Saturday 15 December 2018

Psalm: Psalm 18:1-19

 Background

Over the past two days in our readings, Malachi has pictured God challenging his people. Those who lead worship in the Temple are to be purified. Those who ill-treat others will be judged. Those who cheat God by not bringing their full tithe to the Temple are challenged to repent and trust.

Today’s reading starts with another complaint from God, namely that his people are being arrogant by suggesting that those who disregard him seem to do better in life and that it’s useless to serve and obey God.

God’s response is to point to those who live faithfully despite all the pressures against them. They are the ones who, in God’s time, will be the treasured ones, and the distinction between those who truly serve God and those who don’t will become very clear.

In our readings, Malachi has been looking forward to God’s coming. It will clearly be a day of judgement, but it will also be a day of great hope. As we read these, the final words of our Old Testament, we’re taken forward into the New Testament and into the coming of Christ. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, who learned of his coming while serving as a priest in the Temple, sings of the rising sun coming from heaven (Luke 1:78), just as Malachi promised (4:2). When we think of John the Baptist and his ministry of challenge and hope, are we to see the coming of Elijah, making ready the way of the Lord? Both Moses and Elijah, who are named in today’s passage, are present with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus is coming. John the Baptist and the prophets Zechariah and Malachi are messengers of his new covenant.

To Ponder:

• The heart of the covenant is that God will be our God and that we will be God’s people, trusting ourselves to God and walking in God’s ways. In a few weeks’ time, as the New Year dawns, many people will be renewing their covenant with God. What might the words “I am no longer my own but yours” mean for you next year?
• Today’s hymn from Singing the Faith, ‘Lo he comes with clouds descending’, looks forward with great anticipation to the final coming of Christ. How easily do you identify with its theme?