The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Psalm 69:26,
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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"For they [David's enemies] persecute those you [the Lord] wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt."
We don't often think of the Lord wounding and hurting people. In Psalm 69, David speaks of just that. In this psalm, David calls for God's judgment on his enemies who persecute those the Lord has wounded and gossip about the pain the Lord has inflicted. The cause for David's imprecation upon them is the manner in which they take advantage or celebrate when the Lord brings pain.
Why would the Lord bring pain to people? Why would he wound them? Isn't the Lord loving? We know that the wounding and pain David speaks of here is not focused on what the Lord brings on the wicked. It is the wicked who are celebrating and gossiping about what God has done to others. It is others - those other than the wicked - who the Lord is involved with that are the objects of his wounding and pain here.
Here is one thought. I know there are other causes, but here is one that comes to my mind this morning.
I am reminded of Proverbs 3:11, "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." Also, Revelation 3:19, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent." Perhaps these are ones whom the Lord may "wound" and bring pain to. Why does the Lord rebuke and discipline? Since God is love, 1 John 4:8,16, can rebuke and discipline be an expression of God's love toward us?
We may interpret discipline as punishment, for punishment's sake, a reap-what-you-sow kind of justice. Misbehave and God will take a belt to your backside. However, we see the Lord's discipline even when no particular wrong-doing has been present. Consider the psalmist in Psalm 44:20-22, "If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." In the midst of "the taunts of those who reproach and revile me" verse 16, Israel experienced God's discipline and rebuke.
Paul quoted Psalm 44 when he explained how God uses pain and suffering to bring us to spiritual maturity, into the likeness of Jesus Christ. In Romans 8:28-39, Paul describes how God will use things like trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and the sword as examples of the "all things" God uses to accomplish this.
The reality is that we all enter into God's family with all the blemishes, all the ugliness the sinful nature has wrought in our lives. When we become his children, he is not content to leave us steeped in our sinful shortcomings, but begins the work of conforming us into the beautiful character and nature of Jesus Christ.
This, in spite of the wounds and pain, the rebuke and discipline involved, is truly an act of love on God's part within our lives.
We don't often think of the Lord wounding and hurting people. In Psalm 69, David speaks of just that. In this psalm, David calls for God's judgment on his enemies who persecute those the Lord has wounded and gossip about the pain the Lord has inflicted. The cause for David's imprecation upon them is the manner in which they take advantage or celebrate when the Lord brings pain.
Why would the Lord bring pain to people? Why would he wound them? Isn't the Lord loving? We know that the wounding and pain David speaks of here is not focused on what the Lord brings on the wicked. It is the wicked who are celebrating and gossiping about what God has done to others. It is others - those other than the wicked - who the Lord is involved with that are the objects of his wounding and pain here.
Here is one thought. I know there are other causes, but here is one that comes to my mind this morning.
I am reminded of Proverbs 3:11, "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." Also, Revelation 3:19, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent." Perhaps these are ones whom the Lord may "wound" and bring pain to. Why does the Lord rebuke and discipline? Since God is love, 1 John 4:8,16, can rebuke and discipline be an expression of God's love toward us?
We may interpret discipline as punishment, for punishment's sake, a reap-what-you-sow kind of justice. Misbehave and God will take a belt to your backside. However, we see the Lord's discipline even when no particular wrong-doing has been present. Consider the psalmist in Psalm 44:20-22, "If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." In the midst of "the taunts of those who reproach and revile me" verse 16, Israel experienced God's discipline and rebuke.
Paul quoted Psalm 44 when he explained how God uses pain and suffering to bring us to spiritual maturity, into the likeness of Jesus Christ. In Romans 8:28-39, Paul describes how God will use things like trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and the sword as examples of the "all things" God uses to accomplish this.
The reality is that we all enter into God's family with all the blemishes, all the ugliness the sinful nature has wrought in our lives. When we become his children, he is not content to leave us steeped in our sinful shortcomings, but begins the work of conforming us into the beautiful character and nature of Jesus Christ.
This, in spite of the wounds and pain, the rebuke and discipline involved, is truly an act of love on God's part within our lives.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
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