First Sunday in Advent – Friday

Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show Me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. – Psalm 16:10-11.

These words were written by David, but not concerning David. It was the eternal Son of God – the promised Son of David, the Messiah – that spoke these words by the mouth of David. The Holy Ghost tells us this through the Apostles Peter and Paul, as you may read in Acts 2:25-31 and Acts 13:35-37.

With these words the Son of God spoke of His resurrection, which was to follow soon after His death on the cross. And the Son of God actually did what He had promised to do. He paid the penalty of our guilt on the cross; and on the third day after His death He arose. As our Savior and Substitute, Christ overcame and did away with death on our behalf. Through the resurrection of Christ, we sinners have the assurance that we are righteous before God; dying in our corruptible bodies, we have been given life in Him; deserving only damnation by our sins, we have been saved by the God-Man, Jesus Christ.

This was foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament, and proclaimed by the evangelists and apostles in the New Testament. And whoever, through the gracious and powerful operation of the Holy Ghost in the Gospel, by true faith accepted this in ages gone by or whoever accepts it now – whoever comforted his soul with it then, or does so now – really possessed all these things then and possesses them now.

My dear Christian, look alone to Christ in faith, and rejoice in what He has done for you!

PRAYER. – Not I, O Lord Jesus, not I must overcome, nor can I overcome, the cruel power of my sin and of death and of judgment and of damnation, and save myself. No, all this Thou, Thou, hast done for me. For this I render Thee heartfelt thanks. Grant, I beg Thee, O Jesus, that I may look alone to Thee, and trust and rely on what Thou hast done for me, and what Thy sacred Word dost say. Thus, Thy righteousness, Thy life, shall be mine; Thy blessedness my own. O risen and living Lord and Savior, I put my trust in Thee. Amen.

This is a sight that gladdens; what peace it doth impart!

Now, nothing ever saddens the joy within my heart.

No gloom shall ever shake, no foe shall ever take,

The hope which God’s own Son in love for me hath won.

—

Now hell, its prince, the devil, of all their pow’r are shorn,

Now I am safe from evil, and sin I laugh to scorn.

Grim Death with all his might cannot my soul affright;

He is a pow’rless form, howe’er he rave and storm.

Hymn 192, 3. 4.