A Poem by David.
1Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you.
2My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord.
Apart from you I have no good thing.”
3As for the saints who are in the earth,
they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.
4Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god.
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
nor take their names on my lips.
5Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup.
You made my lot secure.
6The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.
Yes, I have a good inheritance.
7I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel.
Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
8I have set Yahweh always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices.
My body shall also dwell in safety.
10For you will not leave my soul in Sheol,
neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
11You will show me the path of life.
In your presence is fullness of joy.
In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.
As the Lord instructed His disciples on the coming of the Kingdom, He predicted an order of necessary events. Before the Son of Man's visible return "in His day" (Luke 17:24), He must first suffer many things and be rejected (17:25). Certainty of sequential activities in the future is possible because God has fixed (or decreed) all that occurs for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose. Predictive prophecy is future history. Jesus' fulfillment of messianic prophecies demonstrated the veracity of His claims, and the literal fulfillment of some prophecies in the past gives us reason to expect the literal fulfillment of other prophecies in the future. After His resurrection, when Jesus opened the minds of His disciples to understand the Scriptures, He first related the events of the immediate past to the prophecies of the distant past. He said "...'Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day...'" (24:46, italics added for emphasis). Old Testament texts that predict these events include Psalms 16:10; 22; 118:22; and Isaiah 53. Next, he relates the events of the immediate future to the unfolding of the same divine will: "...'and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem'" (v. 47). Verse 47 practically outlines the events later recorded in the book of Acts (see Acts 1:8). As Luke tracks the march of Christ's ministry geographically, from Galilee to Jerusalem (in his Gospel), and from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria and Rome (in the Acts), there is also a sense of progress toward the fulfillment of prophecy. It is a great comfort to know that history is destined to fulfill the plan of God for the good of the believer and the glory of God.