Psalms 91:16 “With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”
The fourth and final blessing that we want to discuss in this section is the fact that God has committed to satisfying His saints with long life. And so although, as we have already seen, our outward man is perishing, it is nevertheless God’s perfect will for His children that our bodies should not perish before their time. Under the present dispensation God has committed to giving the saints seventy to eighty years on the earth (Psalm 90:10), although many saints live well beyond eighty. So why is it important for the saints to live a long life on the earth? The reason is so that they can produce much fruit for eternal life, for obviously the shorter the life span the less fruit that can be produced and visa versa (Philippians 1:22). And so the same principle applies in this section as in the previous sections, i.e. out of the mouth of two or three witnesses we are to let every word be established. The first witness whom we will quote in this section is the prophet David, for in the above quoted passage of scripture He teaches us that our heavenly Father has promised to satisfy us with long life. David goes on to say in this passage that God shows His salvation to the one whom He satisfies with long life. And so we see that all believers qualify for this blessing because all have been shown the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.
Proverbs 3:1-2 “My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; (2) for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.”
God decides when we are born into the earth and we obviously have no input in that decision. Nevertheless God is not averse to allowing us to have some say as to how long we stay on the earth. Many believe that their day of departure is set and cannot be altered, i.e. the saying goes “when your time is up its up and there’s nothing you can do about it”. However even though for the most part that statement is true it is not entirely true, for in the above quoted passage of scripture we see that Solomon (who is our second witness) tells us that God will increase our time on the earth if we keep His commands. In other words although God has predestined our time on the earth, He is prepared to alter His plans and extend our stay if we meet certain conditions.
Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (2) "Honour your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: (3) “That it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
The apostle Paul is our third witness in this section, for in the above quoted passage of scripture Paul quotes the fourth of the Ten Commandments, in which God commits to bless with long life those who keep this commandment. And so we see the same principle revealed in this passage, i.e. although God has predestined our time on the earth, He is prepared to alter His plans and extend our stay if we meet certain conditions. As an aside, scripture teaches us that our time on the earth can also be shortened if we choose to walk contrary to God’s laws (Psalm 55:23). And so we have very clearly seen in this section that long life is always considered a blessing, while a shortened life is always considered a curse. We have also seen that God has committed to all of His saints to give them no less than seventy years on the earth, and is prepared to bless them with even longer life depending on their obedience to His commandments. Not always is a shortened life span among the saints considered to be a curse however, for those who are chosen to be martyred for the Lord normally have a short life span on the earth, like Stephen for example who had a very short time as a believer on the earth (Acts 7:59). Nevertheless even though they live relatively short life spans, those chosen for martyrdom are destined for great blessing in the kingdom of God (Revelation 6:9).
Michael E.B. Maher
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