Psalm 74: Cruel Sufferings – Faithful Sufferers! 1. Reasoning with God in Suffering Psalm 74:1

Text: “Oh God, why hast Thou cast us off for ever?  Why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture?

Psalm 74:1.

Good morning, suffering Christian!  When you and I suffer as Spiritually regenerate Christians, we often know we are suffering because of some failing in our obedience to our Holy Lord God – in word, in thought, or in deed.  However, we also know that the Lord in all His grace and mercy has made a way for us to repent of that failing, that sin, that straying from the path of righteousness – and therefore we can make our way, reverently, to His throne of grace, to find mercy in time of need. We Christians often suffer constantly because of our sins.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”  (Hebrews 4:16)

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.”  (1 John 1:9-10)

As natural born sinners, we have always a way back to full obedience with the Lord God, our Creator Lord God Who gave mankind His Ten Commandments for one reason only – to show us that we could never fully keep them, and therefore needed a Saviour, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from all our sins.

However, it is when this type of suffering for sin becomes prolonged that we begin to become so very weary and distressed; when it seems like the Heavens are as brass, and that our prayers of repentance and seeking forgiveness are just not being heard by God.  This seems to be where the Psalmist has arrived here at the commencement of Psalm 74.

Verse 1. “O God, why hast Thou cast us off for ever? To cast us off at all were hard, but when Thou dost for so long a time desert Thy people, it is an evil beyond all endurance – the very chief of woes and abyss of misery.  Sin is usually at the bottom of all the hidings of the Lord’s face; let us ask the Lord to reveal the special form of it to us, that we may repent of it, overcome it, and henceforth forsake it.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 320)

An Instructive Purpose: Suffering in our Christian life and experience is given to us by God in order to instruct us in the way we should walk, in the way we should live our lives for Christ.  God the Holy Spirit condescends to come and take up abode within each and every soul redeemed by the precious, sinless Blood of Christ Jesus.  We become His temple.

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are.”  (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

When Christians commit sin – in any degree or form – we cause immediate grief to God the Holy Spirit living within us.  God cannot abide sin.  We must flee far from it.

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”  (Ephesians 4:29-32) 

We now realise that Spiritual suffering has an instructive purpose for God’s people. Sin separates us from the glow of Gods face, and we grieve the loss of His fellowship.

“Title: “Maschil of Asaph.” An instructive Psalm by Asaph.  The history of the suffering church is always edifying; when we see how the faithful trusted and wrestled with their God in times of dire distress, we are thereby taught how to behave ourselves under similar circumstances; we learn, moreover, that when the fiery trial befalls us, no strange things have happened unto us, we are following the trail of the host of God.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 320)

Suffering and Serving:  Sin is not the only reason the genuine Christian suffers.  Suffering seems to be a part and parcel of the lot of the most faithfully serving saints.  We often suffer not realising WHY we are suffering.  Such sufferings can be the Lord God’s way of testing us, as He did with the faithful Job, in order to make us even stronger in the service of Christ.

Verse 1. “Why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture?  Suffering in the Sovereign will of the Lord God becomes a God-ordained privilege for the Christian, when once we realise that it is sent against ‘the sheep’ of God’s pasture, and not the goats!  Such trials and sufferings only serve to assure you and I that we are indeed, ‘His sheep’.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them Eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.  My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck then out of My Father’s hand.  I and My Father are ONE.”  (John 10:27-30)

Verse 1. “…the sheep of Thy pasture. There is nothing more imbecile than a sheep: simple, frugal, gentle, tame, patient, prolific, timid, domesticated, stupid, useful.  Therefore, while the name of sheep is here used, it is suggested how pressing the necessity is for Divine assistance and how well-befitting the Most High it would be to make their cause His own.” (Lorinus John,1569-1634)

“Lord God? Why am I suffering at this present time, and for so long a period? Please reveal this unto me, that I may be encouraged to persevere in Thy service?” This may well be your reasoning with the Lord today, beloved Reader. (Isaiah 1:18)

The history of the suffering church of Christ Jesus, reveals unto us today, how we must endure suffering for reasons known only to the Lord God, but it is only ‘His sheep’ that suffer such times of hardness and day to day difficulties.  Knowing we are ‘His sheep’ is a very real encouraging assurance to us.  It is only Christ’s sheep that are going to Heaven.

Thought: “And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats (unsaved) on the left.  Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come ye, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  (Matthew 25:33-34)

8. A Forever Conclusion Psalm 73:26-28

Text: “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion FOREVER.”

Psalm 73:26.

