Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew

Psalm 36 – When the Wicked Attack (Part 3 of 4)

Introduction – Before Jesus’ ascension, He promised all His disciples that they would never be alone when they witnessed for Him. Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Verses 5 and 6 of Psalm 36 highlight the Preservation of the believer by the LORD. Verses 7 to 9 and verses 10 to 12 reveal the Provision and Protection of the LORD respectively. All the believer needs to do is to trust and obey. This is what faith is. Sometimes we might feel lonely as if the battle is ours to fight alone but we forget the battle is always the LORD’s. We mourn and cry for help. Help seems so far away. The loneliness and ostracism from friends and family make the loneliness unbearable. Giving up the ministry and straying away from the will of God become very tempting. Finally we might even contemplate crying to God to take us Home, just like Elijah (cf. 1Kings 19:1-18). Persecution is the threat of taking from us the things we have and the ones we love. Provision from God is the antidote against the threat of persecution.

The LORD is faithful. He will come to our aid in time of need as He promises. David experienced this from the LORD in his time of great need, so can all of God’s faithful servants.

V. The LORD Provides (Psalm 36:7-9) – “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” – In times of great persecution, the attribute of God that believers can cling on to is God’s lovingkindness, as David testified here. The word “lovingkindness” comes from a Hebrew word that is impossible to translate into English using only one word. So the KJV translators used two words and combined them into one – “lovingkindness.” Even then, it is still not sufficient to capture the entire meaning of this amazingly rich Hebrew word used to describe God. It has the idea of goodness, mercy as well as covenantal loyalty. Hence we see David was very thankful to the LORD for the experiences of persecution which drove him closer to his LORD, thus enabling him to bask in the LORD’s lovingkindness. There was no other way but the way of persecution for such an experience to materialise. David’s concluding remark was one of excellence. How could the persecution upon David’s life which brought pain and deep sorrow, emotional and spiritual turmoil result in a declaration of the excellence of God’s lovingkindness? Yet this was the case! Being persecuted for doing God’s will in the believer’s life is the only way to walk. This was what David did when he was called by God to take over as the next king of Israel after King Saul. For this, he was persecuted by almost the entire nation of Israel because all of them feared King Saul’s wrath. However, through the trial of persecution, David experienced the excellency of God’s lovingkindness. This makes the persecution a good thing in David’s life, for it drew him closer to the LORD in experiencing how merciful and kind God was to him. He prayed more than ever before. His prayer was intimate and from within his soul as seen in many of the psalms he wrote based on his heartfelt experiences. “God” is used here instead of “the LORD” because the power of God was emphasized. God was in total control of David’s persecution and not the people who persecuted him including powerful men like King Saul. This was a great assurance to him. God would not have allowed these persecutors to hurt David and cause him to suffer physically and mentally if it was not for David’s spiritual good. The result of this spiritual experience is captured by the use of synthetic parallelism.

David says that because of the excellency of God’s lovingkindness, the children of men put their trust in the shadow of God's wings. This means that all believers will learn to trust in God’s abiding care best in times of persecution. This is a picture of little chicks hiding under the protective care of the mother hen's wings. The protection is complete and always done at all costs, for the mother hen would put her own life at risk to protect her chicks. This is a picture of ultimate protection from God to His children. The only way God’s children can experience such protection is in times of persecution for their faith. In moments of peace and tranquillity, drawing near to God will never have this kind of passion and conviction; only the suffering for Christ can accomplish this in the believer’s inner most being. This was David’s priceless heartfelt experience. This has to be ours too. The LORD provides protection that is eternal and spiritual so that pain and suffering on earth for the sake of Christ cannot dim or snuff out the faith and trust all believers have in their Saviour Jesus Christ. In fact, the reverse is true. Suffering for Christ coupled with the lovingkindness of God enhances and escalates the nearness of believers to their Saviour to a whole new spiritual level.

Verse 8 (synonymous parallelism) – “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.” – Persecution and suffering the loss of possession, loved ones and health are all part of the believer’s experiences as he seeks to know God better and closer. This is the ultimate goal of the believer’s sojourn on earth. In this way his witness for Christ becomes better and better with every persecution he faces in life. For through these persecutions, he will not only say he is contented with the life his heavenly Father gives to him, he will also say with David that he is “abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy [God’s] house”! The “fatness of the LORD’s house” refers to the spiritual abundance that originates from God. This is always spiritual abundance and not carnal. The ones who draw nigh to the LORD in times of greatest distress are the ones whose walk with the LORD will be intimate and priceless. It is painful physically, but it will be indescribably rich spiritually. This is not the exception as if only certain believers can have this amazing spiritual experience. This is meant for all believers in Christ as they live and suffer for His sake and glory.

Persecutions or suffering for Christ are meant to drive us to our heavenly Father through Christ. They were never meant to hurt us. As we are driven closer to God, we are automatically driven farther away from the world that inflames the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life in all of us, even as believers. That is why the Bible says to all believers that we are to “Rejoice evermore. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) The joy of Christ and the abundant life in Christ are real, to be lived daily by all believers on earth. To emphasize this truth, David used synonymous parallelism to say that God will make us “drink of the river of thy [God’s] pleasures.” This is the believer’s true delight or pleasure in life. He dwells in the loving presence of his heavenly Father daily all year long. His communion with Him continues without end. The best way to describe it is found in the next verse.

Verse 9 (synonymous parallelism) – “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” – With the LORD is the fountain of life. Life is at its fullest and richest when the child of God leans on God in all that he does, and not even a tiniest bit on self or man or anything material. His confidence in life is in the knowledge that he is a child of God. Every breath he breathes is due to the quietness of spirit and peace in his soul that the world cannot give or understand. It is entirely independent of all that the world has to offer. Life keeps getting better and better with every second of close communion with God. Regardless of the believer’s state of mobility or physical condition, there is genuine joy and cheerfulness in his soul and entire life. Life is worth living because his Christ is alive! He knows it in his being. The world can take away everything and everyone form his life, and he knows that he has lost nothing. The reason is because Christ is everything to him. Nothing on earth can change or touch this eternal and unbreakable bond that he has with his Christ. He will not give Him up for anything in the world. Promotion, bonuses and properties are nothing to him without Christ. To love Christ and to have Christ first in the believer’s life is not something subjective or theoretical. It is very practical and real. To have Christ first in the believer’s life is to obey Him. This means to obey the perfect Word of God, the Bible. Obeying the Bible is the singular most important thing in every believer’s life.

The second line is a synonymous parallelism that emphasizes the same fact. This time David used light and darkness to contrast life with and without Christ! In God’s light, that is His inerrant and infallible Truth, all believers shall see light. They know about the beginning of time and man and everything on earth. They also know the end of all things and mankind. There is nothing that he does not know regarding the life of every one on earth. He knows the destiny of all human beings just as God knows where they will all end up. Believers will enter into the new heaven and new earth for eternity with the new Jerusalem as their new capital city. All who die in their sin will end up in the Lake of Fire that burns without end. They will join the Devil, Antichrist and the False Prophet and all demons in the Lake of Fire to suffer excruciating pain for all the sins and transgressions and evil they do on the earth. There will be gnashing of teeth and great torment. All believers on the other hand will be with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and all the good angelic beings like the cherubim and seraphim. There will be peace and joy and praising the LORD for eternity for all that God has done for all believers in Christ. These are some of the lights that all believers are able to see because they are in Christ, the Light of the world.

The provision of God in times of persecution is the best experience every believer can hope for. It draws us closer to our heavenly Father which no other experience on earth can do. Thank God for His daily provision of His grace and mercies in the believer’s life.

[To be continued]