4. Blessed Midst the Cursing! Psalm 35:9-10

Text:  “And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in His Salvation.” 

Psalm 35:9.

Good morning, eye-of-the-storm Christian!  In the midst of all the curses of opposition to your Christian faith – the world, the flesh, and the Devil’s hindrances – you find yourself still, at peace, in the eye-of-the-storms of life.  Hallelujah!  Christ has promised you and I ‘His peace’, and because the mouth of the Lord God Jehovah has spoken it, you are I find a haven of His peace, even in the very thick of life’s turbulent storms. 

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  (John 14:27)

“These things have I (Jesus the Christ) spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33)

In this world, as genuine committed, born again, Bible-believing Christians, we can have much trouble, many oppositions; hard hindrances – yet our souls continue to be joyful in Christ Jesus our risen Lord.  We rejoice, not in ourselves, nor in anything that we are or can do in this world – but in Christ Jesus and in the Eternal Salvation that He alone gives us through His sufferings on Calvary’s Cross. 

Verse 9.  “And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in His Salvation.”         In this ever-increasing mire of 21^st Century apostasy and the decline of true Bible-based Christian values, anyone who earnestly seeks to live life as God’s Word directs us to do comes immediately under a deluge of Satanic attack, carnal opposition; and worldly ridicule.  Fact!  It is not popular to be a genuine Bible-believing Christian today!

However, no matter how fierce the oppositions we face, we are always assured of Divine deliverance from them; or Eternal deliverance from out of the very world in which we are experiencing such gross persecutions.  Hallelujah!  God has spoken!

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  (Philippians 1:21)

Furthermore, anytime we are called to suffer some affliction or persecution, or illness and pain – all these become Spiritual school-teachers, teaching us to look all that deeper into the sufferings of our Lord and Saviour upon Calvary’s cruel Tree.

Verse 10.  “All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto Thee…?”    “Our own sufferings give us a partial insight into the sufferings of Christ Jesus.  In our prosperity we pass by the Cross. The story of Christ’s passion stirs our hearts for Him, but the pity and passion are quickly gone.  But let God pinch our flesh with some sore affliction, fill our bones with pain, and set us on fire with a burning fever; let our feet be hurt in stocks, and iron enters our souls.  We look upon Him they have pierced and say: ‘If the chips of the cross are this heavy, what was the Cross itself?  If my bodily pains are so bitter, what were the agonies the Lord sustained in His soul?  If the wrath of man is so piercing, what must the wrath of God be?’ 

“Is it a heart-piercing affliction to be deserted by friends?  What was it then for the Son of God’s love to be deserted by his Father?  Is a chain so heavy, a prison so loathsome, and the sentence of death so dreadful?  O what was it for Him Who made Heaven and earth to be bound, mocked, abused, spit upon, buffeted, reviled, cast into prison, arraigned, condemned, and executed in a most shameful and accursed manner!  O what was it for Him to endure all this contradiction of sinners, the rage of the Devil, and wrath of God, to cry out, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’”  (Thomas Case 1598-1680, Select Works, A Treatise of Affliction, page 73-75)

Verse 10.  “Lord, who is like unto Thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?”  “Blessed be God, my prison is not Hell, my burnings are not unquenchable flames, my cup is not filled with wrath, and I am delivered from the wrath to come!  By our sharing the remainders of His Cross, which He has bequeathed to us as a legacy, we may come in some measure to understand the sufferings of Christ, or at least by comparing our sufferings of such vast disproportion to His, we are able to guess at what we cannot understand.”  (Thomas Case 1598-1680, Select Works, A Treatise of Affliction, page 73-75)

Let me ask, dear reader, Are you afflicted in some grievous manner as you read this weekly Bible Lesson?  Are you facing ruthless oppositions in your family life; your business life; or concerning the practice of your Christian faith?  Then look up, beloved in Christ, your Lord God knows what you are going through for His dear sake, and will not leave you comfortless or without powerful support.  We possess Christ’s faithful promise on the matter:

“I will not leave you comfortless: I WILL come to you.”  (John 14:18)

Let the Divine Voice of the Living Lord God reverberate throughout your afflicted soul:  ‘I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.’  (Isaiah 41)10

Suffering and cruel afflictions are a real curse promised to every credible Christian, but such cruel oppositions and persecutions only serve to PROVE beyond a doubt that we are indeed the Eternal children of the Almighty Lord God, Jehovah.  Hallelujah!  Victory is ours in the Cross of Christ Jesus!  Stand fast, Blood-bought Christian!

Thought:  “Affliction teaches us to prize and long for Heaven.” (Thomas Case 1598-1680, Select Works, A Treatise of Affliction, quoted in Voices from the Past, edited by Richard Rushing, pages 188-189)