Trusting And Receiving

Psalm 115:9-18

9O Israel, trust the LORD!

He is your helper; he is your shield.

10O priests of Aaron, trust the LORD!

He is your helper; he is your shield.

11All you who fear the LORD, trust the LORD!

He is your helper; he is your shield.

12The LORD remembers us,

and he will surely bless us.

He will bless the people of Israel

and the family of Aaron, the priests.

13He will bless those who fear the LORD,

both great and small.

14May the LORD richly bless

both you and your children.

15May you be blessed by the LORD,

who made heaven and earth.

16The heavens belong to the LORD,

but he has given the earth to all humanity.

17The dead cannot sing praises to the LORD,

for they have gone into the silence of the grave.

18But we can praise the LORD

both now and forever!

Praise the LORD!

We usually remember Caleb as one of the two spies who came back to Moses and advised the Israelites to go ahead with the invasion of the land of Canaan. The other ten spies gave a fearful report and advised the people not to invade. Because the Israelites followed the advice of the ten spies, they were condemned to wander in the wilderness for another generation.

Psalm 115 repeats two major truths: We should trust God, and God will bless us. This is what set Caleb and Joshua apart from the other ten spies. These two trusted God to bless the nation, despite the difficulties that lay ahead of them. While God judged the rest of his people for their unbelief, he promised to bless Caleb and Joshua for their faith and courage.

The second time we meet Caleb is forty-five years later when he reminds Joshua of the blessing God had promised (Joshua 14:6-15). He was still trusting God to bless! And, because he asked, he was given the hill country of Hebron, south of Jerusalem. Of course, there was a slight hitch: Enemies were still alive and well in that area. But the eighty-five-year-old Caleb responded, “If the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said” (verse 12).

The presence and promise of the Lord were all Caleb needed, and that’s all we need to face life’s challenges as well.

Sure I must fight if I would reign;

Increase my courage, Lord;

I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,

Supported by thy word.

ISAAC WATTS

Notable Quotable

“One by one the singers in the consecrated choir of saints steal away from us, and we miss their music. Thank God, they have gone above to swell the harmonies of the skies, but as far as we are concerned, we have need to sing all the more earnestly because so many songsters have left our choirs.”

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON