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365 Days with Philpot

September 26

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Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as Thou usest to do unto those that love Thy Name.
Psalm 119:132

There are especially two things that David saw God bestow upon His people: the one was God’s look, the other the discovery of God’s mercy: “Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as Thou usest to do unto those that love Thy Name.” But how does God look upon His people? Does not the Lord see all things? Do not His eyes run to and fro through the earth, beholding the evil and the good? Are not all secrets brought to light before His all-seeing eyes? Do not His eyelids try the children of men? Yes, indeed!

But still there is a favoured people upon whom the Lord looks in a special way, as David desired that the Lord would look upon him too. He looks upon them in Christ. He does not look upon them as they stand in themselves. If He saw them so, His wrath, anger and indignation would have to break forth against them. But He sees them in their eternal and living union with the Son of His love, as the apostle says, “complete in Him” (Col. 2:10).

He sees them as eternally standing in Christ, as bought with atoning blood and washed in the fountain opened in one day for all sin and uncleanness, as clothed in His glorious righteousness and loved with dying love. Therefore He does not see them as they are in themselves, wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, but sees them without spot and without blemish in the Son of His love. So the apostle expresses it in a few words: “Accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6).

David saw what a blessed state this was. When the Lord looked upon His people, He did not see them as poor, guilty, wretched sinners, but as standing in Christ, united to Christ and partaking of Christ, so that He could look upon them with delight in His beloved Son.

Reading: Numbers 23:13-24

To the reader…

You who sometimes do not dare to look up, because you know how you are in yourself, wretched, poor, blind and naked: do you fear the eye of Him Who sees all things, Whose eyes run to and fro through the earth and from Whom no secret remains hidden? If He looked upon you only in yourself, that fear would be justified, for then His anger would have to break forth.

But there is a people upon whom He looks in a special way: in Christ, bought with atoning blood, washed in the opened fountain, clothed in His righteousness. Seen so, they are without spot and without blemish, accepted in the Beloved. Let David’s prayer, then, be yours: “Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me.” Do not seek in yourself a reason to be accepted, but look to the Son of His love. For whoever He looks upon in Him, He looks upon with delight in His beloved Son.

With warm regards,
The compilers of jcphilpot.nl