EVEN TO THE END

Psalm 48
EVEN TO THE END
For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. (v.14)

Nothing lasts forever. Health supplements may help you live longer, service contracts may help your appliances last longer, but no one and nothing last forever. Even vast civilisations rise and fall, as men and movements come and go. The world as we know it has a beginning, and it will have an end.

When we think about it, nothing is for ever and ever. That is, except God. The psalmist reaches this grand affirmation at the end of a song that celebrates the security of Zion. The city on the mountain enjoys God's special favour. The people there are his chosen. He will look after his own. No other city in the world has been so utterly devastated. At least twice razed to the earth, in 586 B.C. and again in 70 A.D., it still stands today: Jerusalem.

So it is with the Jewish people. Neither the Babylonians in the past nor the Nazis in recent history had been able to annihilate the people, though they almost succeeded. God's promise to preserve his people still holds true.

Through Israel's Messiah, Jesus, we have also become God's people. So the promise now extends to us. He is our God for ever and ever. As he has always been faithful, so he will continue to be. He will be our guide even to the end.

How does it feel to come to the end of our life? Will that final part of our journey be one into the unknown, travelled alone, without a guide or a companion? We need not fear. The LORD has promised to walk with us till the very end. I have witnessed several death-bed scenes, and realized how important it is, both to the dying person and to his loved ones, to know where one is going. When God is our Guide, we have the assurance it will be for ever and ever, even to the end.

What God begins, he sees to the end.