Golden Year's Message by Preacher Lek Aik Wee

A Devotional Study of the Psalms

Triumph of a Christian's Faith - From Distress to Great Joy

PSALM 43

(1) Faith shaken (verses 1-2 )

The pious and godly show duteous love toward God and are faithfully devoted to God's service. The ungodly are not so. An ungodly nation has ungodly leaders at the helm. The word "ungodly" is generated from a word that means "kind, pious" with the negative particle "lo" or "not". Kindness is a prominent character of the godly and piety is a designation of godly character (BDB).

Our mentor minister Lee Kuan Yew said a good government must first have able men, judged not by merely by persuasive power but by ability ("leaders not speakers"), it must be above board where decisions are made not because "you are going to get something out of it but because it is necessary for the country." The courage to fight in a life-death battle for the country (Straits Times, 26th June 2008, H7), citing "the very strong and determined communist cadres who wanted to build a communist state out of Singapore, willing to kill anybody that stood in the way."

The psalmist speaks of having to deal with an ungodly nation and deceitful and treacherous man that does violent deeds of injustice. The deceitful man is treacherous not only in his works but of his lips. One who uses a deceptive balance to cheat others is an example (BDB). Such dealing is most draining emotionally and intellectually, it takes away the energy and even shakes the faith of the psalmist. He reaffirms his faith in God as his strength, his means of safety and protection, yet he admitted that he felt as if God had cast him off. The oppression of the enemy has caused him to be depressed for he would "go on mourning". The psalmist brings his case to God. He asked God to judge him and plead his cause (v 1a ). Has he deviated from God's ways? Was he in any way deceitful like his enemies? He asked God to try his heart. He felt that his opponents were too strong for his own strength and needed God's wisdom. Yet help seemed not to be forthcoming. He laments.

A Jewish proverb says "A wise man lowers a ladder before he jumps into a pit." The psalmist felt himself already in a pit without a ladder. A Chinese proverb says "You fool me once, shame on you. You fool me twice, shame on me" The enemy of the psalmist seemed to have fooled him many times and he does not know how to overcome perhaps it is of sheer brute force and power. He brought his bruised confidence to God to vindicate him seeing the prosperity of the wicked.

Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers to Midianite merchantmen into Egypt (Genesis 37:28 ). It was great injustice yet God turned it for good to save his entire family (Genesis 45:5 ). Joseph had to experience great trials of faith in a foreign land but God was his ever present help.

(2) Faith sought (verse 3 )

"O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles."

This was the turning point for the distress and distraught soul of the psalmist when he sought God. The gospel of John tells us that Jesus is that true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9 ). Jesus came to bring salvation to all men who will receive him (John 3:16 ). In Jesus is life; and the life is the light of men. (John 1:4 ). Jesus came from heaven to show us how to live this life to the fullest with God for He is full of grace and truth (John 1:14 ).

The psalmist seemed at that moment of despair to have turned his eyes away from Jesus, the coming Messiah. The weariness and trouble of the soul overwhelmed him, he saw no light in the darkness but there is light for a look at the Saviour! He is the Light at the end of the tunnel, the Living Word. The living Word is found in the written Word, according to the Scriptures, received by faith. The written Word is truth, every jot and title of it (Matthew 5:18 ), designed to be received for the wisdom, comfort and edification of God's people.

In Proverbs 6:23 , light is the commandment or law of God that re-directs the wayward traveler - "For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life". The sending out of God's light and truth can be a rebuke or wake up call for us to the reality of eternal matters of the soul. Perhaps the temporal cares of life has caught up with us when we envy the prosperity of the wicked.

The psalmist's entreaty that light and truth be sent out by God to him to guide him back to the presence of God and receives joy in his heart. His prayer is for God to revive his flagging spirits. A Christian writer eloquently speaks of the importance of light that brightens an otherwise dark and miserable world when he said, "Light! Nature's resplendent robe; without whose vesting beauty, all are wrapt in gloom."

The most dramatic biblical image of guidance is seen in the presence of Jehovah guiding the fledging nation of Israel via a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21 ). This truth is much rehearsed in Israel's history (Nehemiah 9:12 , 19 , Psalm 78:14 ) and is appropriate to rehearsed for us here for we are a forgetful people that need to be reminded again and again that we serve a covenant keeping, faithful God. We may be unfaithful but He remains faithful. This is sense of the word which was translated "truth" by the King James translator. It means "firmness, faithfulness, truth."

