Old Testament Scripture Reading: Psalms 67:1 – 7 ( KJV)
Psa 67:1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
Psa 67:2 That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
Psa 67:3 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
Psa 67:4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
Psa 67:5 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
Psa 67:6 Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
Psa 67:7 God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
New Testament Scripture Reading: Romans 8:31 – 39 (KJV)
God’s Everlasting Love
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Transforming Power Statements:
1) The Psalmist understands and declares the actual stance of God with respect to both the saved and the lost and sings praises to God with the understanding that there is only one true God, Who is perfect in everything (and that beyond human imagination!) yet, He loves all of the people, even though they are sinful and do all that they can to avoid Him, because of the fear of how such a God might judge them.
2) It can be seen that with a true understanding of the character of God, it is an unchanging characteristic of His nature that He loves all people the same and has not only displayed His great love to everyone, but has also published it in His Holy Word, and selected a chosen set of believers to manifest these facts to all the rest. (i.e. preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth!)
3) The Apostle Paul likewise had to come to this same knowledge after it was displayed through the sacrificial death of Jesus the Christ, (and His victorious Resurrection) that God is evidently immeasurably “For mankind” not against them, because what Jesus has provided for us is proof positive that there is NOTHING that can separate us from the LOVE OF GOD!