God: The Fountain of All Blessing
Looking to a New Year in Faith
“Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.” (Psalm 128:1–2)
The beginning of a new year inevitably brings with it numerous thoughts of change and reorientation. The new year is a time that lends itself naturally to reflection, to pondering the path of our feet to see what elements of our lives are good and beneficial or what parts need to be adjusted and let go (Prov. 4:26). This in itself is of course a good and fine thing, especially in a culture that is increasingly harried, frantic, and burdened. Yet, as with everything, there is a way to go about this business that’s more troublesome than helpful, like trying to rake leaves in a hurricane or put the lid on a box full of crickets.
The way to which I am referring has to do with depending on carnal rather than spiritual means, with falling back on human rather than divine help. In our zeal to improve ourselves, in other words, we might very quickly find that we are working against ourselves. We might find that, despite our resolve, all our efforts are “vanity and a striving after wind” (Eccl. 2:11).
The difference between these two outcomes lies in the difference between Jericho and Ai (Josh. 6–7), which is to say, between going up with the Lord’s blessing versus going up without it. As the story of Scripture makes abundantly clear, these are the only two ways to live — either in the flesh or in the Spirit, under the blessing of God or under the condemnation of God, by faith or by unbelief. The one thing we cannot do is opt out of this dichotomy. This is the way reality is structured, whether we like it or not.
God: The Principal Agent
This being the case, it’s worth remembering where fruitfulness actually comes from. And to give you a hint, it’s not from “traditional values” or the supposedly unconquerable resolve of the human spirit. Rather, fruitfulness comes from God Himself:
“Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.” (Ps. 128:1–2)
Fruitfulness, then, comes as a result of fearing the Lord and walking in His ways. It is a blessing rather than a reward, a gift rather than a wage. Fruitfulness, we could say, is simply the gracious overflow of a life yielded to God, the fall harvest of seed sown in faith. It is not therefore something mechanical or transactional, dispensed impersonally like cash from an ATM. But it is sure, dependable, and trustworthy: if we give ourselves to God, He will make us fruitful: “Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD” (Ps. 128:4).
Further, it must be said that God, not man, is the principal agent in all fruitfulness. The flesh, as Jesus said, is “no help at all” (Jn. 6:63). Thus, however enticing Egypt may appear, we need to remember it is God alone, through the gracious and powerful working of His Spirit, who can fashion the wilderness into a fruitful field and the desert places into a peaceful habitation (Isa. 32:15–18). The renewing, reviving, and life-giving work of the Spirit of God is the exclusive fountainhead of all life and blessing and peace. There is no good apart from Him; apart from Him we can do nothing (Jn. 15:5).
To the Teaching and to the Testimony
If you have been following the biblical thread thus far you will notice that all of what I have been saying places us then in a very peculiar position. On the one hand, it exalts the triune God as the only source of life, blessing, and salvation; and on the other, it humbles man so far into the dust that all his strength is reduced to a level somewhere on par with worms and gnats—probably less.
If that is the conclusion you have arrived at, good. That is precisely the picture Scripture paints for us and therefore precisely the place we need to be. Self-sufficiency, pride, and arrogant rejection of God’s help is what always gets us into trouble, and only humble, trusting, Spirit-wrought repentance will bring us out of it. All flesh is like grass, but the word of our God will stand forever (Isa. 40:6–8). His righteous, omnipotent, strengthening hand is our only hope (Isa. 41:10).
Things being what they are, then, my closing exhortation is simply this. Whether we are thinking of ourselves as individuals or as members of a rebellious, dying, and corrupt nation, our rallying cry remains the same: to the teaching and to the testimony! (Isa. 8:20). We must learn, in other words, the lesson that Ahaz did not, that “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (Isa. 7:9).
God and God alone is our only recourse. He is our only hope of salvation. His Christ, His Kingdom, and His Gospel are the best and only bulwarks against the rising tide of evil. If we give ourselves to these things, blessing and life are sure to follow. But if we reject them, or vainly try to merge them with the help of lifeless idols, we may be sure that our reward will be a double portion of distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish (Isa. 8:22). The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer, and He will not give His glory to another (Isa. 48:11).
So as we, by God’s grace, go into another new year that we do not deserve, let’s remember to do so by faith. Let’s remember, with God’s help, that at the best of times we are only bruised reeds and smouldering wicks (Isa. 42:3), and that God in His goodness has given a Saviour-King who will not break or quench us (v. 3). He is our salvation, and though we are weak and often faint, He will not “grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth” (v. 4).
All blessing and honour and glory and might be His, forever and ever. Amen. (Rev. 5:13).
“O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.” (Hos. 14:8)