The psalmist is reminded as the writer of the book of Hebrews said in Hebrews 13:5-6 "…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." A brother in Christ shared his testimony of how he rejected a lucrative job offer for an overseas posting with promise of brighter career prospects or threatened termination in current job, to take care of his aged father and mother. God answered his prayer to provide for him another job. Truly, the Lord answers the cry of His child who seeks to honour his parents. It is apt to rehearse God promise of blessing in Exodus 20:12 "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." Surely the LORD'S promise is yea and amen.

The holy (apartness, sacredness) hill is the abode or dwelling place of God, His tabernacles, signifying the very presence of God where He dwells and reigns. Hills are symbolic of refuge and security. The psalmist sought to embrace the truth of God's word as opposed to the error and falsehood of worldly wisdom. He approached God gradually first to the hill of God, then to the temple of God.

(3) Faith restored & strengthened (verses 4-5 )

Next he came to the altar of God finally to the very presence of God with full expression of unspeakable joy. How we all need to draw near to God. James 4:8a "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." The morning quiet time is an excellent time to draw near to the very presence of God.

Injustice and evil plagued the soul of the psalmist so much so that he was loosing confidence in God. The battle for the peace rages in his heart. He acknowledged that God is his strength. He pleaded that the living and written Word be employed to lead him to God again. He knew the power of the Word is able to lead him back to God. It is able to give him exuberant joy and bring back the joy of God in his heart, causing him to praise God again (verse 4 ). Joy is experienced through God's means of grace. The knowledge of His Word produces joy. Therefore, he enquires his own soul "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" Why are you unhappy? "There is hope in God." He shall cause you to praise Him again, restoring again your spiritual health. Coming for Bible Study is God's appointed means of strengthening our faith by the study of His Word and prayer.

Illustration

This is an excerpt from Character Sketches for Boy and Girls on the topic "Looking on the Bright Side" to describe a Godly home where kindness and piety prevails for our edification, "A single bitter word may disquiet an entire family for a whole day. One surly glance casts a gloom over the household, while a smile, like a gleam of sunshine, may light up the darkest and weariest hours. Like unexpected flowers, which spring up along our path, full of freshness, fragrance and beauty, do kind words and gentle acts and sweet dispositions, make glad the home where peace and blessing dwell. No matter how humble the abode, if it be thus garnished with grace and sweetened with kindness and smiles, the heart will turn lovingly toward it from all the tumult of the world, and it will be the dearest spot beneath the circuit of the sun. And the influences of home perpetuate themselves. The gentle grace of the mother lives on the daughter long after her head is pillowed in the dust of death; and the fatherly kindness finds it echo in the nobility and courtesy of sons, who come to wear his mantle and to fill his place; while on the other hand, from an unhappy, misgoverned, and disordered home, go forth persons who shall make other homes miserable, and perpetuate the sourness and sadness, the contentions and strifes and railings which have made their own early lives so wretched and distorted.

There are people who are snapping-turtles in the form of human beings. They are sour, morose, gloomy, always looking on the dark side. They give one the chills. Toward the cheerful home, the children gather "as clouds and as doves to their windows," while from the home which is the abode of discontent and strife and trouble, they fly forth as vultures to rend their prey…The class of men who disturb and distress the world, are not those born and nurtured amid the hallowed influences of Christian homes; but rather those whose early life has been a scene of trouble and vexation - who started wrong and whose course is one of disaster and trouble. God bless the cheerful person - man, woman or child, old or young, illiterate or educated, handsome or homely. Over the above every other social trait stands cheerfulness. What the sun is to nature, what the stars are to night, what God is to the stricken heart which knows how to lean upon Him, are cheerful persons in the house and by the wayside. Man recognizes the magic of a cheerful influence in woman more quickly than the potency of dazzling genius, of commanding worth, or even of enslaving beauty."

Application

Such is the countenance of the psalmist who triumphed in faith by drawing close to God, moving from distress to great joy in the heart. The joy of God in the heart is displayed in the countenance of cheerfulness, "for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God" (v 5b ). "Cheerfulness! How sweet in infancy, how lovely in youth, how saintly in age…How such a face enlivens every other face it meets, and carries into every company vivacity and joy and gladness" Amen.