Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: August 2

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands: thy walls are continually before me” ~ Isaiah 49:16

A more accurate translation of the word “walls” is “ruins.” “Thy ruins are continually before me.”

At first glance this could depress us desperately. But it becomes a “purple stone” to lift the suffering of depression when we realize that, although God does see our “ruins,” He relaxes our hearts in this “purple stone” verse by first assuring us that He has literally carved on us the palms of His hands.

The old song reminds us that we shall know Him “by the print of the nails in His hands.” We shall. And in those prints we ourselves are graven. He took the very violence in the heart of man and used it to carve man’s initials forever on the palms of His hands! “… thy walls (ruins) are continually before me.: They are before Him, but no longer are they half crumbled “walls” standing uselessly to remind us of our failure.

Our very “ruins” have become monuments to the triumph of Calvary, if we have walked away from them in the power of Christ. If we have allowed Him to touch them and turn them to triumph gates. If we have allowed Him to “build the waste places.” Jesus Christ is the Redeemer.

“I know that my Redeemer liveth.”