphere kept dying off and the humans couldn't adjust to a world without carry in pizza. Part of the problem was the worldly attitudes taken into their artificial eden. True, there were pairs of people, but not necessarily biblical relationships - and the whole enterprise suffered from a lack of humility and subservience to the proper Lord of this universe.
By contrast, we may expect something different when Christ shall come and it will be Forever Sunday.
They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green proclaiming. "The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him".
Two years and the humanists edenic biosphere failed miserably on almost every count. For a few years, we tried to maintain a twenty by twelve greenhouse at our home. We did harvest some tomatoes and lettuce. But, it was a lot of work. Someone always had to run around with a toothbrush to pollinate the tomato flowers. The water temperature and nutrients had to be constantly monitored. And the heat supply had to be completely reliable. Like all human institutions, anything that could go wrong did go wrong! The plants hardly ever had a chance of dying of old age. Some years, they didn't even reach maturity enough to make fruit.
You see, every time we try to improve upon God's creation, we have to take more and more responsibility for aspects that are better left to Him. A normal garden is a forgiving enterprise, most years you will receive at least some reward for your labors. But a greenhouse is unforgiving for even the slightest mistake. So every time we think that we are really and truly creating a heaven on earth we must be challenged to understand that only God is fully capable of running heaven on earth or heaven in eternity. Within His creation, we must learn to trust Him completely and submit every aspect of our lives to His leading and blessing.
Only in His edenic garden may we find it forever Sunday with all the delights that would bless us for eternity. Only in Him may we find the eternal life symbolized in these short verses. And only as we learn to depend upon Him completely may we learn that "The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."
In that phrasing we may well learn three things. First, we see that in His uprightness, there is complete trust and safety. Like little plants in a greenhouse, we may grow strong in Him. Second, we learn that He is our rock. Upon His firm and proper foundation, we may build up His church in imitation of the eternal kingdom. And finally, as adoring servants of our God and King, we may witness to the worldly around that in Him there is no bad thing. God is infinite in His perfections which we may learn new every morning as we focus our hearts upon Him. God is completely Holy and in Him there is no mean thing. Whatever He does for us is for our own good, and too often we desire and go after things, ideas and temptations that are not good for us.
In our green house, there was one plant that kept growing toward the exhaust fan. No matter how hard you tried to tie off its branches, it kept stretching out its leaves in that direction. Finally, the branch reached the fan and was sucked into the air stream. I don't know how much was shredded but there was a lot of plant missing when I looked at it one evening!
Yes, bad things sometimes happen to "good" plants/people, and we wonder why the Church on earth does not prosper as much as we would like. We have to remember that the Church is being designed and sanctified for heaven where it will be forever Sunday. And until that Great Day when Christ shall come, we only have a hint of the great glory that will one day be ours. May we so cherish and order our Lord's Days so that they truly are a taste of that glory yet to be realized. Amen.
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Resources Used: |
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The Holy Bible, New International Version. International Bible Society (1973, 1978, 1984) | ||
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Psm 092f |
25 January 98 | |