Good morning, forever-settled Christian!  Since from before the foundation of the world, the Lord God has elected you and the author to be His Fatherly gift to His Eternal Son, Jesus Christ. Scriptural fact!

In time, God the Holy Spirit quickened us by His regeneration power, to be what the Lord God in His Sovereignty pre-ordained us to be – “…new creatures in Christ Jesus.” Scriptural fact!

Wow!  What a profound, yet simply understood, wonder of the Lord God’s Sovereign and Triune grace to Hell-deserving sinners such as we!  Glory to the Lamb Who is worthy! Glory to the Father of Sovereign grace!  Glory to the Holy Spirit of Eternal quickening!  Amen.

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ: grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”  (1 Peter 1:2)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be Holy and without blame before Him in love.”  (Ephesians 1:3-6)

“All that the Father giveth Me (Christ Jesus) shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.  For I came down from Heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.”  (John 6:37-38)

“And you hath He quickened (made Spiritually alive), who were dead (Spiritually dead) in trespasses and sins…Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;).  (Ephesians 2:1;5)

Knowing that the Lord God, the Creator of all things - Omnipotent, Omniscient; and ever-present God – has had, and will forever have, all pertaining to you and I firmly in His own hand and Divine will, brings us an Eternal relief from everything else that we might face in the duration of our puny lives upon planet earth.  Our destiny has a forever conclusion!

Verse 26. “My flesh and my heart faileth.  Now, here is a fact that few Christians would be foolish enough to refute.  The strongest Christian woman is still merely a fallible woman.  The strongest Christian man, is still merely a fallible man.  “…The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)

Were we Christians, no matter how fervent, or committed to Christ, to begin to depend or rely on our own strength in order to do Spiritual Battle with the powers of darkness – we would very quickly realise the impossibility of such a mammoth task. 

Show me the professing Christian who has never failed in his/her faith and Spiritual strength – and I will show you a bare-faced liar!  Show me the Christian who has never felt totally overwhelmed by the world, the flesh, and the Devil – and I will show you Christ Jesus, and Him alone!

“There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:22-23)

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us…If we say we have not sinned, we make Him (Christ Jesus) a liar, and His Word is not in us.”  (1 John 1:8-10)

It is only when Christians can honestly assess ourselves at this depth that we can admit the reality of our weaknesses, faults, and failings.  It is only when we servants of Christ can get to this stage of personal honest assessment – that self-righteousness is taken away from us, and we can learn to totally depend upon the Living Lord God and His Omnipotent strength.

Verse 26. “…God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.  Through all the troubles of my life, and my trial at death, my heart is ready to fail me, yet I have a strong cordial which will cheer me in my saddest condition: God is the strength of my heart.”  (George Swinnock, 1627-1673)

Verse 26. “And my portion forever. Without alteration, this God will be my God forever and ever, my Guide and aid unto death: nay, death, which dissolveth so many bonds, and untieth such close knots, shall never part me and my portion, but give me a perfect and everlasting possession of it.” (George Swinnock, 1627-1673)

In these God-inspired verses of Psalm 73, we find a concept that was so very relevant then, in the Psalmist's time in history, and still so very relevant today, in this 21^st Century of increased apostasy and an easy-believism that frightens the life out of us! 

Our KJV Bible is, in my humble opinion, God’s own breathed inspiration message to us, ‘His people’.  Others may disparage this doctrine of written infallibility in God’s Word, but many like myself do not, and will not give way on this profound belief.  Without the Word of God, written in a most dependable translation, our core belief system as Christians is immediately undermined. 

Modernism, Liberalism, Humanism, and Easy-believism are a bane on the promotion of God inspired faith in Christ, and in daily Christian practice and Holiness!

Verse 27. “For lo (look and understand), they that are far from Thee shall perish.  Why shall they perish?  Because they are far from God.  Simple, but most profound statement.

Verse 27.  “…Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from Thee. God has, and will continue to destroy all those that go a whoring from Him, that corrupt His Word; that teach/preach ‘another gospel…’; that teach error and join in unity with those that do. Fact!

Verse 28. “But it is good for me to draw near to God.  Continual confession of sins/faults to the Lord God; continually being ‘…washed by the washing of the Word…’; continuing on in prayerful fellowship with the Lord, day by day – is what we theologians call Progressive Sanctification.  What a totally GOOD it is for us to be permitted of God to draw close to Him in sincere worship, thanksgiving and praise.  Bless the Lord, Oh my soul!

Thought: Thank you, Lord, that we have a Forever Conclusion with Thee, In Christ.

7. Our Sure Relief! Psalm 73:22-25

Text: “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee.  Nevertheless, I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand.”

Psalm 73:22-23.

