Psalm 17:15: “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; / I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.”

January 23rd, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

David looked forward to eternity and had a proper perspective of what true satisfaction was all about. He was not a man who overlooked the grace of God on his life on earth, but he longed even more for the future, when he would dwell eternally in God’s presence. The apostle John wrote in the New Testament of this same longing and what it means for the believer:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)

We find in this a promise of coming good, an expectation of new and better things. Or more simply, we find the promise of the scriptural word hope. In the New Testament, the word translated hope means “confident expectation.” Have you ever lost your joy because you lost your hope? Here is the uncomplicated antidote for the struggling believer—eternity. Many years ago I heard a story by writer Hendrik Willem van Loon:

High up in the north, in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It is 100 miles high and 100 miles wide. Once every 1000 years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by.

Life may be difficult and full of disappointments now, but we have an eternity of blessings and freedom and complete fellowship with our Creator to look forward to.

“LORD, help us today to keep our eyes on eternity and especially on You, the eternal God.”