You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
25 I have been young [na`ar],
and now am old [zaqen]; yet have I not seen [ra'ah] the righteous [tsaddiyq]
forsaken [`azab], nor his seed [zera`] begging [baqash] bread [lechem]. KJV-Interlinear
25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the
righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. ESV
Many will criticize this verse unfairly, because they do not read it correctly. The key to this verse is in the word righteous, tsaddiya, which means just and lawful. And, if on the one hand there are righteous people, then on the other hand, in contrast, there are unrighteous people.
So the meaning of this verse rests in the definition of the word righteous.
We have already seen in other studies, that the word wicked applies to anyone who lives a pattern of their life outside of God’s will.
That includes believers and unbelievers alike.
Understanding how it applies to unbelievers is easy, since they have not believed in Christ, and therefore have not received credit for the righteousness of God, in their life.
Believers on the other hand, have received the righteousness of God, but believers have additional requirements, responsibilities, and obligations, to live their life accordingly. And the pattern of their spiritual life, demands that they live their life in accordance with God’s mandates for the spiritual life.
God’s mandates are very simple. Once a person has believed in Christ they are saved forever. But they are also expected to grow up in the spiritual life, which means their spiritual life has to be a functional spiritual life. And a functional spiritual life requires confession of sin in order to live in fellowship, which is the environment in which the spiritual life functions.
The legal requirements for righteousness or twofold. First the individual has to be saved by believing in Christ. That is a given.
The second requirement, is that they must advance to spiritual maturity, which is the process of spiritual completion of one’s life.
Therefore, the righteous person is one who has fulfilled or is pursuing both of these prerequisites.
And this verse applies to the believer who is advancing in their spiritual life.
David was old when he wrote this Psalm. He had the advantage of hindsight and looking back on his life, as well as the history of the people around him for the many decades prior.
He saw the wealthy and the poor. He saw those who were positive towards Bible doctrine, and God, and the Savior, and the responsibilities and obligations expected from the spiritual life. And he also saw those people who were negative towards Bible doctrine, and God, and the Savior, and the responsibilities and obligations of the spiritual life which they ignored or neglected, or took for granted.
Blessings pour out from God onto spiritually advancing believer.
Therefore, if an individual is positive towards God, positive towards Christ, positive towards learning Bible doctrine through instruction, and is genuinely and legitimately pursuing their spiritual life, without pretense and without a phony agenda, then God’s blessing is on the menu for their life.
This does not mean there won’t be hardships along the way, but this does mean that no matter what the difficulties the spiritually mature believer encounters in life, then God will provide for those difficulties and get them through them.
As for the negative believer, then if that person chooses to live their life in the same way that unbelievers live their life, then they have no right to expect blessings from God, when they in fact ignore God.
The choice of how your life will be is always up to you.
This is the devil’s world. And you will face difficulties, trials, tribulations, burdens, and hard times, sooner or later in your life.
With God, you will have a way through any and all of them.
Without God, you are on your own.
And you always have the choice of which type of life you want to live.
These studies are a part of the massive daily study web site at DailyBibeStudy.Org, and are written, so that you can come to Christ if you have not done so already, and therefore not be lost forever.
And if you have already believed in Christ, then these studies are written so you can learn and understand and grow in your spiritual life, so that you can come to the full knowledge of Christ, so that you can fulfill your meaning and purpose in life as God intended for you, and so you can qualify for a phenomenal eternal reward which you will have forever. To ignore this opportunity to pursue a daily study means you will be incomplete, unfulfilled and you will lose out, big time.
The Daily Bible Study is online, making it possible as never before in all of human history, to advance in ones relationship with God, through Christ, and to complete yourself beyond your imagination.
But you have to decide to make that commitment. No one else can study for you. You have to do that yourself.
To receive notice of each days Bible Study, please go to my twitter page and sign up.
