for the week of Sept. 6, 2026

Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared. -Psalm 119:38, NIV

This past Sunday we talked about how our faith is not to be a transaction. Then we get a verse like Psalm 119:38 which kind of contains an implied “if/then” statement. “If you fulfill your promise to me, then you will be feared.” So what’s going on here? Does God work that way? Transactionally? Should I approach my faith that way?

The reality is the inclination to approach faith as a transaction is something most people do anyway. “God, give me the promotion and I’ll give more at church!” “God, fix my relationship and I’ll pray more!” “God, heal my sickness and I”ll tell people about you!” The way we approach God may sometimes suggest that we think he is more like a genie in a lamp rather than His own person. He even told Moses that He is not definable by human terms. Moses asks: who should I say sent me? God replies: “I AM WHO I AM.” Tell them I Am has sent you.” (Exodus 3:13-14, Paraphrase.)

All we need to do is look at the story of such people as Job, Moses, and even Christ Jesus to know that God doesn’t work in transactional terms. Job was righteous and God Himself even highlights Job as a model believer. Job still loses everything. Moses led the people out of Egypt, gave them God’s law, and led them in the wilderness. Moses dies before the Israelites take the Promised Land. Christ was sinless, the Son of God, God in the flesh, and He is still betrayed by his friends, beaten by Rome, mocked by the religious powers, and killed for a crime He didn’t commit.

So what do we do about what we know of God and what the psalmist expresses in Psalm 119:38? The Psalmist in the 119th Psalm focuses on God’s Word: the expression of who God is and what He wants from us. Over and over again in the 119th Psalm, the message is God’s word is worthy of our delight and our reverent obedience. In verse 38, the Psalmist expresses that if God fulfills His promise or word to His servant, then many will fear God.

The idea is not a tit-for-tat relationship, but rather the expectation that when God acts in accordance with His word, the believer will be blessed and testify to God’s goodness.

You and I have stories of God’s goodness to tell, and we have the fulfillment of God’s promises in Christ Jesus (see 2 Cor. 1:20). Let’s boldly go and witness to the God’s good Word to us.

May it be so,

Matt

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Announcements and Other Thoughts

Wednesday Groups Begin This Week - 5:30-7:00

Ladies in the Fellowship Hall

Men in Room 202 (Pastor Tim’s Old office)

(NEW!) Youth in Room 207, (Current Youth Sunday School Room)

Childcare available on Wednesday Nights

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Wednesday Night College Group

8:30-10:00pm at Pastor Matt and Becca’s House

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Thursday Morning Ladies Bible Study9:30-11:00am in the Fellowship Hall