Devotion Corner

Psalm 71:20 Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Many a believer in Christ will know the heaviness and the hope which the psalmist speaks of in this verse. When times of testing and trial come to our days, we feel the weight of the troubles upon us. Yet the trusting heart in God knows that these troubles are there for our good, for they strip away the sinful lusts of the flesh, and build us up ever more into the image of our precious Saviour, Jesus Christ.

This powerful verse, richly imbued with the fullness of human experience, speaks of the Messiah, the one who would know these words spoken by the psalmist in a deeper manner than even the one who first penned them. For our Lord felt the full wrath of the God poured out on Him as He who knew no sin, took the weight of our transgressions upon His righteous shoulders at the Cross of Calvary. 

What immensity of troubles He knew in those grief stricken hours, from the heaviness of spirit in Gethsemane, all the way through to the agony of Golgotha, our Lord knew troubles unlike any man has ever known. He took that suffering, so that we could be spared from the just judgement of God, if we but repent of our sins and place our faith in Him.

For the righteous in Christ, all heaviness and troubles pass, and so hope pierces through the blackened skies anew. This the psalmist speaks of as though one being restored to life from the very deepest depths of the earth. For every true Christians hope is that we shall be quickened and raised to life again, brought out from the depths of the earth that is the grave, and taste life eternal, through faith in our risen Lord Jesus.

This we hope not based upon our merits or righteousness, but upon the one whom the psalmist points to, the Lord Jesus, the first fruits of the resurrection. The one whose bloodied body was laid low in the tomb, having given up His life willingly for His friends. Yet greater love hath no man than this, to give his life for a friend, and so the Friend of sinners lived the eternal love of God for the sinner, and gave Himself as a full and final atonement for our sins. He did this knowing the love of the Father, and that death had no hold over Him, for He was without spot or blemish of any sin, thereby His life was His to give, and to take up again. So He did that blessed Easter morning, as He took up life again, though this time in glory, having been raised the conqueror and vanquisher of death! 

Thus the psalmist speaks to God, as he communes with Him through the adoring and reverential addressing of thou at the commencement of the verse. He speaks to God in honesty of his sufferings and troubles, trusting that God is compassionate and merciful to His pleadings. In this trust, his heart is strengthened. Strengthened with a fixed and certain hope that he shall rise again from the grave, because his Saviour has conquered death and stepped forth from the depths of the earth, taking up glory forevermore. And thus, through Christ Jesus, shall so he and all who believe on Him.

Let’s set our hearts daily on this certain hope in our risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For this is the will of God, to live in joy and thanksgiving in all things, each and every day we are blessed with by the graciousness of God. What sweeter reason is there to be joyful and thankful unto God, than to know that He loves us so deeply, that He gave His only begotten Son for us. All so that through repentance of sin and the placing of faith in the risen Lord Jesus, we are assured of utter peace, provision and unending joy forevermore. This all secured, through the precious blood of the Lamb of God, that is our souls delight, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.