February
4, 2004
Reading
“The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord will
receive my prayer” (9)
This Psalm gives us more insight into the person of David and His relationship with God. He was sick both physically and spiritually when he penned these words. “I am weak: O Lord, heal me’ for my bones are vexed” (2). Yes, even God’s people get sick. David looked upon his sickness as recompense for sin in his life. He saw his illness as an act of God’s anger and displeasure. Sometimes God allows us to experience illness and weakness in our body because we have disobeyed Him and allowed sin to interrupt our walk with Him. Not all sickness is the result of our sin, but it is one ‘tool’ by which God sometimes gets our attention.
David saw his illness as God’s
‘anger’ and ‘displeasure’ upon him. Those who have been born again and are ‘in
Christ Jesus’, will never be the recipients of God’s anger and hot displeasure.
Jesus bore His father’s wrath on our behalf at
David’s confidence was in God. He knew He belonged to Him and that God would hear him.
The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping” (8).
“The Lord has heard my supplication” (9).
“The Lord will receive my prayer” (9).
Remember the prodigal son? When he left his home nothing went right for him. He went from riches and feasting with his family to working with pigs and eating their slop. When he finally came to his senses and went back home, his father greeted him with open arms. It is not God’s will that His children eat slop, but, if that’s what it takes to bring us back into fellowship with Him, in His love and grace, He will allow it.
When we have strayed from our Master our soul will also be vexed. There is no communion with Him when sin has control in our life. No physical infirmity can come close to the agony of one’s soul when that soul has once tasted of the ‘fruit of the land’, and is now feeding on pig slop! The heartache of a believer wandering outside the fold can be devastating. The Father uses whatever tools He chooses to restore that wandering soul back to Him.
“O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary head in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe;
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.”
George Matheson
Always remember that we who are His children will never be the recipients of God’s wrath, but of His love and grace.