Text: “Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast
laid up for them that fear thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in
Thee before the sons of men!
Psalm 31:19.
Good morning, Divinely turned
Christian! Often, in the midst of
terrible times and circumstances throughout our lives, just when we think our
faith is about to be totally overwhelmed by grief, tragedies, loss of comforts;
financial and emotional distress - the Lord grants us a new perspective on all
things, He grants us a Divine turning point.
Hallelujah! Praise His most
gracious and Holy Name! Our God loves
us!
“The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore
with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel;
thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets and shalt go forth in the dances
of them that make merry.” (Jeremiah
31:3-4)
From the commencement of Psalm
31: until this nineteenth verse, the Psalmist has been crying out to the Lord
for His Divine help, reassurance, and deliverance from his foes. Now, in verse nineteen, we see a startling
change as he is blessed with what I have titled ‘A Divine Turning Point’. Praise God for such Divinely granted turning
points in our lives of Spiritual warfare!
Without such we would surely be overwhelmed by our constant and often
ruthless and fierce Spiritual and physical oppositions.
Listen to the tenor of the
Psalmist’s cries changing as the reader reaches this turning point in the
Psalm. His change of outward expression
is brought about by the inner remembrance
of the Lord God’s goodness within his heart; the Spirit of God instructs
his soul that the mercies of God endure forever; that God’s gift of Salvation
is not a gift from a giver who suddenly takes the graciously given gift
back. Immediately the entire tone of the
Psalm changes from one of distress and fear of being overwhelmed, to one of
glorious and faith-filled victory!
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Verse 19. “Oh how great is Thy
goodness. He does not tell us
how great was God’s goodness, for he could not; there are no measures which can
set forth the immeasurable goodness of Jehovah, Who is goodness itself. Holy amazement uses interjections where adjectives
utterly fail. Notes of exclamation suit
us when words of explanation are of no avail.
If we cannot measure, we can marvel.”
(C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 152-153)
From verse nine to verse
eighteen, David has been bemoaning his abject fear, dread, trouble, grief,
slander and oppositions. Now, the Lord
grants him ’A Divine Turning Point’; a point arrived at where one suddenly
remembers God’s inspired Word to us, ’His people’; a reassurance from God the
Spirit, that we are NEVER left alone without Divine help and sure deliverance. How desperately we need such Divine Turning
Points!
Brother Job knew such times of
dread and oppression: “They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in
the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my
welfare passeth away as a cloud. And now
my soul is poured out upon me: the days of affliction have taken hold upon
me. My bones are pierced in me in the
night season: and my sinews take no rest…”
(Job 30:14-17)
But the Lord gave Job ‘A
Divine Turning Point’, and after his time of suffering had ended, Job once more
basked in the glow of God’s goodness and faithfulness to him.
“And the Lord turned the
captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice
as much as he had before…So the Lord blessed the end of Job more than his
beginnings…” (Job 42:10;12)
Remembrance of God’s infinite
goodness towards ’His people’, His born again and redeemed souls - grants us
such Divine Turning Points in life.
“I had fainted, unless I had
believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13)
The pride of man was one of
the main causes of the Psalmist’s oppressions, but the Lord God knows how to
remedy such worldly oppositions against ‘His people’, the true Church.
Verse 20. “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy
Presence from the pride of man. Dwellers at the foot of the Cross of Christ
grow callous to the sneers of the haughty.
The wounds of Jesus distil a balsam which heals all the scars which the
jagged weapons of contempt can inflict upon us; in fact, when armed with the
same mind which was in Christ Jesus, the heart is invulnerable to all the darts
of pride.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of
David, page 153)
Shall we be immune from hurt;
from illnesses; from poverty; from heartache and grief? No. These things are promised to all those that
would live godly, in Christ Jesus.
However, we can rest assured
that the Lord God Who loves us and gave Himself for us at Calvary’s Cross -
will never leave us nor forsake us, EVER.
He will always give us a Divine Turning Point, to sustain us in all our
daily trails, and bring us safely through.
Thought: “I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee…the Lord is my Helper.”
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