Text: “Let my prayer come before Thee: incline Thine ear unto my cry; for my soul is full of troubles: and my life is draweth nigh unto the grave." Psalm 88:2-3.
Good morning, embattled Christian! At the commencement of Psalm 88 we have observed how the Psalmist, Heman the Ezrahite, finds himself in the most profound depths of sorrow, depression of spirit, and apparent isolation even from the Lord Himself. Yet, by drawing close to his Rock of Refuge – though constant prayer in Christ Jesus – he is in fact, fighting as a soldier in Christ against the powers of evil and darkness that are threatening to engulf and overwhelm his very sou! (2 Timothy 2:3-4)
The Psalmist is not seeking to use any
physical force, or mental strength, or self-will to combat the forces of
spiritual and temporal evil that he is fighting. No! He knows that, in the words of
the old hymn: “…The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own…”;
and is using the Spiritual weapons of persistent prayer to call down the forces
of Heaven to his aid. (See hymn: Stand
up! Stand up! For Jesus, by George Duffield ,1818-1888)
Praise God for praying saints! He is praying though the ‘blasting’ in order
to reach the ‘blessing’ of the Living Lord God, His Saviour and his
friend. Glory to the Lamb!
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do
not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
Verse
2. “Let my prayer come before Thee: incline Thine ear unto my cry. We cannot take
earnest, soul-crying prayers unto our Holy Lord God without FIRST seeking to be
sanctified afresh from all our daily, continual, sin. Fact!
Our
Holy Lord God will NOT HEAR the prayers of a man/woman who has not first sought
sanctification from sin, for He cannot abide to even look upon sin without
punishing it.
“Behold
(look, and fully understand!), the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot
save; neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: BUT your iniquities (sins)
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you,
that He will not hear.” (Isaiah
59:1-2)
“Thou
art of purer eyes that to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity…” (Habakkuk 1:13)
Our
prayers go up before the throne of God’s grace, once we repent of our daily
sins committed as genuine regenerate Christians, confess them to the Lord
alone, and seek to forsake besetting sins. Then the way is open for us to petition, worship, and praise our Holy
Lord God without any hindrance from ourselves.
What a gracious Lord God!
“If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (as
Christians!), and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-10)
Verse 3. “For my soul is full of
troubles. I am satiated and nauseated with
them. Like a vessel full to the brim
with vinegar, my heart is filled up with adversity till it can hold no more. He
had his house full and his hands full of sorrow; but, worse than that, he had
his heart full of it. Trouble in the
soul is the soul of trouble. A little
soul trouble is painful; what must it be to be sated with it? And how much worse still to have your prayers
return empty when your soul remains full o grief.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of
David, page 367)
Blessings & Blastings: So often I have sought to teach the concept of
‘Blessings and Blastings’. We are
blessed of the Lord in some area of our daily lives, but often, soon after the
blessing of God, comes the blasting of Satanic evil from the world, the flesh,
and the Devil. After we pray our way
though the severe blastings of evil, opposition, and soul sorrows – we receive
another, far surmounting, blessing from our faithful Lord God’s hand and heart.
Blessings and Blastings.
God allows us to receive a ‘blasting’
from Satan, and the world, in order to keep us humble and ensure that we are
depending on Christ and not on our own attributes or personal strengths.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary
the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom
resist steadfast in faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in our brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, Who hath
called us unto His Eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a
while, make you perfect (mature), stablish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:8-11)
Verse 4. “I am as a man that hath no strength. I have but the name to live; my constitution is broken up; I
can scarce crawl about my sickroom, my mind is even weaker than my body, and my
faith weakest of all. The sons and daughters of sorrow will need but little
explanation of these sentences; they are to such tried ones as household
words.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 367)
We ‘born again’, Bible-believing Christians, who
have experienced, and do experience, such depths of soul-sorrow, depressions;
and grief can immediately relate to the Psalmist’s cries. Yet, the fact that we
have and do suffer such soul-afflictions, to me is proof-positive that we
actually are the children of the Living Lord God, through faith in Christ
Crucified for us.
Hallelujah! No pain, no gain! If such
soul-sorrows drive us into the bosom of our Lord God, then the blastings become
blessings to us, for His Presence is full of much needed joy!
“Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy
Presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore.” (Psalm `6:11) The risen Jesus
sits at the Father’s right hand. Praise
and all glory to His Holy Name! (John 15:10-11)
Verse 6. “Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,
in darkness, in the deeps. The flesh
can bear only a certain number of wounds and no more, but the soul can bleed in
ten thousand ways, and die over and over again each hour.” (C.H. Spurgeon,
Treasury of David, page 368)
Verse 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me. Dreadful plight this, the worst in which a man can be found.
Wrath is heavy in itself; God’s wrath is crushing beyond conception, and when
that presses hard, the soul is oppressed indeed. The wrath of God is the very
Hell of Hell, and when it weighs upon the conscience, a man feels a torment
such as only damned spirits can exceed.”
(C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 368)
Thought: Embattled Christians, KNOW they are in
a terrible Spiritual Battle in Christ’s army of redeemed souls. Yet, we sally forth into that horror and
strife, knowing, also, that our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, has wrought the
Eternal Victory at Calvary’s Cross. Glory to His Name! “It is finished!” Jesus is Lord!