#DailyDevotion YHWH Rains Down Righteous Through Jesus

Introit Ps. 19:1, 4–6; antiphon: Is. 45:8a

Send rain from above, O heavens, and pour down righteousness, O skies . ¹The heavens are telling how wonderful God is, and the sky announces what His hands have made. ⁴Yet their sound goes out all over the earth, and what they say to the most distant parts of the world. He has set up a tent in the heavens for the sun, ⁵and it comes like a bridegroom out of his chamber. Like a strong man it delights to run along its path, ⁶starting from one end of the sky and moving around to the other. Nothing can hide from its glowing heat.

Well the introit for the day seems mostly as a song of praise for natural blessings. Nature shows us there is a Creator and it isn’t the creation. Paul tells us in Romans 1, “²⁰Ever since He made the world, they have seen the unseen things of God — from the things He made they can tell He has everlasting power and is God.” We can always look up into the sky and marvel at the stars, the planets, the moon, comets and shooting stars and yes, even the sun. The unbelieving man thinks these things always exist and sometimes that they are gods themselves. Sometimes they may attribute them to false gods. But it is the God of Israel, YHWH, who is the Creator of all these things.

Now Jesus is YHWH: He is LORD. Paul writes in Colossians 1, “¹⁵He is the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation, ¹⁶since in Him was created everything visible and invisible in heaven and on earth — thrones, lords, rulers, or powers — everything was created by Him and for Him. ¹⁷He was before everything, and He holds everything together. ¹⁸He is the Head of the Church, which is His body. He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead to become alive that He may be first in everything. ¹⁹God decided to have His whole Being live in Him ²⁰and by Him to reconcile to Himself everything on earth and in heaven in a peace made by the blood on His cross.” The pre-incarnate Jesus is the agent by whom and for whom creation came into being. He is still the One who holds all of creation together and as we look up into the skies with wonder we should give Him thanks, praise, honor, glory and might.

Now it is the last few verse from Colossians above that dovetail into the antiphon for the fourth Sunday of Advent, “and pour down righteousness, O skies.” Jesus came down from heaven, from the Father, into the womb of the Virgin Mary, joined himself to her seed by the power of the Holy Spirit, became man and as God and Man won righteousness for us. In the flesh, Jesus reconciled us to Himself by the shedding of His blood. His blood made a peace in heaven and on earth between God and man. That righteousness which he won for us rains down on us as we hear the good news of Jesus and the Holy Spirit creates faith in us to believe it.

Almighty God, Heavenly Father, continue to rain down the righteousness of your Son Jesus Christ upon us that we may be acceptable in your sight on the day of his second advent and know your peace and reconciliation now and forever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.