Can it be said of anyone else but God that his faithfulness endures forever?
Can you imagine that the creator of the world has promised to be faithful to us, his creation? Can you fathom of the faithfulness of the Son to the Father in his atoning work on the cross? We must praise him for this great and wonderful attribute.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 Jn. 1:9 CSB)
But Christ was faithful as a Son over his household. And we are that household if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope. (Heb. 3:6 CSB)
Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Heb. 10:23 CSB)
He is faithful in so many ways, and in all ways, forever. How could we ever cease to praise him? How could we not declare among the nations that they must praise him too? Let us join the psalmist in announcing to the nations his faithfulness and in giving him his due praise.
What God’s Faithfulness Means for Missionaries
I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out! (Lk. 19:40 CSB)
Since he is faithful, trust in him. We know that we cannot serve in the ministry of missions under our own strength and capacity, and we were never designed to do so. Our Lord is faithful, and he has promised to always be with us in the accomplishment of the task he has given us. So, we can trust in him to complete the task of missions through us and with us. We can and should rejoice in his faithfulness while seeking to honor him in our service. Furthermore, we must teach all the nations to glorify him for his faithfulness.
Since his faithfulness endures forever, never give up being obedient to his will. Whenever we are discouraged or feel like we aren’t making any progress in the ministry of missions, we can rest in his enduring faithfulness. There is no rest in our own efforts and striving; it will always feel like we can never do enough or be good enough in missions work. But we can rest in the knowledge that Jesus is always faithful and just. He has accomplished everything that needs to be done to redeem his people from every nation of the earth, and so he sits at the right hand of the Father. Let us find our true rest in him and his faithfulness.
Conclusion
When I began to personally meditate on missions through the Psalms, I had no idea how appropriate they would be to my everyday ministry. I thought that there would surely be some kind of application since I knew that all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for all aspects of ministry. But I must confess that I was ignorant of the many significant direct connections between the Psalms and the ministry of missions.
Through meditating on the Psalms, we can learn to be more like the psalmists by seeking, treasuring, and obeying God’s words and commands (cf. Ps. 119). I believe that those are certainly some of the primary marks of a good missionary. It is a wonderful blessing from God to be able to learn and grow in ministry from the various forms of Scriptural writings. There is tangible clarity and specificity in the didactic passages. We receive rich context and examples from narrative passages. Furthermore, there is a profound depth in the expression of poetry and wisdom literature. Let us take the time to appreciate the multifaceted blessings and instructions that we have from God through his word.
Editor’s Note: This article is ninth and final installment in a series journeying through the psalms. Read the previous installment here.
