THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

XIII. Handling The Wear Of Prolonged Oppression

(Psalm 13:1-6)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Right now, many people are experiencing fatigue over the prolonged oppression they face:

(1) Several letters to the editor in the January 26, 2022, Republican-American, p. 9A, repeated complaints that we've been reading for months in previous letters about the "highest inflation rate in 40 years," how President Biden's "foreign policy is just one blunder after another" and how "(t)he southern border is a sieve, allowing illegal immigrants to pour into America" with many being "unvetted, unvaccinated and" who "will commit more crime, beyond illegal entry, to further burden taxpaying American citizens."

(2) Many children in Connecticut express this fatigue, too: last Monday, "The Talk of Connecticut" radio talk show host Gary Byron interviewed State Senator Heather Somers about the mental health crisis among children in the state due to the prolonged pandemic and its fallout. Senator Somers said that last year so many children showed up in emergency rooms in Connecticut with mental and emotional problems that the hospitals were unable to provide them enough beds, resulting in some of the children being sent to hospitals in other states! At the Connecticut Children's Hospital alone, 3,100 children showed up last year in its emergency room with mental and emotional problems!

(4) Many professing Christians face the wear of prolonged spiritual affliction: I heard last week that many area professing Christians think the current difficult era signals that we are living in the Great Tribulation Period when the antichrist will appear and afflict the world. Accordingly, many professing Christians are living in fear!

A key reason for this anxiety is the belief that the end-time events Jesus predicted in Matthew chapters 24-25 include the Church, and since Matthew 24:6-7 mentions trials that are presumably being fulfilled in the current Church era, and many believe these judgments are the "seal" judgments of Revelation 6:1-8, the Church will allegedly face the Revelation 6:1-19:21 Great Tribulation Period! When Jesus then predicted in Matthew 24:40 that two will be in the field and one will be taken and the other left and in Matthew 24:41 that two women will be grinding at the mill and one will be taken and the other one left, those who are taken are alleged to be raptured to heaven after the Matthew 24:4-39 Great Tribulation! (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Matthew 24:6-7; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 76-81; John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, 1976, p. 85-90)

Need: So, we ask, "How can we handle the wear of prolonged affliction that we and many other people face?!"

I. Due to prolonged affliction from his foes, David four times asked the Lord "how long" would God Who seemed distant to him let him suffer affliction due to the oppression of his enemy, Psalm 13:1-2.

II. The wear that David suffered in his inner man by this trial was intense as explained in Psalm 13:2-4:

A. David claimed he was worn out from wrestling with his own thoughts and with struggling with sorrow as his enemy triumphed over him in some way, Psalm 13:2 NIV.

B. So intense was this prolonged trial that David felt he needed God's help soon or he would die, Psalm 13:3.

C. If David fell in death, he knew that his foes would rejoice and boast of their victory over him, Psalm 13:4.

III. The solution came from David's focusing on GOD'S PROLONGED GOODNESS to him that OVERCAME the PROLONGED AFFLICTIONS from his ENEMY, Psalm 13:5-6:

A. The personal pronoun "I" in Psalm 13:5 is written separate from the verb "trust" and in front of it, making the pronoun emphatic, to be paraphrased, "But I myself . . ." (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 984)

B. The phrase rendered "in Your mercy" (KJV) in Psalm 13:5 also appears in front of the verb "trust" in the Hebrew text (Ibid.), emphasizing this phrase also.

C. In addition, the word rendered "mercy" (KJV) in Psalm 13:5 is the Hebrew noun hesed, and it means "loyal lovingkindness" (Ibid.; H. A. W., Theol. Wrdbk. of the O. T., vol. I, p. 305-307)

D. Accordingly, David in Psalm 13:5a contrasted the prolonged oppression from his foes with God's prolonged loyalty of His lovingkindness toward him, and David gained encouragement from this truth that he would still rejoice in God's future deliverance from his enemy's oppression, Psalm 13:5b.

E. Psalm 13:6 explains why David so readily gained confidence that God's loyal lovingkindness was indeed still directed toward him regardless of the prolonged trial he faced, and he did so from recalling God's past help:

1. David claimed he would sing praise to God for His coming "salvation," the Hebrew noun being yeshu'ah, what here means "deliverance" (B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 447), Psalm 13:6a.

