redeem

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 130:7-8

O Israel, hope in the Lord!

    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

    and with him is plentiful redemption.

And he will redeem Israel

    from all his iniquities.

This verse uses “he”, “him”, and “his”.  Most refer to God; the last does not!  The phrase “his iniquities” refers to the masculine collective noun “Israel”, and can be modernized into “their iniquities” (See NIV).

When we share our faith, there is a seed to plant.  Our verse this week does it so well.  We must convey to them that God loved them so much that He made them, and that if you hope in that He will redeem you.  When the false narrative of evolution fails in their mind, when they see design in nature rather than chaos, that seed will grow.

The phrase “steadfast love” (ḥeseḏ) is covenantal.  We never earned it.  We were chosen.  Better said, we were designed, loved, and then made.

Ephesians 1:3-5

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us[a] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, . . .