His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord

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MW

Puritanboard Amanuensis
Hugh Binning, Works, p. 430:

Oft times men’s souls are perplexed and tossed about future events, careful for to-morrow. This is a great torment of spirit, it cutteth and divideth it, – putteth a man to his own providence, as if there were no God; but he that trusteth in God is established in this, “His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” He hath committed his soul to him, and why may he not his body? He hath nothing but his promise for eternal salvation, and may not that same suffice for temporal? He careth for me, saith faith, why then should we both care about one thing? He hath given his Son for me, the most precious gift which the world cannot match, and will he not with him give all these lesser things? And thus the believer encloseth himself within the Father’s love and providence, and is fixed, not fearing evil tidings; for what tidings can be evil, seeing our Father hath the sovereign disposing of all affairs, and knoweth what is best for us?
 
So helpful in that I have seen how God has provided EVERYTHING needful to my day to day needs for the many years I have been here in this plane of existence. :) I am grateful The Lord for tomorrow even when I still am, to a lesser extent than yesterday, "perplexed and tossed about future events".
 
I had gone through Psalm 112 recently and was thinking about these things.

Mr. Winzer, what do you make of the promise of temporal blessings, in light of the fact that not all Christians gain these things? It is argued that if God has given us great spiritual blessings, then how much more these temporal blessings? But clearly not all Christians gain these temporal blessings, especially the riches mentioned in Psalm 112. Would the answer simply be: that the temporal blessings are conditioned upon what God sees would be best for us in his care over us?

Practically speaking, how would one stir one's heart to this frame of mind? It is difficult since we are creatures of sight, and when we see that not all gain in temporal ways--instead that they gain as God sees best for them--the heart wants to argue: "But that means I cannot necessarily trust the Lord for these temporal blessings, since he might not see it fit to bless me with them!" Perhaps the best way is simply to move one's heart to trust in the Lord's goodness and meditate on how his wisdom is higher than ours?


On another practical note, I remember having the pleasure of meeting people whose faith was very much like this. It was very encouraging to see their faith in the Lord's goodness despite evil tidings that they heard.
 
Mr. Winzer, what do you make of the promise of temporal blessings, in light of the fact that not all Christians gain these things? It is argued that if God has given us great spiritual blessings, then how much more these temporal blessings? But clearly not all Christians gain these temporal blessings, especially the riches mentioned in Psalm 112. Would the answer simply be: that the temporal blessings are conditioned upon what God sees would be best for us in his care over us?

Good questions.

Exegetically we are constrained to observe the redemptive historical situation in the land of promise. This comes out in a number of Psalms. It brings us back to the theme of inherited rest in Christ. As we sing the Psalms as the word of Christ we should focus on what the land signified to the Lord of all things as a type of His worldwide dominion over all; then we can think of the inheritance of the saints in light, receiving the world in commission to be subdued by proclaiming Christ as Lord of all through the gospel; and finally of our own fulness of rest that we as believers individually receive in Christ.

The last point is especially pertinent to the question. Temporal blessing is not an end in itself, but is to be used to the glory of God and fulfilment of need. If we are exulting in the Lord, and have enough to satisfy the needs of ourselves and those depending on us, then we have the goal of the temporal blessings as promised, even if we lack the specific things in themselves. This was brought out in a devotional a number of posts back, in which Hugh Binning spoke about believers having contentment, which is what people seek for in riches but fail to find.
 
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