2. The basis for this hope David had in God was the Lord's past bountiful dealings with him, Psalm 13:6b:

a. The Hebrew verb rendered "dealt bountifully" (KJV) is gamal, "recompense, deal fully" (Ibid., p. 168)

b. In the context of Psalm 13 where David was suffering prolonged harm to his inner man because of prolonged wrongs by his enemy, David testified that in past experiences of having been wronged, he had found the Lord had always "fully recompensed" him for the costs he had incurred by such trials!

c. Consequently, based on God's track record in David's own prolonged past conflicts with his foes, David trusted God's "loyal lovingkindness" to be reliably applicable to the Lord's fully recompensing him for whatever costs his enemies had produced for him in his current trial!

Lesson: When facing mental and emotional fatigue from relentless afflictions from his enemy while God is seemingly distant, David still relied on God's "loyal lovingkindness" to address his current prolonged trial due to his memory of God's faithful past full compensations for wrongs he had suffered in all similar past trials.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) May we handle the wear of prolonged affliction from foes by trusting God's "loyal lovingkindness" as based on His past record of faithfully fully recompensing us in past trials.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

We apply this sermon's lesson to the issues mentioned in our sermon introduction by recalling God's past record of meeting our spiritual needs as we heeded His Word and relied on the Holy Spirit for power in living:

(1) On our facing the highest inflation rate in 40 years, Hebrews 13:5-6 directs us not to be covetous, but to be content with what we have so as not to splurge in spending, and that God will then not abandon us to financial ruin no matter what man does in affecting the economy. He helped Christians do so 40 years ago, and He will do so again!

(2) On the president's foreign policy "blunders" and the southern border being a "sieve" that lets in all sorts of people who can burden our health and economy, we should not be surprised at this, for Revelation 3:21 with 7:17 predicted our Mini-Great Tribulation era as God's "wake-up" call to the Church and world. We must align with God's will for our lives that we might see Him supply all we need to fulfill His callings for us. (Philippians 4:11-13, 19)

(3) On the mental health of children [IF there is no physical problem], Galatians 5:16, 22-23 directs us to rely on the Holy Spirit for the "fruit" of the Holy Spirit that is "love," "joy," "peace," "self-restraint in bearing up under wrong" (makrothumia, Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 489; Robert C. Trench, Syns. of the N. T., 1973, p. 195), "sweet benignity" (chrestotes, Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 894; Ibid., Trench, p. 232-235), "goodness," "faithfulness," "mild and gentle friendliness" (prautes, Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 705-706; Theol. Dict. of the N. T., vol. VI, p. 646-651) and "self-control." Each "fruit" is the opposite of a pathological disorder according to a Christian therapist, so we all need to trust in Christ for salvation and rely on the Holy Spirit for mental health.

(4) On the fear many area Christians have that they will go through the Great Tribulation due to what Matthew 24-25 allegedly teaches, (a) Jesus in Mark 12:18-27 exampled that we should interpret Scripture in its literal, grammatical, and historical contexts! (b) Following that example, we note that the literal context of Matthew 24:36-39 just before the Matthew 24:40-41 alleged "rapture" verses tells how the Noahic Flood "took away" all who were not safely on Noah's ark, so the ones similarly "taken" in Matthew 24:40-41 are those who are "taken" in judgment as in Noah's era, and the ones who are "left" enter the Messianic Kingdom like Noah and his family got to enter the post-Flood era on earth! (c) Further evidence of this truth is the Luke 17:34-37 passage on the same event that reveals that those who are "taken" are slain in divine judgment and their bodies are left for the vultures! (d) Also, Matthew 24-25 does not discuss the Church, for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John did not reveal the Church as yet existing although Christ had briefly predicted that He would build it in the future in Matthew 16:18. Indeed, God gave the Apostle Paul the ministry of revealing the Church era according to Ephesians 3:1-7 and Paul did not become a Christian until after the Day of Pentecost when the Church had begun (See Acts 2:1-47 with Acts 8:1-9:31). So, Jesus' Matthew 24-25 predictions of end-time events do not mention the Church, but God's dealings with Israel and the world, and Matthew 24-25 does not teach that the Church will face the Tribulation! (e) Indeed, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 imply that the rapture occurs before the start of the Tribulation! (f) The Matthew 24:1-8 trials are similar in kind to what we face in the era of Church History, but those Matthew 24 trials are far more intense than what we face due to their descriptions in Revelation 6:1-8. Those greater trials are not for the Church!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life. May we then handle the wear of prolonged affliction from foes by trusting God's "loyal lovingkindness" toward us based on His past record of faithfully, fully recompensing us in our past trials.