This is a psalm by David, whom God used to write many psalms of the Bible and we have them today because of the great love of God. When I get to feeling low or "down in the dumps" as it were, I pick up the Psalms and start reading and mediating on them and before long I am feeling better. I am in better spirits as it were. By the way, God used men to write the Bible, just as He uses men and women who have been converted to Christ as witnesses for Him, telling other people how they were saved and thus how they, too, can be saved and have the joy and assurance of knowing they are going to heaven. 2 Timothy 3:16,17says, "All scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be Perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

By the way, as a side note, did you know that a person could be perfect? In fact, did you know that a person has to be perfect in the sight of God to enter heaven? A person will never be perfect in the sight of man but not in the sight of God. How does one become perfect in the sight of God? Listen very closely to this scripture. "But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God....For by one Offering He hath Perfected for ever them that are sanctified {set aside for God}" Hebrews 10:12,14.

You see, when Adam and Eve, who were created pure and holy and had fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden, disobeyed God in eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became alienated from God and thus became sinners, God wanted to find a way to make them pure and holy again so they could have fellowship with Him again and then live with Him forever when they expired. So there was only one way for Him to do this–sin must be paid for by death of an Innocent One and its blood sprinkled on the altar as it were. Hebrews 9:22 says, "And almost all things are by the law purged with Blood; and Without Shedding of Blood is no remission {forgiveness}."

The first evidence of this doctrine is found in Genesis 4:3-5. "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell." Cain brought a product of his own hands–such as good works. Abel built an altar, put wood under it, evidently struck flint against flint and lit a fire under the altar, after slaying an innocent lamb, thus shedding its blood, and offered a burnt sacrifice for his sins–the lamb thus dying in his place. Hebrews 11:4 says, "By Faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was Righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Evidently this practice of receiving forgiveness of sins from God was practiced by being handed down from mouth to mouth–from father to son–until God had Moses write it down in Leviticus. Then all through the Bible was the prophesy that one day God would send His only begotten Son into the world, born of a virgin without the instrumentality of man, having the Divine seed implanted in her womb (Matthew 1:18-21). Isaiah, looking forward to the Lord Jesus Christ dying one day as a Sacrificial Lamb, said in Isaiah 53:10,11, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be Satisfied."

Now I have showed you already the only way you can confront The Terrors of Death when they confront you–maybe when you almost have an automobile accident, like I did before I was converted to Christ in early January of 1960, or some other time of crisis or maybe even when the Shadow of Death crosses your windowpane just before it’s time for you to meet your Maker. God warns you not to wait that long in these words: "Turn you at My reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would have none of My reproof: I also will Laugh at our calamity; I will Mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord" Proverbs 1:23-29. Don’t bank on a death-bed conversion.

What about Repentance? Paul says salvation comes by Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:20,21). The publican exercised Repentance when he, in the temple, "standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" said Jesus in Luke 18:13,14. To be Justified is to be Saved, born again. No longer be Deceived–follow the publican’s example and be Justified.

Romans 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord {for salvation} shall be saved." You get what you ask for! Eternal life is a gift that can’t be paid for by us in any form. Jesus met all the demands of the law, died in our place, shedding His Blood, which Blood washes away our sins (Rev. 1:5), not water, not baptism. Also eternal life is not conditional life, conditioned on our helping Jesus save us or keep us saved, as we are kept by the power of God through faith (1 Peter 1:3-5), not through works or a combination of faith and works.