But I am poor and sorrowful; let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. (Psalm 69:29-30)
Messiah made it abundantly clear that if we are to faithfully follow Him, then we can expect there will be trials and tribulations — it’s simply part of the journey. Yet in those trials we will find that He walks through them with us, preserving us, encouraging us and, yes, sometimes correcting and reproving us. And if those trials should result in affliction, pain and poverty, we should not be deterred in our commitment to serve Him. In fact, those who endure such for His sake will be greatly rewarded (Matthew 5:12).
Looking at this on a corporate level, God’s people are destined to be reviled and ridiculed by this world. As I mentioned previously, if this is not the case — if they approve of us — then we must be doing something wrong. As it is written, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:5). But looking beyond the rejection we must endure in this world, there is a coming day when God will deliver His people from our affliction. As portrayed in the beginning of this psalm, we may feel like we are up to our neck in trouble, mired in the mud and muck and at the mercy of an unmerciful enemy, but God will pull us from that situation. As David said, “Your salvation, has set me up on high.”
No one likes to suffer; but in the midst of suffering “the Father of mercies comforts us in all our tribulation” (2 Corinthians 1:4). In his letter to the Romans, Paul made this observation: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). In his estimation, no affliction nor lack of material provision was so great that it could outweigh the reward promised to those who persevere. And so it must be with us; we must be so committed to fulfill Messiah’s purpose in us that we are willing to endure whatever He deems appropriate in order that we might finish the race He has set before us. Even if we are destined to suffer, let us nevertheless, “praise the name of God with a song, and magnify Him with thanksgiving.”
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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