As I have been taking my Sunday School class through Galatians, a repeated theme is that our salvation is not just an historical event. It’s not something that happened when we “prayed the prayer” and now we can move on with our lives. Instead, it is our life. Not only have we, in the past, BEEN SAVED from the PENALTY OF SIN, but now, in the present, we are BEING SAVED from the POWER OF SIN. And there is coming a day, praise God, when we WILL BE SAVED from the very PRESENCE OF SIN. Salvation is not an “entrance event” and now we do the Christian thing . . . salvation IS the event. This thought again came to mind as I concluded Asaph’s song known as Psalm 50.

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies Me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!     (Psalm 50:23 ESV)

In my coloring scheme, that’s a shaded orange verse . . . a promise to claim. Mixed in is some brown underlining (praise) . . . and purple underlining (obedience) . . . and red underlining (salvation). And it’s the staring at the red, in the context of the orange, which kind of jazzes me . . . the thought of God promising to reveal to His own the multi-faceted aspect of His wondrous salvation.

The idea is that of God allowing us to look intently at . . . to behold . . . to gaze at the beauty of all that His salvation entails.

It is a divine work whereby that which we took possession of by faith increasingly takes possession of us as the Spirit leads us into fuller appreciation and enjoyment of what God has accomplished on our behalf and of the work He is doing in us for His glory. To be shown the salvation of God is not a once-and-done action . . . but a continuing act of grace whereby, as we “work out our salvation”, we are led to further understanding of WHAT IT WAS for the Son to deliver us . . . and WHAT IT IS for the Spirit to sanctify us . . . and WHAT IT WILL BE for the Father, one day, to bring us home. Far from being just the “old, old story”, being shown our salvation is to revel in it anew every day.

And the songwriter indicates that there’s a couple of dimensions active in believer’s life which provide fertile ground for being shown the salvation of God.

First, there is the giving of thanksgiving as a sacrifice. The praise of our lips given as an offering to the Provider of our salvation. A heart that desires to lift up the Name . . . to declare His great works . . . so that He might receive glory. Those who are sacrificers of praise are those who are shown the salvation of God.

The second dimension identified is that of ordering our way rightly . . . of seeking to keep on the path . . . of, as much as lies within us, desiring to honor the God of or calling by walking in a manner worthy of our calling. The promise is that, for those who “order their conduct aright” (NKJV), the God of their salvation will continually reveal the wonder of the fullness of their salvation.

For those who worship afresh . . . for those who seek to walk aright . . . there is the wonder anew.

O that our salvation might not just be a date in the past . . . but a delight in our present. That we might not think of it just as a prayer prayed which delivered us from death to life . . . but that we might also experience it as a power played out daily which increasingly leads us from darkness into the pleasure of His glorious light.

Show me Your salvation, Lord. By Your grace . . . for Your glory . . .