The Future
What does the future hold in store for you?
Futurologists predict what will happen in the future. For example, it has been predicted that some babies born today will live to the age of 150. Some of their predictions may come true. Others may not.
In 1962 Decca Recording Company rejected the Beatles. They said, ‘We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.’
In 1977 Ken Olson, Chairman of Digital Equipment Co., said, ‘There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.’
There are certain things about the future that we don’t know and that we are not supposed to know. However, there are other things that you can know about the future and that makes a real difference to your life now. Today we see three reasons why, if you put your trust in the Lord, you can be confident about your future.
The plans of the Lord - Psalm 33:1-11
‘The plans of the Lord stand firm forever’ (v.11). God has plans. God has a good plan for your life. He has ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (Jeremiah 29:11).
The psalmist’s confidence about the future comes from looking back on the past. He reflects on what God has done through ‘the word of the Lord’ (Psalm 33:6a).
As we read this psalm through the lens of the New Testament, we see that it was through Jesus (the Word of God) that the whole world came into being (v.6–9). He is the one who is the source of all that is ‘right and true’ (v.4a). He is ‘faithful’ (v.4b). He ‘loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love’ (v.5).
It is on this basis that the psalmist can be confident that ‘The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations’ (v.11). Governments and people make plans. These may fail (v.10). Yet you can be confident in God’s good plans for you and for your life.
The appropriate response to all this is worship – to sing joyfully to the Lord and to praise him with different instruments, to write new songs, to use every musical skill and ability, and even make lots of noise. ! (‘shout for joy’, v.3b).
