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The Results of Obedience

Provision

15 I will abundantly bless her provision;
I will satisfy her needy with bread.

As was noted earlier, our recognition of God's provision is a first step toward our being prepared for Him when He comes. Here, we see again the way in which these Psalms present us with a progression, a path that leads to righteousness. We have only two steps remaining in that progression, and in this promise of God, we are brought right back to the second step (Ps 121). As we come into obedience, look at God's response! He will belss our provision. As we obey in seeking His kingdom, He will provide beyond our imagining.

Mt 6:33 - But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (KJV)

Why Bread?

Recognizing that we are seeing here an example of Hebraic parallelism, we can begin to understand by looking at the other half of the verse. The bread is another view of provision. In Palestine as no other place, bread is seen as the source of life. It is the primary foodstuff, the critical means of sustenance. God is promising to come through even for our most basic needs.

Bread is also representative of what is our daily portion, our daily experience. Bread of sorrow is our lot when sorrow is our daily experience. In that regard, God is telling us that the most needy among us will know His provision as our daily experience. Bread is intended to be a reminder to us of His continual care for us, even when we don't deserve it.

Jn 6:35 - I am the bread of life. Who comes to Me will not hunger, who believes in Me will not thirst.

Consider this: Jesus declared Himself the bread of life. If the bread of sorrow reflects a daily experience of sorrow, Christ is telling us that to abide in Him is to know the daily experience of life. Real life, worthy of the name life.

Mk 6:11 - Give us this day our daily bread.

Mt 5:45 - God causes the sun to shine on both evil and good, and He sends rain to both righteous and unrighteous people.

God provides for us, even when we have not yet come into obedience. How much moreso when we draw closer to His desire for us?

Finally, the offer of bread is the offer of friendship. The accepting of that bread is the accepting of friendship. It is a great insult to refuse the bread that is offered you. Is this perhaps why Jesus told His disciples not to bring any bread with them on their journey? It left no possibility that they would be full, and so reject the offer of bread. It left no room for this unintended rudeness to become an obstacle to the message of the Gospel.

Mk 6:8 - Jesus told His disciples not to take bread or money with them as they journeyed.

All of these things we should bear in mind as we come to the communion table. Each time we come to communion, God is declaring once more His friendship with us. Remember also, that Christ's call was not just for the yet to be established, once a month church sacrament. It was to be every time you break bread. It was to be a daily remembrance, as our belief in Him is a daily partaking in true life. Every time we take sustenance, we are called to remember Him who provided, and to remember the life He has provided us above and beyond this present time.

Answered Prayer

The next thing we find resulting from obedience is answered prayer. This verse is a direct answer to the prayer that was offered up in verse 9. In that verse, the request was "Lord, do..." Here, the answer comes: "I will..." Why? Because the prayer of an obedient believer cannot but be offered in obedience to the will of God. As we learn to walk and live in obedience with His command, as we learn to fulfill our role as servant of the Most High God, our will is being aligned with His will. Answered Prayer is never carte blanche. The prayer offered in opposition to the will of God is not going to prevail. The prayer that is an expression of God's will is not going to fail.

The key to prevailing prayer is obedience.

Messiah!

But the greatest result of obedience is the coming of Messiah! This was the great result of David's obedience, Solomon's obedience, and God's obedience to His own word. In the day this Psalm was written, it remained a promise on the part of God, but a promise that David knew was a certainty, as we have seen. Having God's promise, he knew Messiah would come, and so did all the faithful that came after.

The Horn

The horn is symbolic of power, honor, and dominion. Here, God is promising that such power, honor, and dominion will be found in David. Yet, David is dead. We are looking at the dedication of the Temple that his son Solomon built. David is no more. Clearly the promise applies elsewhere.

Lk 1:69 - God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David.

Not just salvation, but salvation in power! God is true to His promises. What He had promised to David, He fulfilled, just as David knew He would. That salvation which God wrought comes in dominion. It is victorious! It cannot be defeated!

The Lamp

The lamp is first symbolic of guidance. In this respect, Jesus came as the Light of the world. He came as the One who would guide us to salvation.

Jn 1:9 - There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

Ps 119:105 - Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.

Our conscience is also spoken of as God's lamp. It serves to guide us as it searches out the truth of our motivations, and our actions.

Pr 20:27 - The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching his innermost parts.

However, more appropriately to this verse, the lamp is also symbolic of a successor, a son to carry on the line. It is God's blessing on the righteous to give them sons to carry on the family. This is reminiscent of Ps 128, which spoke of God's blessing, giving us happiness in giving us family. It is God's curse upon the wicked to cut off this heritage. Often in Scripture we read that He intends to cut off all memory of this one or that one whose sins have risen to the heavens.

Pr 13:9 - The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked goes out.

Job 18:5 - Indeed the light of the wicked goes out.

It is in this respect (that of a son and a successor) that Jesus once more fulfills the prophesies of David. This was the heir David knew would come.

1Ki 11:36 - 'But to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may have a lamp always before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen for Myself to put My name.'

Indeed, David has a lamp ever before God, for Jesus is that lamp, and He is eternally God and with God. Why was David so blessed? Why David's line above all others? What was it about him that led God to carry the line of promise through his descendants?

1Ki 15:4-5

4 But for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem; 5 because David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.

It was obedience. David had learned obedience, and God blessed it. This is exactly what we have been seeing throughout this Psalm. This is the example David leaves to us, the reason for his being in the histories. He serves to show us what obedience looks like, to show us what obedience can be - when combined with faith, and to show us how rich are the benefits of that obedience.

The Crown

We saw in the last section how Ezekiel prophesied concerning the line of David. The time came when God determined that the throne must be vacated until the rightful king would come. In this, the Psalm looks farther still. Messiah has come, indeed, yet He will come again. This time, however, He comes in victorious power.

Rev 19:12 - His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. (KJV)

At His coming, His enemies will indeed be clothed with shame, an eternal shame. Many there will be who will spend an eternity in regret over the opportunity they refused to grasp. None in that day will think themselves punished unjustly, but all will know that truly they deserved the sentence they received.

None will join in the heavenly army thinking they are finally receiving the just reward for all their efforts on behalf of the kingdom. No, we will one and all recognize that we are there in spite of ourselves. We will, at last, recognize what an amazing gift it is to be called a son of God.

On His head there will be many crowns. Surely, this is a sign of His being King of kings, and Lord of lords. He comes as sovereign ruler of all nations. However, I believe there is another aspect to those crowns, and it this aspect that causes them to shine: Each life that has been saved by His obedience to God's plan will be unto Him a crown. The crown will shine because of His obedience, and it will shine because the ones He has saved have been obedient to the faith they were given. They have persevered to the end, obedient to the call upon their lives!