Devotion Corner
.Psalm 10:1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
These words of the psalmist have been felt by many believing hearts throughout the generations. When everything seems to be going wrong, and wave after wave of troubles smash against the fragile shores of our lives, it can seem as though our Lord is hiding Himself from our sorrows. The devil will come along and taunt us with words like those found in Psalm 11:1, just to heighten that isolation of soul we feel is so real in the moment of hardship and suffering. We glance at the lives of those who are used to mock us, to jeer at our God, and their days seem so easy, so free of troubles. And so once again, our spirit is left low in the time of our trouble.
Yet we are not to collapse into despair. We are to follow the pleas of the psalmist and call upon the Lord, trusting that He will arise from His heavenly throne and come to our aid, crushing the cruel wickedness of those who moved against us. We are to do so not for our good only, but so that His mighty name may be glorified, as the wicked are vanquished, and the humble are exalted in his grace.
We are to rest knowing that He has already fulfilled such a heartfelt plea. He did so long ago on that old, rugged cross of Calvary. There, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, stepped forward to answer the prayers of the humble of heart. At Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ broke the arm of the wicked that were attempting to strangle our souls of hope (Psalm 10:15). He set us free from the troubles that hounded our hearts and rose again in His glorious Resurrection! In His Resurrection, we are comforted, for He by the strength of His divine Word, He assures us that as He lives, so shall we! This promise is our ultimate hope, the climax of all answered prayers made by humble hearts in their time of need!
It may seem to us in our mortal and finite understanding, that He is hiding His presence from us in our time of trouble. The truth, however, is that He is nearer than we can fathom. He is present in our hearts, knowing the sorrows that are being felt with an intimacy of knowledge that we cannot begin to understand.
And so, the Holy Spirit speaks for us with groans of the heart. Those groans that lift high unto the throne of God Almighty, where He bends His ear to receive those tear-soaked petitions. Stirred by these faithful pleas, He moves in the seeming silence, to draw us to His Pure Word in our times of trouble, as we seek a renewed hope of faith. This we find by His grace, and we see that our sorrows will indeed end, and He will wipe away every tear with His own nail-pierced hand. This hope is found within His eternal, pure Word, the Holy Bible.
So, with eyes spent of their tears, and hearts glorified with the incorruptible glory of a body like unto His own, we shall step forward into the hope of our hearts fully realised at last. For we shall set foot into an eternity free of troubles, and we shall know peace, provision and perfection forever. All to the glory of God; decreed by the Father, sealed by the Son, and witnessed as true and eternal by the Holy Spirit. Amen.
