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Hello MBC.

I hope that your 4th full week of Covid-19 Level 4 has gone well and that for you, “Life in Lockdown” is proving to be a time when your faith in God is strengthened and your resolve to honour and serve Him is being galvanised.

For many though, the times we live in are proving to be testing ones, as fresh challenges and difficulties present themselves. Even simple things like getting groceries or medical assistance are proving to be more problematic than we were expecting. It almost seems as though life is just darned hard at the moment – almost as if there is an unseen force or unseen enemy that is intent on making life difficult.

Whether that is the Covid19 virus or something (someone) more sinister, I thought that for this week it would be good to reflect on some verses from a couple of Psalms – primarily Psalm 94 & to finish with Psalm 95. You might like to pause for a moment now and read Psalm 94 before continuing with this blog.

Psalm 94, is essentially about the psalmist asking God to wreak vengeance on wicked people who have oppressed the righteous – His people.

You get that straight away from verses 1 & 2 where he says…

Verse 1 “O Lord. God of vengeance, O God of vengeance shine forth!

Verse 2 “Rise up O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve”

The next 5 verses have to do with the psalmist asking God not to overlook the evil that is being done and to not forsake His own people.

Then wisely, the psalmist spends the next 8 verses cautioning people in underestimating God and stating that God is completely in control, knows exactly what He is doing and, in the end, will be totally vindicated when all is said and done. By the way, vindicated (a big word) simply means that God will be proved to have been right or justified in all that He has said and done – see verses 14-15.

Then we get to the part of this Psalm that I’m particularly interested in…
The psalmist asks:

“Who rises up for me against the wicked, who stands up for me against evildoers” verse 16

He is introducing us to the concept, that whatever is against us, whoever is against us, we need someone to be for us!!

Who is that person??? “The Lord” from verses 17 & 18.

And it is verses 17-19 that I’d like us to camp in for the next few minutes…

As we have seen, the context of this psalm is located in the wickedness committed by wicked people. The psalmist was aggrieved at the wrong doing & blatant disregard of God that he was seeing in the world. He was tired of the oppression that people were under by the forces of evil, and he was distressed at the suffering that he was personally having to endure.

And then he strikes gold!!!
Who rises up for me???
Who stands up for me??
It is the Lord!!

And even though the context of the psalm may not fit your personal circumstance today, the answers that the next 3 verses supply, definitely apply to you if you are going through tough times – whatever your situation.

Verse 17.

“If the Lord hadn’t been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence”

Sometimes life can seem so bad, that either an inability to bear witness to God’s goodness or even death, seems to be the logical outcome. Either outcome produces a silence of the soul. We get to a stage where there’s nothing left in the tank spiritually and we think that our soul no longer has anything to offer. But the Lord Himself proves to be our helper and our strength, in whatever day of trouble that we experience, as Hebrews 13 & Psalm 28 both attest to. He is not indifferent to our pleas for help and He doesn’t want our souls to be silenced! He is the faithful Keeper of our souls.

Then there’s the next verse.

Verse 18. “When I thought “My foot slips”, your steadfast love O lord held me up”

There have been so many times in my life when I have felt that my “foot was slipping”…
My obedience to God was woeful.
My faith in the Lord Jesus was weak.
My sensitivity to the work of the Holy Spirit in my life was dull.
God was trying to teach me something but I wasn’t getting it!
I was constantly being unfaithful to Him and to my promises to Him.
Yet each time, His steadfast (constant, continual, never ending) love, would put my “foot” back on the solid rock of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In spite of my tendency to not “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which I have been called” Ephesians 4:1, He would “pick me up, dust me off & put me back on track”
It is actually an amazing blessing, to be in the gravest of spiritual danger and just when you think all hope is lost… be rescued by the mighty hand of God.

To have experienced His salvation, His care, His provision – whatever your situation – when you know that you are hopelessly unable to remedy your issue, draws you so much closer to Him!!

Finally verse 19.

Verse 19. “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul”

It is perfectly normal to have cares in this sin infected world.
Even the great apostle Paul experienced degrees of anxiety – 2 Corinthians 11:28 & Philippians 2:28.
But these cares or anxieties don’t have to rule our lives and the perfect antidote to these are the consolations that come directly from the Lord.
Sometimes, when we think of consolations we think “O well…. never mind”
But God’s consolations are not like that. God does mind!
The consolation mentioned here relates more to God’s comfort. He comforts us in our times of trouble.
God acknowledges that you are in a distressing situation.
He doesn’t ignore it nor does He minimalise it.
However, neither does He blow it out of proportion.
What He does do, is that He comes alongside us, comforts us, asks us to trust Him and prompts us to keep living faithfully for Him
And this brings us joy!!!
Look at the last 3 words of verse 19….. “Cheer my soul”
No one cheers (thrills) the soul like Jesus!!
You can be going through the most difficult times (for whatever reason) but like Horatio Spafford – who himself suffered immense loss & sadness in his life – say from the bottom of your heart,
“It is well with my soul”

Why?

Because Almighty God Himself, comes alongside you in your time of trouble and He Himself personally consoles you, comforts you and brings cheer & joy to your weary soul.

Let me give you 4 brief comments that Charles Spurgeon – “the Prince of preachers” made on each of verses 16-19

Vs 16. If we could find friends elsewhere, it may be that God would not become so dear to us

Vs 17. Blessed be God that He does not leave us to be wrapped in speechless shame

Vs 18. Our joy is that God’s mercy endures for ever and is always at hand to pluck us out of danger
and hold us up

Vs 19. Who can meditate upon eternal love, unchangeable purpose, covenant promises, finished
redemption, the risen Saviour, His union with His people, & the coming glory… without feeling
his heart leaping with joy?

Well said Charles!! ?

And then in closing… the delightful first 7 verses of the next Psalm – Psalm 95

Psalm 95

1. Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.
3. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.
4. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
5. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.
6. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7. for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.

Note… It doesn’t say come let us sing in tune to the Lord!!
Whether you can sing in tune or not, doesn’t really matter to God.
It’s the attitude with which you sing that counts – Joyfully & Thankfully.

Why? Because we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand!!

May you know His grace & His peace in your soul, in a fresh way today.