Works

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. -Psalm 62:1

I believe in works.  James said it quite well when, out of frustration I suspect, he penned, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Visit James 2:17

It is. But.

This snippet of a Psalm by David is an early reminder.  Works are good, but they will not save us. Never have. Never will.

Although it is written in a completely different context than those of us that are Christ trusters and believers might think and see through our lenses, still what he says rings true. David seems to be writing in the context of Absalom’s (David’s son) rebellion against him, the beauty of the Psalms, including this one, is that they can and have been applied to people’s circumstances throughout history.

David had done all he could to get out of this trouble. Finally he admits that ‘from him alone comes my salvation.’ 

At a lot of us, OK, mainly me, plus a mess of other people, have spent too much time trying to secure our salvation, thinking that if only we could work/pray/worship/believe/harder, we’ll get there.  Nothing wrong with any of those things, as I said, I believe in works.

But they won’t get you there.  If you can claim the name of Christian in any way shape or form, please know that he work has already been done.  As Paul wrote in Ephesians “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Visit Ephesians 2:8,9)

Let me repeat these words, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Or as David wrote some 1000 years earlier, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation…”

Yes, I believe in works, we need to do them. But I believe in and trust in Jesus.  Nothing is more important.

And let the works spring from that.