The Psalm
Psalm 9:9-20
Confitebor tibi
9 The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed, *
a refuge in time of trouble.
10 Those who know your Name will put their trust in you, *
for you never forsake those who seek you, O Lord.
11 Sing praise to the Lord who dwells in Zion; *
proclaim to the peoples the things he has done.
12 The Avenger of blood will remember them; *
he will not forget the cry of the afflicted.
13 Have pity on me, O Lord; *
see the misery I suffer from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gate of death;
14 So that I may tell of all your praises
and rejoice in your salvation *
in the gates of the city of Zion.
15 The ungodly have fallen into the pit they dug, *
and in the snare they set is their own foot caught.
16 The Lord is known by his acts of justice; *
the wicked are trapped in the works of their own hands.
17 The wicked shall be given over to the grave, *
and also all the peoples that forget God.
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten, *
and the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever.
19 Rise up, O Lord, let not the ungodly have the upper hand; *
let them be judged before you.
20 Put fear upon them, O Lord; *
let the ungodly know they are but mortal.
Comment: No! We are not celebrating the Celtics basketball ( My wife’s second team….first one the Warriors…mine Lebron and the Lakers..happy wife happy life…so I was rooting for them last night ) victory #18.
No! We are not celebrating “ rally round the West Indies”; our victory over Afghanistan last night in the World Cup. I’ve started watching West Indies again on TV, after a long hiatus. Didn’t trust them with my heart. We’ll see how it goes from here on. No! Not a waggonist, just protecting myself from disappointment with a game I love with a passion.
No! Our hearts are set at a different level altogether. That “ The Eternal God is our ( my …thy…) refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms”. Which is the eternal message from the Psalm above, appointed for next Sunday in the Liturgical cycle of readings.
The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed, *
a refuge in time of trouble…. A God who is a refuge for the oppressed, and a God who is there for us in a time of trouble…A faithful God, in whom there is no shadow of turning. Great is His faithfulness indeed.
10 Those who know your Name will put their trust in you, *
for you never forsake those who seek you, O Lord……..those who know your Son Christ Jesus, the crucified and risen One, will put their trust in the God of Jeshurin. The Holy One of Israel.
Have pity on me, O Lord; *
see the misery I suffer from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gate of death;
14 So that I may tell of all your praises
and rejoice in your salvation *
in the gates of the city of Zion.
So that I may tell of all your praises…..
Case in point, as we follow the recommendations of Oswald Chambers to read the Bible “ in the flesh and passion of life”, is that I don’t like flying. Flown all over the world, but still it is not my favorite mode of travel. Went on two 12 hour trips, was very comfortable…..in a big plane …..and have been to London quite a few times to attend conferences, sometimes only spending a couple of days and then back in the air again to the Rock. So the Lord knows my pain. And in addition so does the evil one who persecutes me sometimes for weeks before I travel, placing all kinds of fearful and catastrophic thoughts in my head. Well, thank God for Jesus, coming back home last Saturday, the night before ( had to awake at 1:30…to catch a 6:am flight out of Toronto ….Vivienne’s sister with whom we stayed lives 100 K out of Toronto ) the Lord placed this verse in my head all night long. Just like how the wind blew all night long to part the Red Sea…just came to mind
“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, ‘Destroy them!’”
Deuteronomy 33:27 NIV
And my fears were calmed. But there is more. Have a look at the verse above:
““There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides across the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.”
Deuteronomy 33:26 NIV
…..rides on across the heavens to help you. O Jesus have mercy. What a blessed assurance as I flew down to Miami and landed safely. In the rain!
And there is more still. Yes! O Jesus. This is what the Lord also placed in my heart to counter the wickedness of the evil one:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV
Mercy! And so with confidence I placed every negative thought from the evil one in captivity to the Lord Jesus. For how dare he set himself up against the Word of God which assured me of divine intervention.
The key lesson to take home from this act of mercy by the God of Jeshurun, the God of Jacob, is that truly, in all circumstances He is a God who is a Refuge for all who trust in Him. In all circumstances, whether born of fear or reality!
And the second part of the Psalm reminds us that :
15 The ungodly have fallen into the pit they dug, *
and in the snare they set is their own foot caught.
16 The Lord is known by his acts of justice; *
the wicked are trapped in the works of their own hands.
17 The wicked shall be given over to the grave, *
and also all the peoples that forget God
For the needy shall not always be forgotten, *
and the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever……because truly The Eternal God is our Refuge, the wicked and the evil shall not reign over our people forever. Murderers and the corrupt and the immoral and the greedy and the wife beaters and child abusers and tempters of the weak and vulnerable, and those who fashion and maintain #wrongaddresses, shall not reign forever in this land. Nor in the USA. Nor in Israel…murderers of the innocent and the civilian . Nor in Gaza – child and women killers…collateral damage.
That’s the big picture, and not only the private affairs of the weak and the vulnerable. Thank God for Jesus, in whom according to the hymn writer “ Yet I can love thee too O Lord, Almighty as thou art, for thou hast stooped to ask of me, the love of my poor heart”. This great God who is our Refuge and our strength in times of trouble. Blessed be the ones who trusts in the name of Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Risen and soon coming again to Judge the living and the dead, One. One fine day!
A day when :
19 Rise up, O Lord, let not the ungodly have the upper hand; *
let them be judged before you.
Put fear upon them, O Lord; *
let the ungodly know they are but mortal.
And that Day according to the Word of God is :
“So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.”
Hebrews 3:7-14 NIV
So having been encouraged I write to “ encourage one another daily”, so that the church may be renewed by our trust in the Living God who is our Refuge, and His Son Christ Jesus who died for our sins and fears and evil. So that the renewed church may help to renew the nation(s) where People’s hearts are aways going astray, and have not known the ways of the God of Jeshurun and the love of his Son Christ Jesus.
In obedience
Shalom
LWJ
Hallelujah
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