November 1, 2024 -- Psalm 16:1-2 -- Who is your truest friend?

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
    I have no good apart from you.”
As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
   in whom is all my delight.
Psalm 16:1-2 ESV

One of the strangest, most disorienting experiences of having moved from Ingersoll, ON to Moncton NB is the loss of deep friendship. While Carolyn and I lived in Ontario, we had a ready supply of good friends, church friends and deep friends. Deep friends are the ones on whom we could call at any hour of day or night and know they’d answer and care for us. Or, whenever they called us, we were ready to help in any way that was needed. Now, when a church service is done, many people speak with us, and are nice to us, but rarely, very rarely, do we ever receive a post-church dinner invitation. There are no “spontaneous friends” here, who will call and say, “I’m coming over”. Or who are ringing the doorbell, unannounced. To be fair, God has preserved some wonderful friendships in Ontario. Whenever we visit, we know we have an open invitation. Blessed be the Name of God, our strength and song!

Why mention this? Consider this Psalm. King David noted that first and foremost God is his refuge and his LORD. A refuge is a place you run to when troubles surround you. A safe place when enemies are attacking. You feel surrounded and hope is at a low ebb a refuge is a place where you can be restored and refreshed. God is the LORD—a tower of strength and the sole source of salvation. He coordinates all things so that His people will be built up in this precious faith.

Now, notice what he writes about fellow believers. They are the saints in the land, in whom is all his delight. Fellow believers experience God as the strength of their lives, the Captain of Salvation Who guards the soul and equips His people with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Fellow believers prop one another up in the way of God. Fellow believers are part of God's salvation plan. They interfere with your plans when you are bent on evil. They celebrate victories. They cry in the dust with you when it seems everything has crumbled to the ground.

When we have admitted our belief that God is the source of all power and that He is restoring me on my journey away from the chains of sin and the siren songs of temptation, it is important to know who He has placed in your life. Fellow Christians are the people who stand with you when your strength has failed. Fellow Christians help pick you up when you all others would mock. Deep Christian friends are those whose love for God is an inspiration. The saints, in whom is all your delight, will not abandon when you are in the mud of former sins. They are the iron sharpening iron, calling you back to faithfulness. They are the ones, crying with you, holding on to the hem of Jesus’s robe, asking Him for mercy and the much-needed fortitude to get up and start traveling forward again on the journey of salvation.

Over the last number of months Carolyn and I realize that God has broken our circle of close friends and disrupted our readily available supply of invitations so that our hearts and home can be open to the people He is placing in our life. Since moving to Moncton, and starting all over finding friends, we have found we have time for people who are new Christians. We have a hunger for socializing and there are post-incarcerated Christians who are starved for true friendships, with whom they can walk knowing they have also been and are being restored on their journey to freedom in Jesus. Our lives have been immeasurably enriched. Thanks be to God for the faithful friends who stay in touch. Thanks be to God for the new friends He has gifted to us.

God, my Father, Who is kind and patient like You? There is no one and nothing else in all creation that is like You! Thank You for the new life You give me in Jesus Christ. Thank You for the Spirit You have sent to live with me, guaranteeing the salvation of Jesus Christ will be perfected in me. Blessed God, thank You for the deep friends You have given who stand with me even when every one else runs away. Thank You for new friends whose friendship is delight as together we walk in the light of Your salvation, journeying to freedom from sin and life-controlling issues. Amen.

https://youtu.be/R8mLTdQQXg4?si=Tu6YHmkHCGKn9jU6 Shane and Shane Psalm 16 (Fullness of Joy)

Copyright © 2024 Sh'ma Christian Ministries, All rights reserved.