Text: “Thou has put away mine acquaintance far from me; Thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.” Psalm 88:8.
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18.
Having one father, Satan himself, being
amalgamated with others who were on their way to Hell seemed not such a bad
experience of life – until the Living Lord God called us to become a part of
His Holy Family – the church – and we were commanded to come apart from all our
closest worldly friends and acquaintances, in order to be received as sons and
daughters of the Living Lord God. (John
8:44)
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?
Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel...Wherefore come out
from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be
My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)
There is, therefore, no doubt that the
dedicated Christian life can be quite a lonely experience, and all who seek to
live it can agree that the Psalmist’s experience is a very real one.
Verse 8: “Thou has put away mine acquaintance
far from me. There are times when an unspeakable sadness
steals upon me, an immense loneliness takes possession of my soul, a longing
perchance for some vanished hand and voice to comfort me as of old, a
desolation without form and void, that wraps me in its folds and darkens my
inmost being. It was not thus in the
first days of my illness…My God, my God, to whom can I turn for comfort but
unto Thee, Thou Who didst drink the bitter cup of human loneliness to the dregs
that Thou mightest make Thyself a brother to the lonely, a merciful and
faithful High Priest to the desolate soul; Thou Who alone canst pass within,
the doors being shut to all human aid, into that secret place of thunder, where
the tempest-tossed soul suffers and struggles alone; Thou Who alone canst
command the winds and tempests, and say unto the sea, ‘Be still!’ and unto the
wind ‘Blow not!’ and there shall be a great calm.” (From ‘Christ, the Consoler,
A Book of Comfort for the Sick’ (Anon)
Spiritual depression is something that pulls
the very soul down into a pit that can never be escaped – but for the help of a
Sovereign Lord God of all grace and mercy.
Praise His Name!
Verse 8. “Thou hast
made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.” The speed at which old
worldly friends and confidants turn on one when one is called into Christ’s
Salvation, is a constant source of amazement to me. It is as though such
‘friends’ know they are on their way to Hell, but it doesn’t seem as bad to
them just as long as one of their friends does not jump off the damnation train
they are on! New converts to Christ
Jesus know this as a fact of their experience of being graciously saved.
Verse 8. “Thou hast made me an abomination unto
them. The mass of men who gather around a man and
flatter him are like tame leopards; when they lick his hand, it is well for him
to remember that with equal gusto they would drink his blood.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 369)
It is a well-known statistic that young, newly professing Christians can be lost back into the world so quickly by experiencing
the loneliness I have just identified in Psalm 88. It does not take much coaxing, for some new
believers, to be wooed back into the drinking dens they once haunted, or into
old worldly habits which used to be their ‘normal’ mode of life. It takes strong determination, much prayer,
and drawing close to the Lord God to stop many from returning like the dog to
its vomit, or the pig to its wallowing in the mire. Fact. If the Lord has called them, nothing will deter them. But false professors are easily wooed back into the world.
“For it had been better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from
the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them
according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and
the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:20-22)
At times of such testing, it can seem as if the
Lord has hidden His face from the believer.
And the loss of God’s perceived countenance is a grievous depth of
loneliness.
Verse 14. “Lord, why castest Thou off my soul?
Why hidest Thou Thy face from me? He cannot
act towards us in other than a right and gracious manner, therefore, for every
stroke of His rod there is a sufficient reason in the judgement of His loving
heart; let us try to learn that reason and profit by it.” (C.H. Spurgeon,
Treasury of David, page 369)
A father only chastens his own much-loved
children. When we are chastened of the Lord God, it is a proof-positive that we
are indeed, His children, and shall benefit from the chastening.
“And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His
purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
“And she (Mary) shall bring forth a son, and
thou (Joseph) shall call His Name Jesus: for He shall save His people from
their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)
Because of such deep loneliness endured by
Bible-believing Christians, we must always seek to have a group of other sound
Christians with whom to fellowship, pray with and for, in order to remain
separate from the world and refuse to be conformed to its ways.
“And be ye not conformed to this world: but be
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
(Romans 12:2)
“Two are better than one; because they have a
good reward for their labour. For it they fall, the one will lift up his
fellow: but woe to him that alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to
help him up…It one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a
threefold cord in not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)
Thought: We shall never find Christian support
in the Devil’s halls of worldly sin!
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