Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Long Interview by Dr. Drew
Friday, January 31, 2025
Psalm 31 - "Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit"
What is the meaning of Psalm
31?
Commentary by Dennis Edwards
A verse from Psalm 31 appears in Luke 23:46 when Jesus
quotes, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” But the entire psalm provides
appropriate imagery for Jesus' passion. The psalm can be used and has been used
as a prayer when suffering under unjust persecution.
During the persecution of the early Anabaptist, like the Swiss Brethren, the Amish, and the Mennonites, some 500 years ago in Europe, many people were martyred for their faith. One such martyr quoted Psalm 31 as he was burnt at the stake by other “Christians,” for his differing view on when
baptism should occur. Some believed baptism should occur shortly after birth, while
others believed it should only be done at the age of understanding. George of the House of Jacob, commonly known as George Blaurock, was
a former Catholic priest. He wrote the following
Hymn during the last three weeks of his life, before being burnt as a heretic.
“Lord God, how do I praise You,
from hence and evermore, that real faith You
did give me, by which I may know You. Forget me
not, O Father, be near me evermore; By Your Spirit shield and teach me, that in
afflictions great, Your comfort I may ever prove, and valiantly may obtain, the
victory in this fight.”
Since Jesus’ last words, “Into Your hand I commit My spirit,” are found in Psalm
31, many of the commentators from the 1800s
considered the psalm to be applicable to Jesus’ suffering during His passion. As we read it, we
can visualize it as such, and it can be appropriate for any true believer
suffering under religious persecution.
Psalm
31:1-3 In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver
me in Your righteousness. Bow down Your ear to me; deliver me speedily: be my
strong rock, for a house of defence to save me. For You are my rock and my
fortress; therefore, for Your name's sake lead me, and guide me.
Jesus is the Rock which the builders rejected that has become the
chief cornerstone. However, Jesus Himself could have found comfort in the words
of the psalm which can be applied to His suffering. He may have prayed or recited it
Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Psalm 31:4-5 Pull me out of the net that they
have laid privily for me: for You are my strength. Into Your
hand I commit my spirit: You have redeemed me, O Lord God of
truth.
In Matthew 27:50, as Jesus
died, we find, “…, when He had cried again with a loud voice, (He) yielded
up the ghost.” Luke clarifies what the cry was in Luke 23:46, “And
when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into Your hands I
commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost.”
Psalm 31:6-8 I have hated them that regard lying
vanities: but I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy: for You have
considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities; And have not shut
me up into the hand of the enemy: You have set my feet in a large room.
We see the psalmist speaking faith
and trusting God, praising God, in spite of the difficult situation he is
facing. We find Jesus acting the same throughout His passion. Many Christian
martyrs, as a result, have been able to follow Jesus’
example in their own time of trial.
Psalm 31:9 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: my eye is
consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
We can visualize Jesus in the
Garden of Gethsemane using such words as we find in Psalm 31 and other
such psalms as He sweat blood in prayer.
Luke 22:44-46 “And being in agony He prayed more earnestly: and His
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. And when He
rose up from prayer, He found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them, Why
do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”
Psalm 31:10 For my life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing: my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my
bones are consumed.
Jesus was “despised
and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as
it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely,
He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him
stricken of God, and afflicted,” Isaiah 53:3-4.
Jesus, however, had no iniquity of
His own. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we
are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his
own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” “For the
transgressions of My people was He stricken,” Isaiah 53:5-6,8b.
Jesus Himself was
without sin. Therefore, Jesus’ soul was the
perfect offering for our sins, because His soul was sinless. God made Him bare or
carry our sin. He bore our iniquities on the cross. Isaiah’s prophecy says,
“God saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied.” For without the shedding
of blood there can be no remission of sin, Hebrews 9:22. For it
is the blood that makes atonement for the soul, Leviticus 17:11. (Animal
sacrifice in the Old Testament were a foretelling of what Christ would do)
Jesus said at the last supper when
he gave the cup for His disciples to drink that, “This is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins,” Matthew 26:28. We are
cleansed from our sins through Jesus’ death on the cross to all those that
believe. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous, Romans 5:19. “For He (God) has made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”, 2 Corinthians 5:21. We that believe have put on Christ
and are covered with His righteousness, the righteousness which is by faith, to
those that believe, Romans 4.
