11-27-2016 Weekly Message

Meditations of the Week: Psalms

Text: Psalm 13: 1-6

The title of the Word: Faith of the child of the God in the midst of suffering

          David’s prayer in the text is one of the prayers unto God  when he was in the midst of the worst affliction.  This is also a prayer for the Jews under severe persecution unto death  in the time of Jacob’s trouble that is the Great Tribulation in the future.

        After being anointed by the king of Israel, David was forced to live by running away from the dangers of dying every day by King Saul, who had been forsaken by the LORD God. After he was chosen to be an anointed model of Jesus Christ to come forth, he was cast out of anointing. Saul was no longer a model of Christ, but rather a model of the Antichrist to appear in the future.

          In addition, David had to suffer because of  his children even after he became king, his children were killing one another, and even his sons raping his wives in broad daylight. In addition, his most loving son, Absalom, went after him to rebel and kill him.

          In this situation, he had to give unto God the prayer that appeared in the text. In this age, the children of God would be a tearful prayer when such a situation would come:

” 1How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?  How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.“(Psalm 13: 1-4)

          David pre-prayed and prayed about the terrible tribulations that his descendants, the Jews, would endure in the end time:

” Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake

 (Psalm 44: 22-26) “Do not forget the hardship and oppression of our souls, our soul is bent on the ground, and our stomach is attached to the earth. Arise and help us.

            But David’s prayer ends with faith and praise:

” But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” (Psalm 13: 5-6)

            If any of those who lived in the New Testament had suffered as much as David, one of them would be the Apostle Paul. If he summarizes the suffering he has received in five ways, he himself has testified that it is weakness, reproach, poverty, persecution, and distress (2 Cor. 11:10). As he overcame all afflictions and became able to rejoice in Christ for all his troubles by faith, he testified to the saints who were suffering extreme sufferings under Nero Emperor in Rome:

”    And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. “(Romans 8: 28-34).

         King David began with a prayer to appeal to God in the midst of hardship, but finally he came to trust in God’s mercy, to praise God again for his grace of salvation, and to give thanks to his dealing bountifully. Also,  Apostle Paul, the Role Model of the born-again children of God, testified to the saints in Rome who suffered:

” 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  “(Romans 8: 35-39).

           That’s right! In the confession of David, the representative saint of the Old Testament, and of Apostle Paul, who was the most faithful in the New Testament times, we must keep in mind one of the most important facts. We who are in the Lord Jesus Christ and have eternal life are already in the love of God in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus sanctified our soul by dying once (Hebrews 10:10) and also regenerated our spirit. The sin offering by Christ Jesus for us is a one-time redeeming eternal redemption.  Apostle Paul made a clear testimony to the Hebrews about this truth:

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” (Hebrews 10: 12-13).

           Jesus also made a clear statement of this truth before he died:

”  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one. “(John 10: 27-30).

              King David and Apostle Paul realized that the will of God for the children of God would be to be confirmed to the image of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ  so that they may be the helping spouse for him. Because of this, David said, ” As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” (Psalm 17:15). Apostle Paul also said to the saints who suffered in Rome with the same faith,

”  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren“(Rom.. 8:29).

            Apostle Paul also testified in the letter to the saints of the Thessalonian Church suffering while preaching the gospel to the Jews:

” And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. “(I Thessalonians 5: 23-24)

           That’s right! Since the children of God who are saved are already in the hand of God, they are to present their bodies as sacrifices to God (Rom. 12: 1), like the clay in the hands of the potter. We have to endure all suffering until God makes all our spirit, soul, and body blameless to be made in the image of Christ Jesus.  We shall eventually receive the glory of being joint heirs with Christ after we pass all the sufferings that we have now. Apostle Paul once again witnessed to the saints in Rome in suffering:

” And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. “(Romans 8: 17-18).

Amen! Hallelujah!