Good morning, Scripturally relieved Christian!  Oh, the anguish, the murmuring, the fretfulness we put ourselves through – when, even for an instant, we begin to view the unsaved world all around us in their apparent prosperity, joy, and untroubled peace; we begin, even for that moment, to believe Satan’s lies; to think that, perhaps, we have got it all wrong; that our faith in Christ was a fiction of our human minds; that the Lord God we have totally depended upon had, in some manner, abandoned us, cast us off, let us down.  NEVER!  Perish the thought!

Then, as soon as we opened our Bibles, God’s inspired Word to us, and reread His promises to us contained therein – we received a similar wave of utter relief from depression of spirit; oppression from Satan and self; and knew afresh the assurance of a Sovereign Lord God Who holds us fast within His Omnipotent hand.  Glory to the Lamb Who is worthy!  Amen.

“Sanctify them (God’s people) through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.”  (John 17:17)

The Psalmist rebuked himself before the Lord, when similarly reassured by God, that although his lot in life was often most difficult, while the ungodly enjoyed comparative outer peace – those roles would be Eternally reversed, making the hard times on earth all that more worth it to have endured them.  Heaven would be entered only by the narrow road, the strait gate, that leads there.

“Enter ye in at the strait (difficult) gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”     (Matthew 7:13-14)

Verse 22. “So foolish was I, and ignorant. Here is the passport to close fellowship and full assurance with God.  Open realisation of, and confession of, one’s doubts and sin.  The Spirit of God, God the Spirit, cannot led us into the way that leadeth to life, before we consciously leave the wrong paths of doubt, and dread we may be currently traversing.  Repentance from error, and embracing of God’s promises in full and open confession of sin to Him – always leads us into close fellowship with Him Who knows all about us anyhow!  Praise His gracious Name!

“I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants…But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry.” (Luke 15:20-23)

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:8-9)

Verse 22. “I was as a beast before Thee. I permitted my mind to be wholly occupied with sensible things (my own understanding), like the beasts that perish, and did not look into a future state, nor did I consider nor submit to the wise designs of an unerring Providence.”  (Adam Clarke, 1760-1832)

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart (inner being/essence); and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him (in His Word) and He shall direct thy paths.”  (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Note: From verse 23 to the end of the Psalm there is a clear gaining, and increasing, of the Psalmist’s faith in God’s good Providence and grace.  The Psalmist seems to lift up in spirit with each new verse of God-inspired Scripture written. A refreshing of his knowledge of Whom, exactly, God is, and all His gracious attributes exercised towards His Blood-bought people, lifts the spirit of the Psalmist from a state of doubt-filled murmuring and envy of the prosperous wicked, to a spirit of utter praise and love for the Lord God of Heaven, his deliverer.

Verse 23. “Nevertheless I am continually with Thee.   He does not give up his faith, though he confesses his folly.  Sin may distress us, and yet we may be in communion with God. It is a sin beloved and delighted in which separates us from the Lord, but when we bewail it heartily, the Lord will not withdraw from us.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 318)

Verse 24. “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel. “Thy Word is a lamp onto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

Verse 24. “…And afterwards receive me to glory.  All the afflictions, testing, trials, sufferings of this life as a Christian, shall fade into insignificance when we - by God’s Sovereign grace, and trust in Christ Jesus’ full Atonement Sacrifice for our sins – are received by the Lord God into Heaven’s Holy glory.  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!

Verse 25. “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.  This is a verse that the poor Papist cannot pray with honesty – for he/she is erroneously taught by Rome that he/she may pray to Mary, to Joseph, to other Biblical figures, and to those many other human sinners that have been declared ‘saints’ by religious Popes and Prelates.  How sad to see how duped so many millions of, otherwise, religious people are by a religious system that has a ‘…form of godliness, but denies the power thereof…’!  (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Verse 25. “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee?  And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.  What are saints?  What are angels to a soul without God? ‘Tis true of things as well as of persons.  What have we in Heaven but God?  What’s joy without God?  What’s glory without God?   What’s all the furniture and riches, all the delicacies, yea, all the diadems of Heaven, without the God of Heaven?  If God should say to the saints, ‘Here is Heaven, take it amongst you, but I will withdraw Myself,’ how would they weep over Heaven itself, and make it a Baca, a valley of tears indeed?  Heaven is not Heaven unless we enjoy God.  ‘Tis the Presence of God which makes Heaven: glory is but our nearest being unto God.”  (Joseph Caryl,1602-1673)

Thought: Heaven is not Heaven, without God.  Heaven without a desire for Holiness – would be Hell to those that go there.  Christian relief is found in the sure Word of God.