OUR GOD SHALL COME

Have you ever stood at the railway station, at the quayside, or at the airport, watching the eager, expectant faces of those who await their loved ones? What smiles, what embraces, what tears of relief, when the longed for reunion takes place! It is a very faint foreshadowing of the joyous meeting of our Lord Jesus Christ with His people. We are converted “to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven”, 1 Thess. 1. 9, 10.

Then will come the day of review and reward for His servants; He says, “behold, I come quickly: and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be”, Rev. 22. 12. He comes to take account of His servants, and to show what each one of us has gained.

The psalmists knew nothing of Christ’s coming to the air to snatch away His own as described in 1 Thessalonians 4. 13-18. But, like the prophets, they frequently warn of the unparalleled tribulation that the nation of Israel must yet suffer and the coming of the Lord to deliver the godly and punish the wicked among them. Then the godly remnant of Israel will exclaim, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us”, Isa. 25. 9.

In Psalm 50, God calls heaven and earth to witness His fiery coming in judgment. For centuries He has been silent, but He will gather His saints, the godly, to instruct them, vv. 1-15; and He warns the ungodly of impending judgment, vv. 16-23.

Those who have made a covenant with God by sacrifice are Israel, the nation who solemnly pledged at Sinai, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient”, Exod. 24. 7. But this Mosaic covenant they repeatedly broke. Therefore God will make a new covenant with Israel dependent wholly on His own faithfulness, Jer. 31. 31-34. At the Lord’s Supper we learn that believers today benefit by that new covenant.

We gather together now, like Israel, to hear our Lord’s instruction, v. 5; Matt. 18. 20, and to anticipate our future gathering together unto Him in the air, 2 Thess. 2. 1. “Watch ye therefore … lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping”, Mark 13. 35, 36.

“Maranatha! (Our Lord is coming)”, 1 Cor. 16. 22.