The Psalmist had this testimony pertaining to God. “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death” (Psalm 68:20). In this brief statement he addresses a singular distinction about God compared to the false gods of the world. He testifies that our God is the God of salvation. The world has its gods, and they are many. But none of them can save. They are deaf and dumb, unresponsive to prayer, and unable to deliver. They have no power for they are no gods. Only our God can save and deliver from death.
Believer, have you ever considered the great privilege and blessing it is to know the one and only God, the living God. Our God created all things. “Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11). By his great power, all things consist (Colossians 1:17) and he upholds all things by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3). God is the Creator and Sustainer of this universe, our planet, and all those that live on it. Our God alone can make this claim.
Not only is our God the God of creation, but he is also the only God who can deliver from death. Death is the inevitable result of sin. The prophet Ezekiel testified of both God’s ownership of mankind and mankind’s accountability to him as Creator. “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). The apostle Paul affirms “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:21) holding forth death as the just compensation for our sin. But our God delivers from death. No other god can make this claim. And so he declares “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22).
Our God became flesh and suffered death for us “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14). With his shed blood he paid sin’s penalty, death, that we might not see death, but have eternal life. This is the very promise of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Speaking to one of his disciples, Jesus said “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
Believer, “this God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death” (Psalm 48:14). He is our God not just until we die, but beyond death, even for ever and ever! Death for the believer just brings us into the eternal presence of our God “for we are confident…and willing to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Friend, do you know this God? There is only one God as John instructs, “and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (I John 5:12).
From the Chaplain 