However, during our own moments of
testing, the Enemy will bring our sins before us and try to persuade us that
God has abandoned us. He will tell us that our sins are too great to be
forgiven, and therefore, we can’t procure God’s mercy. If we believe his lies, we will fall into
despair. Jonah wrote, “They that observe (or believe) lying vanities (the
Devil’s lies) forsake their own mercy,” Jonah 2:8.
Don’t listen to those lies. God’s mercy
endures forever to those that seek for it. Be
like Jonah and offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Our salvation is
of the Lord. We can’t do it in our own strength. We are not strong enough. Jesus
has done it for us. All we have to do is believe and receive, and we shall be
saved and have victory!
Psalm 31:11 I was a reproach among all my
enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to my acquaintance:
they that did see me without fled from me.
Again, we see with Jesus, His
disciples fleeing and hiding in the face of His capture by the Jewish
authorities. Peter denies he knows Jesus three times. Only the young Apostle
John appears at the cross with the women at Jesus’ death.
Psalm 31:12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of
mind: I am like a broken vessel.
In Psalm 22:14-15, we find
the prophetic picture of Jesus on the cross.
“I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of
joint: My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. My
strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaves to My jaws; and You
have brought Me into the dust of death.”
When suffering persecution, we can
feel lost and disorientated, weak and discouraged. We can even lose faith.
Psalm 31:13 For I have heard the slander of
many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they
devised to take away my life.
The Jewish leaders conspired
against Jesus and had Him condemned to death by the secular Roman authorities.
Mark 11:18 “And the scribes and chief priests heard it, (that Jesus had cast
the moneychangers out of the temple compound), and sought how they might
destroy Him: for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His
doctrine.”
Luke 20:19-20 “And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to
lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that He had
spoken this parable, (about the vineyard the wicked husbandmen), against them.
And they watched Him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just
men, that they might take hold of His words, that so they might deliver Him
unto the power and authority of the governor.”
After Jesus’ resurrection, Peter convicts
the men in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost: “Him (Jesus of Nazareth), being delivered by the determined counsel and
fore-knowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain,” Acts 2:23.
Psalm 31:14-15 But I trusted in You, O Lord: I said, You are my God. My times
are in Your hand: deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from them that
persecute me.
Jesus may have prayed Psalm 31 in His moments of despair in the Garden of Gethsemane. Our times
are also in God’s hands. Whether He delivers us from our enemies during
the days of Great Tribulation, or not, we will follow our Christian
predecessors, and Jesus’ example, and not deny our faith. We will commit our
times and our lives into God’s hand, and let His will be done, rather than our own.
Psalm 31:16 Make Your face to shine upon Your
servant: save me for Your mercies' sake.
God’s Holy Spirit will come and strengthen us, just as
Jesus was strengthen by an angel in His moment of trial and affliction.
Luke 22:43 “And there
appeared an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.”
When Stephen was brought before
the council for questioning, which would end up in his death, “all that sat in
the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face
of an angel,” Acts 6:15. As the stoned Stephen, he called upon God,
saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and lay not this sin to their charge,” Acts
7:59-60.
Psalm 31:17-18 Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon You: let
the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips
be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously
against the righteous.
Jesus said, “For
whosoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be
ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and
of the holy angels,” Luke 9:26.
Psalm 31:19 Oh how great is Your goodness,
which You have laid up for them that fear You; which You have wrought for them
that trust in You before the sons of men!
We can count of God’s
faithfulness. “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I
confess also before My father which is in heaven,” Matthew 10:32.
Psalm 31:20 You shall hide them in the secret
of Your presence from the pride of man: You shall keep them secretly in a
pavilion from the strife of tongues.
When Jesus is speaking to the
churches in the book of Revelation, He promises a special blessing on those
with little strength of their own, who keep His word, and do not deny His name,
Revelation 3:8. He says to them,
Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept the word of My patience, I also will keep you
from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon the world, to try them that
dwell upon the earth.”
In another Psalm of David,
we see a similar thought.
Psalm 27:5 “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in
the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.”
Jesus Himself is that rock on
which we are set. He will keep us from the “pride of man.”
One commentator translates “pride
of man” as the “conspiracies of men.” The evil men who conspire against the just and true,
and with their words they condemn them.
Jesus will keep us from the “strife
of tongues,” which sounds similar to the “confusion of tongues,” which took
place at Babel in Genesis 11. Today, we see Babel resurrected in Babylon
the Whore of Revelation 17-18, the world-wide mercantile
city system of the last days. God’s word admonishes,
Revelation 18:4b “Come out from her, my people, that you be not partakers of her
sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.”
