Tuesday, May 16, 2017, 8:48 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Total Praise.” Speak, Lord, your words
to my heart. I read Psalm 59 (Select
vv. ESV).
They Lie in Wait (vv. 1-4)
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A
Miktam of David, when Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him.
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;
protect me
from those who rise up against me;
deliver me from those who work evil,
and save me
from bloodthirsty men.
For behold, they lie in wait for my life;
fierce men
stir up strife against me.
For no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord,
for no fault
of mine, they run and make ready.
Awake, come to meet me, and see!
Who are our enemies, if we
are followers of Jesus Christ? Satan and his hordes, that is who. Our real
battle is not against flesh and blood (human beings), but it is against the
powers of darkness and spiritual forces of evil (See: Eph. 6:10-20).
This is not saying we don’t
have physical enemies, i.e. humans who are working evil against us. We do. But,
we don’t fight our enemies with physical weapons of warfare like they did of
old. And, the real power behind these enemies is Satan. So, we fight these
enemies with the armor of God, but not in a mean or hateful way, but in love we
put on truth, righteousness, faith, prayer, the truth of the gospel, and the
Word of God (of truth). We combat lies with truth, evil with righteousness,
deceptions and false accusations with the Word of God, fear with faith, doubt
with prayer, and false gospels with the true gospel. And, we stand on the Word
of God and the true gospel. And, God delivers us from the control or the power
of our enemy (or enemies) over us when we put on the armor of God, which he has
supplied to us.
If we are truly following our
Lord Jesus in obedience to him and to his Word, Satan is going to be coming
against us, and he will use humans to do his dirty work for him. They will hate
us, in this instance, not because of any evil we are doing, but because we love
the Lord, because we stand on the Word of God, because we do put on the armor
of God with which to fight off Satan’s evil schemes against us, and because we
teach the truth and combat lies. And, Satan hates that! And, so he will use
humans to try to stir up trouble for us, to make up lies about us, and to
spread those lies to others so that they will hate us, too.
Like Howling Dogs (vv. 6-10)
Each evening they come back,
howling like
dogs
and prowling
about the city.
There they are, bellowing with their mouths
with swords
in their lips—
for “Who,”
they think, “will hear us?”
But you, O Lord, laugh at them;
you hold all
the nations in derision.
O my Strength, I will watch for you,
for you, O
God, are my fortress.
My God in his steadfast love will meet me;
God will let
me look in triumph on my enemies.
Those who come against us, may
speak evil against us. They will heap abuse on us with their tongues. They may
even be close friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow believers or even family
members. They may pretend to be our friends, and may act nice to us to our
face, though, but then betray us behind our backs by divulging whatever we have
shared with them in confidence, and by twisting our words and actions to give
an impression that is not true of us. They gossip about us in order to wound us
and to cut us to the heart, and so others will not like us, too, or they may
speak to us this way in person, as well. And, it is because they don’t like
what we stand for, and what we do, and what we say. Yet, they think God does
not see, and that he does not hear, and that he will do nothing.
This is not to say, though,
that we are perfect, or that we are never deserving of censure, but this is
speaking specifically of the undeserved mistreatment of God’s servants. This is
speaking of willful and even premeditated abuse and persecution, and just
because we are followers of Christ, who do what he says, and because we hold to
the truths of scripture.
Yet, God is not intimidated
by them. They have no power over him. He is completely in control over all he
has made. And, there is nothing they can do to us, either, but what God allows
it for his purposes, and for our maturing, holiness, purity, strengthening and
perseverance. When we face such opposition from sinful humans, it should only
draw us even closer to Jesus Christ, and it should instill within us an even greater
dedication to the Lord and to his service, for God is our strength and our help
in time of need.
But I Will Sing
(vv. 16-17)
But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing
aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been to me a fortress
and a refuge
in the day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O
God, are my fortress,
the God who
shows me steadfast love.
We can’t let people get to us
and get us down. We can’t let gossip, slander, hatred, bitterness,
mistreatment, abuse and persecution undo us, either. We have to keep loving
even our enemies, and returning hatred with kindness. Yet, we should grow in
wisdom and discernment through this, and we should take care to not make our
close friends those who are unbelievers or who are gossipers, haters, and the
like. Yet, we should minister God’s love and grace to even our enemies. And, we
must rely upon the Lord for our strength and for wisdom to know how to respond
to such mistreatment as this.
One of the ways we should
respond to opposition is by singing and praising our Lord, thanking him for his
steadfast love and for the strength he gives us each day in order for us to
keep going, even in the face of great opposition. Singing is a great antidote
to fear, oppression, discouragement, sadness, and broken hearts, etc. Singing
songs to our Lord has a way of lifting our spirits and filling our hearts with
love, but also with confidence and even greater determination to keep on
keeping on in doing what we are called to do. Singing gets our focus off our
circumstances, and off those who oppose us, and it gets our focus on to Jesus
Christ and all that he has done for us and all that he has gifted us with and
has equipped us to do. It gets us thinking about HIM and his love, mercy and
strength, and of his absolute sovereignty over all things, and then we can rest
in HIM and not give way to fear, doubt, discouragement or even anger. His joy
will then fill our hearts.
Total Praise
/ Richard Smallwood
You are the source of my strength
You are the strength of my life
I lift my hands in total praise to You.
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