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10-24-2021 Weekly Messages

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: 2 Samuel 22:1-20

Sermon Title: The great tribulation shown in the Holy Spirit when King David cried out and prayed in the midst of great suffering.

        King David suffered extreme hardships from numerous enemies, including King Saul, a type of Antichrist. He suffered extremely to be the figure of Jesus Christ appearing in the future to take away the sins of the world, and taking extreme suffer himself as a sinner.

       Not only that, he was also the model of the people of Israel who would be hated and persecuted by all nations in the future, and also of  the severe suffering that Christians who would become God’s church by believing in Christ to pass through extreme persecution as well

      Of his severe suffering , he testified:

” When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;

6The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; 7In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.” (2 Samuel 22:5-7).

       On the day the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, he sang praises to God. This praise is also the praise of God’s people who are suffering today:

” And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

3The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.” (2 Samuel 22:2-3).

       The fortress in the battle field is the situation  in desperate need of a savior expecting food to be provided  after fighting for a long time in a situation that requires a defensive battle when under siege. Strength is what we need to fight an active fight. Shield is necessary to protect the equipment  during fighting. High tower is what we need to look at long distances in the hope. Of the rock, Apostle Paul testified saying, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” (Corinthians 10:4) And Moses also testified of the rock saying , “For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.” (Deuteronomy 32:31).

    Horn is needed to gather troops into the battlefields demoralize the enemy, and celebrate victory as used in the wilderness by the Israelites

“Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps..” (Numbers 10:2)

       The Apostle Paul finally asked the Ephesian church members to put on the full armor of God. If you wear the full armor of God, we can use the full armor as a fortress and defend against Satan’s attacks even when we are in trouble. If we put on the breastplate of righteousness, the loin of truth, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, we can endure all suffering. At this time, we can receive the help of God, the Savior, who provides the necessary things. Also, because God becomes a high tower, we can see God’s help that will appear in the future without seeing the difficulties in front of us.

      The words King David said when he praised the Lord God after his sufferings, my fortress, my savior, my rock, my shield, the horn of salvation, my high tower, my refuge and my savior, testify to all that he experienced in his suffering.

       When God heard the voice of David in his temple, and his cry reached the ears of God, all of sudden he saw a vision in the Holy Spirit and  testified of the dreadful vision:

“Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.

9There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

10He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

11And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

12And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.

13Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled. 14The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.

15And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them.

16And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.” (2 Samuel 22:8-16).

        As if he had seen it, the words he witnessed seemed to come out of his mouth, perhaps without even knowing of it for himself.  He testified that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, spoke through his mouth:

“The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.” (2 Samuel 23:2).

         King David was also one of the prophets. Prophets  witnessed what they saw  from God. He showed the prophet Habakkuk the same as he did to King David:

” God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.

5Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.” (Hab 3:3-5).

         The Holy Spirit showed Apostle John when the things that King David and the prophet Habakkuk saw . The things that  Apostle John saw were witnesses and testimonies of what would happen during the Great Tribulation. Apostle John testified of these prophecies:

”  12And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;…. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. ” (Rev 6:12; 11:19).

      God, through the prophet Haggai and Apostle Paul, announced that in the future earthquakes will not only occur on earth, but also in heavens:

” And again the word of the LORD came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying,21Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth;

22And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.….. Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven..’ (Hag 2:20-22, Heb 12:26)

         In the words of the Holy Spirit through King David,

It contains the hope of the rapture when the Red Dragon in the Great Tribulation will destroy the remnant of the Jews in the flood , but God will rescue them from the flood and move them to Petra, and also the rapture that will lift suffering Christians to the expanse of heaven before the Great Tribulation:

” He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters;

18He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

19They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.

20He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

21The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.” (Samuel 22:17-21)

       King David testified of his only hope as the rapture when Christ dies for his sins in the future and rise again, he shall rise with him to be translated to heaven:

“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

        Our Lord Jesus is our high tower so that we may be able to look forward the grace to the end in God.

 Amen! Hallelujah!