Angelic Conflict part 184: Human history (fear) – Psa 42; 43; 3; Num 14: 24:8-9.Title: Angelic Conflict part : Human history 184 (fear) – Psa 42; 43; 3; Num 14: 24:8-9.
For the choir director.
Psa 42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks [drought implied], So my soul pants for Thee, O God.
Psa 42:2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?
Psa 42:3My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
He fed on his own grief as he struggled to apply faith to what he knew.
The worshippers of false gods ask him where his God is as do so many in the world who focus on the evil of mankind and the disasters of a fallen world and fail to see God in all that is around them and through His Son who revealed Him.
Psa 42:4These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
Memory can be either a blessed medicine for the troubled heart or it can open new wounds and keep the pain fresh.
Psa 42:5Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.
He has inner struggle and he struggles to apply doctrine in order to release his fear and despair.
Psa 42:6O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember Thee from the land of the Jordan, And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
Psa 42:7Deep calls to deep at the sound of Thy waterfalls; All Thy breakers and Thy waves have rolled over me.
The drought turns now to a storm. The Jordan River has its source in the Hermon range, and the rains and melting snow would turn the rivulets into cascades of water and dangerous cataracts, which is a picture of intense suffering. This reminds us of the disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee in an intense storm and the Lord who was able to immediately calm the storm, but at the time that He chose.
Psa 42:8The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.
Psa 42:9I will say to God my rock, "Why hast Thou forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?"
He seeks counsel in prayer. He doesn't have to go to Jerusalem to worship. He can worship the Lord from wherever he is.
Psa 42:10As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
Psa 42:11Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance, and my God.
Isa 49:23 Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.
Old scholars and divines were accustomed to write or paint up in their studies some favorite sentence from the sages of old, or some chosen text of Scripture. Those inclined to follow this custom could do no better than write up this one word, "WAIT." It is but a monosyllable; but it is more full of meaning than any other word in the language, and it is applicable to all ages, and to all circumstances. At the first slight view, merely to WAIT, seems so simple a thing, as scarcely entitled to be called a grace; and yet larger promises are made to it than to any other grace, except to faith; and hardly, indeed, with that exception, for the grace of WAITING is part of the grace of faith-is a form of faith-is, as some would describe it, an effect of faith; or, more strictly, one of its most fruitful manifestations. -Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations.
Is waiting fully connected to grace? Waiting takes faith, but faith is empty if there is no object of merit. We have a very meritous object of faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That person was revealed to us in grace and believed on in grace. We wait because of our faith in Him and that waiting is fruitful because of Him. From Him flow the blessings of salvation and all the blessings and deliverances in life.
Rom 8:31-32 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Psa 43:1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!
He is no longer feeding on his own grief, but his heart has changed to faith and trust.
Psa 43:2 For Thou art the God of my strength; why hast Thou rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Knowing that God is one's strength and concluding that God rejected him cannot coexist in the same heart. It seems that he is legitimately asking this question so as to resolve it as either one or the other.
This is the thought process of solving problems associated with erroneous thinking in our souls. God is the God of my strength so why would I think He has rejected me? Why would I doubt Him now? By this problem solving process you force yourself to answer the question.
1Ki 18:21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him."
Psa 43:3 O send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Thy holy hill, And to Thy dwelling places.
Psa 43:4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise Thee, O God, my God.
Psa 43:5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? [no reason] Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance, and my God.
Psa 3: A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
Absalom was handsome, smooth-spoken, and a gifted liar who knew how to please the people and steal their hearts. He slowly gathered a group to support him as king and the conspiracy was successful in removing David and his men from the city.
Many are rising up against me.
Psa 3:2Many are saying of my soul, "There is no deliverance for him in God." Selah.
People do not conclude whether God is or isn’t going to deliver a believer from a certain situation of adversity; only God can do that and as His son, you can be guaranteed that He will deliver.
Psa 3:3But Thou, O Lord, art a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.
Psa 3:4I was crying to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.
Psa 3:5I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.
God has graciously given us a 24 hour cycle. We sleep and when the sun rises, dark turns to light, and His grace has brought a new day.
Lam 3:22-23 The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness.
Psa 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
This has an application to our own anger when it is righteous indignation against evil.
Eph 4:26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
This not anger against people, which is sin, but anger against evil and thinking that is in opposition to God, but do not let that anger, though righteous, linger into the next day.
Psa 3:6I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me round about.
Psa 3:7Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God! For Thou hast smitten all my enemies on the cheek; Thou hast shattered the teeth of the wicked.
When Israel would set out from wherever they were encamped in the wilderness and went on the move, Moses would herald a similar call.
Num 10:35 Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, "Rise up, O Lord! And let Thine enemies be scattered, And let those who hate Thee flee before Thee."
Psa 3:8Salvation belongs to the Lord; Thy blessing be upon Thy people!
Though he had used brilliant strategy in opposing Absalom's plans, David refused to take the credit. It was the Lord who alone would receive the glory.
David also refused to carry a grudge against his people, but asked the Lord to bless them. This reminds us of our Lord's prayer on the cross (Luke 23:34). |