He Will Be Our Guide, Even Unto Death

For this God is our God for ever and ever:

He will be our Guide even unto death. 

Psalm 48:14

Life is a journey. There is a time to be born and a time to die (Ecclesiastes 3:2a) and for some of us there’s not a lot of time in between.

So what should we do with our time here on earth? Paul writes in his letter to the Hebrews: Let us run with patience (or endurance) the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1b)

And Solomon at the end of all his vain pursuits declares:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

What are His commandments?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40)

In order to love God, we need to know Him, and in order to know Him we need to come to Him.

For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6b)

God says in Hosea 4:6a My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:

And in Jeremiah 9:24 He says: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

Not only do we need to know Him, we need to be reconciled to Him.

Isaiah 53:6a All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; 

John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Isaiah 53:6b and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

2 Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

And now as we run our race, turn to Him for guidance.

For this God is our God for ever and ever:

He will be our Guide even unto death. (Psalm 48:14)

And though we age, and our bodies deteriorate, remember that our Redeemer lives!

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. (J0b 19:25-27)

Even in our dying moments, we need not be afraid.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1)

And earth has no sorrow, heaven cannot heal.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelations 21:4)