Psalm 31:21 Blessed be the Lord: for He has showed me His
marvellous kindness in a strong city.
The “strong city” is the heavenly city, the holy city, New Jerusalem, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. That’s the city of
God which awaits those that are
faithful unto the end.
Hebrews 11:16b “Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has
prepared for them a city.
Revelation 21:2-3 “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He
will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be
with them, and be their God.”
Psalm 31:22 For I said in my haste, I am cut
off from before Your eyes: nevertheless, You heard the voice of my
supplications when I cried unto You.
Jesus was seemingly cut off from
the land of the living. God did not save Him on the cross. Elijah did not
appear and take Him down and rescue Him. However, in the Old Testament, we see that God was satisfied with the travail of Jesus’ soul,
for He bore our iniquities and justified us before God, Isaiah 53:11.
Even in seeming defeat, Jesus has gotten us the victory. In the New Testament we read,
1 John 3:8b “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might
destroy the works of the devil.” “That through death He might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil. And deliver them who through fear of
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,” Hebrews 2:14b-15.
Psalm 31:23-24 O love the Lord, all you His saints: for the Lord preserves the faithful, and plentifully rewards the proud doer.
Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you that hope
in the Lord.
The psalmist admonishes us to keep
the faith, to fight the good fight, to be of good courage, to faint not, to be
strong. We can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us. He is our
blessed hope.
Titus 2:13-14 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for
us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a
peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Philippians
1:6 “Being confident of this very thing,
that He that has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of
Jesus Christ.”
1
Thessalonians 5:8-9 “But let us who are of
the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a
helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Hold on to your crown, beloved! “Behold,
I come quickly: hold that fast which you have, that no man takes your crown.” “Be
faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.” Revelation
3:11, & 2:10b.
Thursday, January 30, 2025
God’s Presence in Times of Loneliness
Treasures
Audio length: 12:00
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God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.—Ephesians 1:5
The Bible tells us that God created Adam and Eve in His image (Genesis 1:27–28). He created humankind for relationship, as He Himself exists eternally in relationship—God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As beings created in His image, we naturally seek relationship, friendship, and community.
God didn’t intend for people to face life alone or to live in isolation from others (Romans 12:5; Ecclesiastes 4:9–12). He intended for humankind to live, love, and share their lives with others (Hebrews 10:24–25). However, the great fragmentation of family life and communities that has taken place in contemporary culture has created what has been referred to as an “epidemic of loneliness.”
In today’s world, self-sufficiency and independence are elevated and considered virtues. The myth of independence and self-reliance exalted in the media, social media, and advertising promote the message that to admit that as human beings we need each other is a sign of weakness. We are told that individuals should look out for themselves first and foremost, and seek self-fulfillment. And yet we see that loneliness and isolation are some of the great ills of our time. Social isolation and loneliness are a greater risk to human flourishing than in previous periods of history where greater interdependence existed and community life was the fabric of society.
When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are adopted into God’s family as children of God for eternity (John 1:12). “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1). God is our Father (2 Corinthians 6:18) and Jesus has called us His friends (John 15:15). We are heirs to the kingdom of God (Romans 8:14–17) and we belong to His family—His church, the body of believers (Ephesians 2:19–22).
These inalterable truths are ours as Christians—even if we find ourselves alone in this world and struggling with loneliness and isolation. Our hope is not in this world, but in heaven. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For … your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1–4).
There is a deep sense of sadness and despair when we feel that we are alone in the world and are friendless, that no one cares for us personally or would be there for us in our deepest time of need. David in the Bible experienced a deep sense of loneliness at times and cried out to God in his despair. “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalm 25:16). And later in the psalms, he goes on to proclaim: “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home” (Psalm 68:5–6).
God wants us to love others and be in relationship with other people, which is how He designed us as human beings, and commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). But the first place in our hearts and lives must be reserved for Him. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Only Jesus can satisfy our soul and will never leave nor forsake us, and nothing will ever separate us from His love (Romans 8:38–39).
Saint Augustine (354–430 AD) once wrote: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” God has created a special place in our hearts that only He can fill. The human spirit, that intangible personality of the real you that dwells in your body, can never be completely satisfied with anything but utter union with the great and loving Spirit who created it.
The world will try to satisfy that longing in your soul,
You may search the wide world over but you’ll be just as before.
