Peace and Prosperity
Let them say continually, “Let the Lord be magnified,
who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant”.
For some time now I have been meditating on the above verse from Psalm 35 and celebrating the thought that God is pleased when He sees His people prospering. This is a good thing for us to remember. More recently I took some time to do a word study on the word ‘prosperity’ that is used here and quite honestly I was blown away. The Hebrew word is one that we are likely all very familiar with and love. It is the word ‘Shalom’. A much loved word by many. However like me you will probably say, “But that word means ‘peace’ doesn’t it, not ‘prosperity”?
Yes and no. It is most often translated ‘peace’ but it is essentially much more than that. Along with peace it can equally be said to include wellbeing, blessing and yes, prosperity!
Look with me for a minute at the Hebrew graphics for the word included here. Hebrew, like Chinese uses symbols rather than letters to form words and as you will note, Shalom is made up of four symbols. Reading from right to left, the first symbol is teeth which is symbolic of the ability to destroy. Then there is the symbol for a Shepherds staff…symbolically speaking of authority. The third symbol is that for a tent peg and the logic is that this symbolises ‘to attach’ something. Finally we have the symbol for water….pictorial of chaos or disorder.
So, bringing the complete thought together we have a statement, ‘to destroy the authority attached to chaos’! Wow, that is so powerful.
Now returning to the verse above something enormously significant emerges. In so many lives personal finances are chaotic. There are no strategies in place to prosper - people living from pay day to pay day and often having too much week left at the end of the money!
God wants to invade and change that reality. Bringing order and systems and a plan to overcome the chaos - that is His will and a huge part of what ‘Liberty Trust’ is about. Wherever you are in your financial journey be encouraged that God is interested and has a plan to prosper you. Praise the Lord!
Ps Bruce McDonald
November 2018
