New Year Meditation

In the great mercy and goodness of God we were privileged to end the old year and begin a new year again. It is indeed proper for us to exclaim with Jeremiah: ‘It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.’ (Lamentations 3:22). If the Lord had entered into judgment with us, we all would have been destroyed from before His face. But 0, the miracle of God's longsuffering. We may still have a place upon God's footstool.

God grant that our souls may bow down before Him, and that we may receive eyes and hearts to observe God's blessings and to take them to heart.

We again stand before an unknown future. This is true for our own persons, but also for our families, for our congregations, for this nation and people, and for the whole world. We have not read the book of God's council, and we do not know what this year will bring forth.

May it please God to view us in Christ and remember us in Him. May it be a year of the Lord's good pleasure. May the Lord return to Zion in compassion, and cause us to ask and seek for the Lord. May it please him to dwell and to work in our midst and in our hearts by his Spirit. O, may the truth of God be applied effectually to the hearts and consciences of young and old, great and small. May God for his own Name's sake perform wonders of grace, as we read in Isaiah 55:13, ‘Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.’

May many here and in every place be drawn out of the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of God's eternal love; — called from death to life; enemies reconciled to God; the ungodly justified. May the Lord count his people worthy to lose all and to win Christ, establishing them upon that firm foundation of the apostles and prophets, of which Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone.

May God's people receive rich ministrations from Christ, and taste communion with God the Father, so that they may live to God's honor.

May the Lord work effectually this year with His Spirit among Jews and heathens, to bring them to the knowledge of Christ.

The Lord bless all the labors everywhere, also the lessons in our Catechism classes for our children, and graciously extend His Kingdom. The Lord grant that we together may seek the welfare of Jerusalem. The Lord bless the congregations inwardly and outwardly, and crown us with His goodness and tender mercy. May the Lord spare us for and with each other and prepare us to one day meet God in peace and righteousness, and to be satisfied with His divine likeness.

May the Lord remember the needs of the nation, the people and the rulers. These are serious times, but may it please God in wrath to remember mercy and not give us over to the destructions of war. May He remember the needs of our boys and men who are already called up and the others who will have to serve their country. May God grant humbleness and contrition amid all the blows inflicted, and that, in all we shall have to undergo and live through in this new year we may experience what we read in Psalm 46:1.

This psalm was written when Jerusalem was beseiged by Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and when this king was defeated by the hand of the mighty God of Jacob in the days of king Hezekiah.

This Psalm has become a favorite battle song and a song of consolation for the Church of God. The small flock has often sung this song and comforted itself during days of oppression. Luther sang it after them, when he prepared himself to attend the conference at Augsburg in 1529. We have this occasion to thank for his hymn: ‘A mighty fortress is our God.’

In a few words, but which contain so much, the psalmist declares what God is for His people.

There is a general providence of God which extends to all people. The whole world is included in this. By virtue of common grace the Lord upholds and maintains the world. See Psalm 36:6, ‘0 Lord, thou preservest man and beast.’

Matth. 5:45, ‘He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’ God cares for the creation, but he also upholds it. Man would perish in despair if this were not so.

But there is also a particular or special Providence, and this extends to God's Church; to the elect of the Father; — the purchased ones by the blood of Christ; and the sealed ones by the Holy Ghost.

For them Christ is all, and in all. (Col. 3:11.) Out of his fulness they all receive grace for grace. (John 1:16.)

When it is stated here that God is a refuge and strength we may take this in its fullest sense.

It is true of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

God is a refuge and strength only in Christ. Outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire and everlasting burnings, with which no sinner can dwell.

God is accessible in Christ. Only through Christ can we come to God. As a Surety Christ satisfied Divine justice, and through him the way to the Father is disclosed and opened.

But how shall this way to the Father ever be used, without the work and the application of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit makes alive. He glorifies Christ in the heart; creates a heartfelt need; encourages and stirs up the heart, and gives it liberty and freedom to come to God through Christ.

God is a refuge: for poor sinners; for those worthy of death and condemnation. For those who have no place left to go.

Numbers 35:12 — cities of refuge.

For whom were the cities of refuge?

For the manslayer.

For all manslayers? No, only for those who had no intention to kill a person.

Zion is also spoken of as a refuge in Isaiah 14:32, ‘The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall betake themselves unto it.’

Many places in the Holy Scriptures teach us that God is a refuge.

In the wounds of Christ there is shelter against the curse of the Law;

against the wrath of God;

against the darts of Satan.

God himself is a refuge at all times,

in all circumstances, outward and inward.

a never failing refuge; he will never put any to shame.

in trouble and distress;

in the face of death.

Blessed is he who may take refuge to God by faith. God is also our strength.

The word strength here also implies a stronghold or a fortress.

A rock is a stronghold. It is secure; high, may be seen from a great distance; offers safety; there one finds protection. It also refreshes a person — water came forth from the rock. Butter, honey and oil.

We have no might against this great company, (2 Chronicles 20:12). We are so weak in ourselves. This is evident in the temptations of Satan; in the spiritual warfare against Satan, the world, and our own flesh.

God is also our strength in times of trial, oppression and trouble. Only God can protect and uphold us in times of mourning, sorrow, crosses and trouble. David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (I Sam. 30:6).

May that be the portion and experience of God's dear people in this year. And that it was a year of God's good pleasure for many among young and old, great and small.

I hope that the Lord may apply these words for the welfare of your soul for this year and for ever and ever.

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