You’ll never find true satisfaction until you’ve found the Lord,
For only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
And only He can change your heart and make you whole;
He’ll give you peace you never knew
Sweet love and joy and Heaven too,
For only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
—Lanny Wolfe
There are times when the Lord allows us to experience loneliness, and He empathizes with us during those times. The Bible tells us that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). Sometimes the Lord allows us, His children, to feel lonesome to draw us closer to Him and to enrich and deepen our relationship with Him and remind us that our eternal future is with Him. We are reminded that, as the old gospel song expresses, “this world is not our home, we’re just passing through.”
The story is told of the famous Christian songwriter, George Matheson (1842–1906). He was deeply in love and soon to be married, when his doctor broke the news to him that he was losing his sight and would be a blind man within six months. He was heartbroken, and he didn’t think it fair to his fiancée to not tell her the truth and give her the choice whether to go ahead with the marriage.
So he went to her house that night and they sat on the couch holding hands and chatting about the day, until finally he plucked up the courage to tell her the news that he would be blind by their wedding date. He felt her hand quiver and loosen its grasp, as it was withdrawn from his, and she burst into tears and said, “I’m so sorry, George, but I can’t marry you!”
Crushed, and heartsick, his whole world falling apart, he walked despondently back to his home, where he sat down alone at his desk and thought about how the only thing that he had left in the world was Jesus. Then he took a piece of paper and his old quill pen and he wrote a hymn that has since been a comfort to millions:
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee.
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain,
that morn shall tearless be.
The wonderful thing about being a Christian is that you will never again be completely alone—no matter what you face in this world—because you will always have Jesus. Even when everything else has passed away, you will still have Jesus. When others forsake you or loved ones depart from this life, Jesus will always be with you. When friends and family desert you because they are not willing to accept that you’ve become a Christian, you will still have Jesus. Jesus promised, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). When it seems like there is nothing left for you in this world, you will still have Jesus—and He is enough.
Another reason why the Lord sometimes allows Christians to experience loneliness is so that they will reach out to other lonely hearts with Jesus’ love and comfort. There are so many people around us each day who are lonely and seeking for true love and eternal hope, as we once were before we were adopted into God’s family (Ephesians 1:5). You can step out by faith and talk to someone today about Jesus and help them to find eternal joy—not just friendship and companionship, but the love of God that will satisfy their deepest need for love and fellowship forever (1 John 4:8).
Reach out to someone today and discover what wonders God’s love can do. You’ll find peace and joy and fulfillment in your own life as you reach out to other lonely hearts. As you show outgoing concern and care for them, you can point them to the Lord, who is the only one who can truly satisfy the deepest longings of every heart. As you guide them to the Bible, they will find truth, answers, hope, and promise for the future, no matter what circumstances they face on earth.
God’s love and Word is meant to be shared with others, and the love He places in your heart is meant to be given away freely. “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back” (Luke 6:38). If you’re sincerely concerned about others and share God’s love with them, God has promised that, as you give and share with others, He will pour back into your life.
As Christians, we know that Jesus alone can satisfy the deepest yearning of every human heart for love, acceptance, and understanding. He is the only one who can truly satisfy that emptiness and loneliness that we all experience at times in our lives. When we remind ourselves of the beautiful promises He has made regarding all that awaits us in the next life in heaven, this helps to remind us that the trials and tribulations of this present life are not worth comparing to the glory that has been promised to us in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:18).
From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished January 2025. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.
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Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death - Psalm 30
Dennis Edwards
A Reflection on Psalm 30
Psalm 30:1 “I will extol Thee, O Lord; for You have
lifted me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.”
David is giving God thanks that his enemies, including his
father-in-law, the former King who sought to slay him, have not been victorious
over him.
Psalm 30:2-3 “O Lord my God, I cried unto You, and
You have healed me. O Lord, You have brought up my soul from the grave: You
have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.”
Again, David is thanking the Lord that he is alive. The Lord
answered him when he cried and healed him from his depression or from his sickness,
in so much, that he did not die. He is thankful.
Psalm 30:4 “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His,
and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.”
A common thread throughout the psalms is thanksgiving and
praise to God for His goodness unto the children of men. It is good for us to
give thanks and praise unto the Lord. The last verse in the last psalm gives the
main messages of the Psalms.
Psalm 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise
the LORD. Praise ye the LORD:”
Or like we know it in the New Testament,
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Psalm 30:5 “For His anger endures but a moment; in
His favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the
morning.”
The Old Testament tells us that God is slow to anger and
merciful. When God appeared before Moses the Lord proclaimed to him,
Exodus 34:6b-7a “(I) The Lord, The Lord God (am)
merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
The same idea is paraphrased in the psalms.
