Friday, September 16, 2011

Proverbs 12:7 Remember This Old Hymn?

Today's verse brought this old hymn to mind:

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand....
All other ground is sinking sand.

I touched on this truth already this week, but in this world we live in today, it is something that I find encouraging to revisit. Solomon tells us that the triumph, the exaltation, the apparent getting-away-with-it-all of the wicked, is short-lived. It lasts only a little time. Remember when we were in chapter ten of Proverbs? Turn back with me to verse 25 --- As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.  (Ya gotta forgive the "passeth" and "thee" and "thou" in my notes . . . I'm partial to the King James!)  I've heard it said that a whirlwind in the desert can come upon a traveler very quickly, but it can be gone just as quickly.  It has changed the landscape a little, but really left no permanent mark.

By contrast, the righteous are portrayed as having a strong foundation; that even though death may remove us, we can have made a permanent change in the world, and in those who live in it. Our house shall stand. Our families can have a much different outcome than those who continue in sin and wickedness. I like how the tail end of Psalm 112:2 puts it: . . . the generation of the upright shall be blessed.

Isn't it wonderful how much is packed into the old hymns? Read the rest of this one:

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.



His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my Hope and Stay.



When He shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.


I know that sometimes I write in a humorous fashion, and I try to do things that will get your attention and direct it toward a thought or principle . . . but I am sincere about what I write, and I hope that it helps some of us. I know that the last verse there is my hope, as well --- to be found in Him, and stand before the throne, faultless because of what Christ did for us all.

2 comments:

  1. I love that hymn! I've been teaching my grandson the song about the Wise Man and the Foolish Man.

    "The wise man built his house upon the rock and the rain came tumbling down. The rain came down and the flood came up and the house on the rock stood fast." In the second verse the foolish man builds his house upon the sand, and it went "splat!" The third verse tells the little one to build his life on the Lord Jesus Christ. How simple, but how profound.

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  2. I am going to go put a hymn cd in. I could use the boost this morning. Thank you!

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