Week 9—Saturday Psalm 38:3-8
Week 9—SATURDAY
“THE HEALTH OF THE BODY
DEPENDS UPON THE SOUL”
We look again at the fact that the “flesh”—the material world—was made by him and for him. “These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the prime source of all God’s creation” (Rev. 3:14, NEB). Jesus is the “Amen”—the last word! Whoever has the first or the intermediate word, Jesus always has the last word. He is the “Alpha”—the Christ of the Beginning, and the “Omega”—the Christ of the Final Word. He is the Amen! And he is “the prime source of God’s creation.” His touch is upon all creation; everything is made to work in his way and no other way.
He who formed our frame
Has made man a whole;
And how the health of the body
Depends upon the soul.
There is another passage: “And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came to be, and we through him” (1 Cor. 8:6, NEB). “All things came to be, and we”—“All things” and “we.” Things and persons are made to operate in his Way. We have thought that things are neutral, can be used in any direction—good, bad, or indifferent. But they are not. This pregnant line of poetry expresses the fact that things have a bias: “All things betray thee, who betrayeth me,” and that bias was put there by “me”—by “Jesus Christ through whom all things came to be.” The Revised Standard Version’s “in everything God works for good with those who love him” is better than the King James, and yet the old had a truth in it: “All things work together for good to them that love God.” “All things work together for good”—there is a bias toward good in all things, put there by their Author. If people cut down forests from the mountains, and ruthlessly and selfishly exploit them, then floods will ruin the valleys where the exploiters live. That law is written in the constitution of things.
O Father God, you have hedged us about to save us from ourselves. Your laws are your love—your preventive love to protect us from ruin. The rules in this school of living are hard, but they are redemptive. Help us to have sense and obey them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Since Jesus is “The Amen, prime source of God’s creation,” He shall be the prime source of all my thoughts and acts.