Psalm 134:8-9 “The Lord is gracious, and full of
compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and His
tender mercies are great over all His works.”
Some 44 times in the Psalms is repeated the phrase, “His
mercy endures for ever.”
Psalm 118: 1-4 & 29 “O give thanks unto the LORD;
for His is good: because His mercy endures for ever. Let Israel now say, that His
mercy endures for ever. Let the house of Aaron now say, that His mercy endures
for ever. Let them now that fear the LORD say, that His mercy endures for
ever…O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endures for
ever.”
Psalm 136:1 “O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is
good: for His mercy endures for ever.”
Psalm 136 has 26 lines and each line ends with “for His
mercy endures for ever.”
Contrary to the idea that the God of the Old Testament is a
monster, God proclaims that He is good and merciful and slow to anger. When He
does get angry at us for our rebellion or sin, it lasts but for a moment. We
may end up with a serious problem because of our sin, our health may be
damaged, or a relationship may be broken, but as we cry out to God with our
tears, His compassion fails not. We are once more brought back into harmony
with Him and our problem is resolved, whatever it may have been. Joy comes
flooding back into our lives.
Psalm 30:6 “In my prosperity I said, I shall never be
moved.”
God warned the children of Israel, and He warns us today to
beware of prosperity.
Deuteronomy 9:11,12,14,17,18,19 “Beware that you
forget not the Lord your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His
judgments, and His statutes,…Lest when you have eaten and are full,…Then your
heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God,… And you say in your
heart, My power and the might of mine (own) hand has gotten me this wealth. But
you shall remember the Lord your God: for it is He that gives you power to get
wealth…And it shall be, if you do at all forget the Lord your God, and walk
after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this
day that you shall surely perish.”
Psalm 62:10b “If riches increase, set not your heart
upon them.”
Apostle Paul, admonished us, also.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 “But godliness with contentment is
great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can
carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But
they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love
of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have
erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
In our prosperity we have the tendency to forget God. David is
confessing that he, too, forgot God in His prosperity He sinned grievously in
the incident with Bathsheba. God’s anger was upon him for a moment. David
confessed and truly repented and found forgiveness in God’s mercy.
Psalm 30:7 “Lord, by Your favour You have made my
mountain to stand strong: You did hide Your face, and I was troubled.”
It is only God’s mercy that we are able to stand. If we were
rightly judged for our sins, no one would stand. When our relationship with God
becomes cloudy through neglect or sin, we sense his lack and anxiety comes in
and we are troubled.
Psalm 30:8 “I cried to thee, O Lord; and unto the
Lord I made supplication.”
When we are troubled, when that cloud over shadows us, we
cry unto the Lord once again. Apostle Paul gives the same solution to our
moments of anxiety. He tells us, if we
cry unto the Lord in prayer and in supplication with thanksgiving, God will
hear our prayer and send peace of heart and mind unto our souls.
Philippians 4:6-7 “Be careful for nothing; but in
every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Psalm 30:9 “What profit is there in my blood, when I
go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare Your truth?”
David questions whether in death we will be able to praise
the Lord and speak of his truth.
Psalm 30:10 “Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me:
LORD, be my helper.”
Again, he calls upon the Lord for mercy. He calls upon God
to help him.
Psalm 30:11-12 You have turned my morning into
dancing: You have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. To the end
that my glory may sing praise to You, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will
give thanks unto You for ever.”
When God’s joy is taken from us, we become weak, downcast,
and discouraged. After we spend time pleading with God, pouring out our heart
and soul in prayer, seeking His face; God answers and renews or restores our
joy. It is the joy of the Lord that gives us strength. Once again, we are able
to sing and to praise and to give thanks. We enter into His presence with
praise, and with thanksgiving, and we cannot be silent for His mercy endures
for ever.
If you’re downcast, don’t stay there, fight for joy. The joy
of the Lord, His happiness, your praise to Him, your thankfulness to Him, will
give you the strength to carry on. Don’t mettle in discouragement, for the
devil is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He devours and smothers
our joy in sadness or melancholiness. Fight for joy, it’s your lifeline. It’s
God strength in you and a gift of the Holy Spirit. Fight for happiness. In
everything give thanks. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, who is the
author and finisher of our faith. Praise the Lord, you children of men, for
God is worthy of our praise. He will bless us and help chase the clouds away,
as we praise and give thanks to Him forever.
