Sunday, December 2,
2012, 5:42 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me this morning with the song “Sing Praises” playing in my mind.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Psalm 10 (NIV 1984):
Why, O Lord, do you
stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of
trouble?
In his arrogance the
wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
He boasts of the
cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord...
He says to himself,
“God has forgotten;
he covers his face and never sees.”
Arise, Lord! Lift up
your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked
man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?
But you, O God, do see
trouble and grief;
you consider it to take it in hand.
The victim commits
himself to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the
wicked and evil man;
call him to account for his wickedness
that would not be found out.
The Lord is King for
ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
You hear, O Lord, the
desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their
cry,
defending the fatherless
and the oppressed,
in order that man, who is of the earth, may
terrify no more.
Why, O Lord?
The Psalmist asked why the Lord stood far off, and why he
hid himself in times of trouble. The Psalmist had observed how the wicked appeared
to prevail over the weak. The wicked were boastful, proud, arrogant,
self-assured, haughty, and they took advantage of those who were weaker than
them. The wicked also had no room for God in their hearts. God’s commands were
far from them. They mocked God and did not take God seriously. They thought to
themselves, “Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have
trouble.” The wicked think, because God is slow to anger and abounding in love
and mercy, that he has forgotten and does not see what they are doing, but he
does. They think God will not call them to account for their actions, but he
will on the day when he judges.
I think many of us have asked God the same questions. And,
maybe that is where you are right now. Why does it seem, at times, that God
doesn’t seem to be paying attention? Why does he allow wicked men to go on
deceiving, murdering, raping and otherwise taking advantage of those who are
weaker or who are less fortunate than them? He is God! He is all powerful. He
could stop them. So, why doesn’t he? These are age-old questions.
Why does he allow us to hurt, to suffer, to be persecuted,
abandoned, forsaken, hated, and mistreated by others? Why does he allow us to
go through times of trials and tribulations? Why does it seem, sometimes, that
he is so far away? Why doesn’t he rescue us? Why doesn’t justice always
prevail? Why does it seem, sometimes, as though the righteous have trouble
after trouble while the wicked prosper and nothing bad seems to happen to them?
Have you ever asked any of these questions? Or, is this where you are right
now?
The Wicked
So, why does God allow the wicked to prosper and to continue
doing evil? I don’t have all the answers to that question, but what I do know
is that God is absolutely sovereign over all things, he is God, he is in
control of all that he created, and I trust him that he knows what he is doing
and that it will all work out for his glory and for the salvation of human
lives.
I also know that we are all born into sin, and we have all
sinned, but God, by his grace, had compassion on us, and he sent his Son, Jesus
Christ, to die on the cross for our sins. Although he was perfect and had done
no wrong, he was crucified on a cross, as though he was a common criminal. When
he died, he took upon himself the sins of the entire world, and when he died
our sins died and were buried with him. When he arose from the grave, he
conquered death, hell, Satan and sin so that, by faith, we could be free of
slavery to sin (day-to-day), and so we could be free of the penalty of sin
(eternal damnation).
Jesus Christ died for the sins of the entire world! And, it
is God’s will that all men should come to faith in Jesus Christ. If he were to
remove all the evil in the world, he would have to remove all of us, because
not one of us is righteous in his own merit. We have all sinned. Yet, the Lord
is very gracious, and he is very patient with us, because he doesn’t want any
of us to perish without Christ, but for us to all come to him in faith through
repentance.
The Lord is
compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. ~ Ps. 103:8
The Lord is not slow
in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you,
not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. ~ 2 Pet.
3:9
The Righteous
We are made righteous through the blood of Jesus Christ in
cleansing us and in forgiving us from all sin. Our own righteousness is like
filthy rags in God’s sight. The only way we can become righteous is by faith in
Jesus Christ via repentance (turning from sin) and turning to God in obedience
to his commands and in surrender to his will for our lives (see Eph. 4:17-24;
Luke 9:23-24). Christ’s righteousness is, thus, credited to our account when we
turn to faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. This is how we are made
righteous.
The righteous, who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior, should be troubled and grieved in our spirits over the evil and wickedness
in the world, and we should have pity on the weak and afflicted, as did the
Psalmist. Yet we should pray for the salvation of the wicked, we should love
our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, do good to those who hate us, and
say kind things about those who mistreat us. Yet, sometimes the most merciful
thing God can do for people is to discipline, to chastise, correct and rebuke,
because with correction comes the potential of lives moved away from lifestyles
of sin and rebellion against God, and moved to obey God in all our ways. So,
God may answer our prayers, sometimes, with acts of judgment for the purposes
of purifying a people for himself.
We should take this attitude toward our own suffering,
persecutions, troubles, and grief, etc. We should realize that God has not
abandoned us in our suffering, he will never leave us or forsake us, he is in
complete control of our circumstances, he knows what he is doing, none of this
has taken him by surprise, and he has a plan and a purpose for it all. He has
not hidden himself from us, he has not fallen asleep, he has not forgotten
about us, he hears our cries for mercy, he hears the desires of the afflicted,
and he is here to offer us encouragement, hope, counsel, direction, purpose,
and to fill us with his peace and joy. He will give us all we need, he will
help us, and he will rescue us from all our troubles. He may not rescue us
physically from trouble and hardship until he takes us home to be with him, but
he will rescue us emotionally and spiritually from the weight and burden of our
suffering, and he will lift us up and will fill our hearts with desire for him.
So, when we are going through difficult times, and even at
the hands of those we consider to be evil and wicked, we must remember what the
scriptures teach us with regard to suffering, persecutions and hardships. They
are for our good, to test our faith, to develop within us godly character and
perseverance, and to grow us to maturity in Christ Jesus. Our response to these
times of hardship, tribulations and persecutions should be that we should
rejoice, we should praise God, and we should leap for joy because we are being
treated the same way the prophets of old were treated, and the same way Jesus
Christ was treated. And, we should have joy in our hearts and thanksgiving for
the good that God will produce in our lives as we learn obedience through what
we suffer.
In this you greatly
rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all
kinds of trials. ~ 1 Pet. 1:6
Consider
it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because
you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that
you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ~ Jms. 1:2-4
In fact, everyone who
wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men
and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ~ 2
Timothy 3:12-13
“Blessed are you when
men hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.
“Rejoice in that day
and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their
fathers treated the prophets.” ~ Luke 6:22-23
Sing Praises / An
Original Work / November 30, 2012
Based off Psalms 6-9
Sing praises to the
Lord!
Tell of His wond’rous
works.
Afflicted, they cry
out;
The Lord will not
forget;
The needy, not desert.
The Lord’s our refuge
now;
A stronghold when we
fear.
The Lord will ne’er
forsake
The ones, who Him
pursue!
Sing praises to the
Lord!
With all my heart I
sing.
I will rejoice in Him;
Sing praises to His
name;
Tell of His wond’rous
works.
My shield is God Most
High.
He saves those who
believe
In Jesus Christ, God’s
Son.
His grace has pardoned
you!
The Lord accepts my
prayer!
The Lord has heard my
cries.
He is so merciful.
He heals my anguished
soul.
The Lord has made me
whole.
Give thanks unto the
Lord.
Give praise unto His
name.
Our Lord is
righteousness.
Sing praises to the
Lord!
Sing praises to the
Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment