Psalm 41: Merciful, or Just Mean as a Snake?

Blessed is the one who considers the poor!

    In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;

the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;

    he is called blessed in the land;

    you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.

The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;

    in his illness you restore him to full health. (41:1-3)

Photo by Shail Sharma on Unsplash

In Psalm 40, we saw the psalmist testify about the good that God had done for him, and we see that in Psalm 41 as well… in the person of the Lord himself and in the one who represents him well. 

     “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!” (v.1)

Here is a question... are verses 1b-3 a description of what God does for the poor or what God will do for the one who cares for the poor? Perhaps both. Willem Van Gemeren, in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, notes that,

“The Father in heaven looks for those who wisely conform to his heavenly kingdom on earth: righteousness, holiness, love, and justice. He cares for the oppressed and delights to see his children's concern with the things that are important to him: concern for those in need (cf. 35:13-14; 112:9 –Emphasis mine).”[1]

We should also observe that David ended the previous psalm with the cry,

 As for me, I am poor and needy,
    but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
    do not delay, O my God! (40:17)

David might have been establishing a case whereby the Lord would do merciful things for him since he was also in need. It is also possible that he was emphasizing the importance for those who have power over the poor/weak/sick/powerless to use that power to help and not to harm. This idea may be supported by the title of this psalm in the Syriac which says, “It was a Psalm of David when he appointed overseers to take care of the poor.” (Adam Clarke)

This psalm seems to suggest that how we treat “the poor” in their day of trouble influences how we will be treated in our own day of trouble. Jesus picked up on this prophetic message (and others such as Psa. 18:25-26 and Micah 6:8) in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, "Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy" (Matt 5:7). Later James, Jesus' half-brother and leader of the Jerusalem church, wrote that pure religion is evidenced in our treatment of “widows and orphans” and not just some abstract form of personal piety (James 1:27).

Nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon, in his classic Treasury of David, elaborated on how the faithful servants of the Lord are both relationally wise and merciful in their consideration of the poor, “They do not toss them a penny and go their way, but enquire into their sorrows, sift out their cause, study the best ways for relief, and practically come to their rescue; such as these have the mark of the divine favor plainly upon them…“The promise is not that the generous saint shall have no trouble, but that [they] shall be preserved in it, and in due time brought out of it.”[2]

Certainly, these verses depict the kindness and grace of God, shown to those who are “poor”— a word that depicts the marginalized in every society on earth, but also in the Hebrew context that specially referred to those who were humble before the Lord, confessing the sin. In the New Testament, we see both aspects on the lips of Jesus in Matthew 5’s “poor in spirit” and Luke 6’s “poor” in an economic/power sense.

I am touched by the merciful kindness shown to "the poor" in verses 1-3 of this psalm. I am also disturbed by the contrasted meanness of others in verses 5-10 — the malicious, the slanderers, the whisperers, the scandalmongers, the prognosticators, and the betrayers!

Have you ever been “visited” by such as these? David had...

And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,

    while his heart gathers iniquity;

    when he goes out, he tells it abroad. (v.6)

Pigpen by Charles Schultz

I don’t want to be the “utterer of empty words” nor one with a heart that “gathers iniquity” like velour gathers lint. I don’t want to spread abroad the iniquity I gather like so much sticky pollen and dust due to the negative charge of a fallen world. Instead, I want to spread the goodness of God which I have received. God doesn’t want his people to be the spiritual/relational equivalents of the Peanuts character “Pigpen” whose very presence continuously broadcasts dirt and dust. I also don’t want to imagine the worst for others (v.7) even though we are often faced with the reality of it.

Photo by Elijah O'Donnell on Unsplash

How can we keep from being mean like those described in v. 5-10? I don’t think that too many people set out to speak hurtfully or even use mean words, but the less we listen to the heart of God and more to the selfishness and demands of the world we start to sound like those to whom we listen. I was in a man’s office recently and noticed that his bookshelves were covered in a thick layer of dust. It didn’t happen all at once, but a little bit at a time, so gradually that he had not noticed it. But when I walked in for the first time, I noticed it right away. It is not fun when the light of God’s Word is focused by the Spirit on some areas of our hearts that have become clogged with the dust and disease of selfish pride, but it is therapeutic for it leads us to confession and cleansing!

What else can we do? Having confessed our sins to God and asked for mercy and grace to speak the truth in love, always looking to build up rather than tear down, there are several other safeguards, I would suggest that will prevent us from becoming one of those odious individuals mentioned in v.5-6 that hurts others verbally. We can...

1. Know that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit delight in you! Jesus was prepared for his times of greatest testing by the knowledge of his Father's love (Matt. 3:16-17; 17:5). The triune God knows your flaws already and still delights in you! Publishing and critiquing the perceived faults of others does not enhance your standing before the Lord. It is not like playing “king of the hill” where we climb higher by pushing and throwing others lower. (--> Romans 5:6-11)
2. Know that our enemy, whose very name means “Accuser”, will not have the last word. And when the accuser is silenced by the manifested love of God in Christ, let us not play “devil’s advocate” and take up his taunts against others for whom Jesus died. (--> Rev. 12:10-11; Romans 8:31-34)
3. Know that we are secure in the loving presence of the Lord Jesus forever. We don’t have to be overcome with anxiety, insecurity, or discouragement at our own shortcomings. We are not called to climb up to heaven to win God’s favor, rather, he came down to us to set us free from all that brings guilt and shame! (--> Romans 8:14-17, 35-39)
4. Know that our words quickly reveal the condition of our hearts. So, when we (or others) notice our words growing more caustic, impatient, and overly sarcastic, let it be like an early warning system that our heart is no longer responding to the lovingkindness of the Savior, but has begun to go astray to gather iniquity. (--> Matt. 15:1-20; 12:34; Mark7:1-23; Luke 6:45)
5. Know that you will always need God’s help and make a practice of asking for it, as the psalmist models for us in Psalm 141:3-4,

     Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;

         keep watch over the door of my lips!

     Do not let my heart incline to any evil,

         to busy myself with wicked deeds

     in company with men who work iniquity,

         and let me not eat of their delicacies!

As recipients of great mercy, even before we knew we needed it, let us extend mercy to others though they may not know they need it too! But having received it they will be changed. May the Heavenly Father and Christ the Son, use us to pour his love into the thirstiest of hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit this week! 

And for those of us who face the hour or day of trouble may we embrace the Lord's delivering presence in and through it! 

"Blessed is the one who considers the poor!

    In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him..." (v.1)

---

[1] Willem A. Van Gemeren in EBC Vol. 5, Psalms—Song of Solomon, Zondervan. 325.

[2] C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Vol. 2 Psalms 27-52, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 283-284.

Psalm 34: An Antidote for Angst

I have recently been teaching a series of messages on prayer, the most recent was entitled, Praying According to the News. It dealt with ways that we can keep our consumption of media from producing high levels of angst (a term for a general sense of anguish, torment, anxiety, trouble, sorrow, fear, and concern) in our lives. For the specifics on how we can use the news as a prompt for our prayer and how we can maintain our sanity in this season of highly charged and depersonalizing rhetoric without withdrawing from the marketplace of ideas please check out the link above.

I think that many would agree with me that when we watch the news or read news-related articles on the internet we can be moved to anger, fear, or both—no matter what political views we hold. We can feel our collective senses tensing up, and our angst can easily be expressed in language that is at best terse and off-putting. Certainly, it is best to not discuss politics on the internet where the veil of anonymity fosters horribly cruel language directed towards other human beings who are made in the image of God (whether they believe it or not).

How can we keep the media meltdown from scorching our souls?

After my message on prayer and the news media, I assigned Psalm 34 for the congregation to read during the week and draw a few lessons from that reading—specifically, lessons that might help us within our contemporary context as an antidote for politically driven media-induced angst that is currently eating away at our country. This post is intended as a therapeutic exercise in shifting our focus from the problem to the One who is the solution.

I encourage you the reader to take a moment to pray and ask the Lord to speak to you as you read through the entire psalm, all 22 verses. Draw one or two lessons from each stanza and write them down. At the end, I will list the very simple lessons that I have drawn from this psalm which are helping me stay balanced and on target while many are going out of their mind! [Ironically, this psalm was written at a time when David pretended to be insane to escape from a Philistine city (1 Sam. 10-15).]

Psalm 34 (ESV)

¹ I will bless the Lord at all times;                                       

    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

² My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

    let the humble hear and be glad.

³ Oh, magnify the Lord with me,

    and let us exalt his name together!

⁴ I sought the Lord, and he answered me                         

    and delivered me from all my fears.

⁵ Those who look to him are radiant,                                  

    and their faces shall never be ashamed.

⁶ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

    and saved him out of all his troubles.

⁷ The angel of the Lord encamps

    around those who fear him, and delivers them.

⁸ Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!                            

    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

⁹ Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,

    for those who fear him have no lack!

¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger;

    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

¹¹ Come, O children, listen to me;                                        

    I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

¹² What man is there who desires life

    and loves many days, that he may see good?

¹³ Keep your tongue from evil                                              

    and your lips from speaking deceit.                               

¹⁴ Turn away from evil and do good;

             seek peace and pursue it.                                       

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous                

    and his ears toward their cry.

¹⁶ The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,             

    to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

¹⁷ When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears

    and delivers them out of all their troubles.

¹⁸ The Lord is near to the brokenhearted                            

    and saves the crushed in spirit.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,                     

    but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

²⁰ He keeps all his bones;

    not one of them is broken.

²¹ Affliction will slay the wicked,                                           

    and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

²² The Lord redeems the life of his servants;

    none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

Here are twelve simple lessons, that I have drawn from this psalm, that are helping me stay on track. I make no claim that they are better than what you have found, but share them to comfort others with the comfort I have received.

1.  Take time to celebrate God instead of condemning opponents (v.1-3)

Sometimes, criticism can have its own momentum and gravitational pull on our lives. The more we focus on what others are doing wrong the more toxic it is for us—spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and even physically. Not only that, but we will also become more like that which we hate. However, when we celebrate God, and all his goodness, it lifts us up out of the gutter, clears our vision, and cleanses our hearts together with the humble people around us.

2.  Don’t be overcome by fear, but by God’s answer (v.4).

Fear is a tool that the enemy uses to control us. We all have some fear that we must deal with or it deals with us. I have an issue with driving over slippery metal-decked bridges in high winds—but I did it this week anyway. Why? To get to the other side! “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” (v.4) Jesus came as one of us, to set us free from the fear of death (Heb. 2:14). He has not given us “a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Tim. 1:7).  

3.   Be transformed by the Lord, from the inside out (v.5).

“Those who look to him are radiant,                                  

    and their faces shall never be ashamed.”

I think of Moses’ face glowing after being in the presence of the Lord, but he had to put on a veil so that the people wouldn’t see the glow fade. I wonder if the same motivation is still at work in us when we pretend that we are doing better than we really are. We try hard to be good on the outside hoping the inside will one day catch up, but it doesn’t work that way. We need to be transformed on the inside by the shared love of Christ Jesus and the glow will never fade away. Such transformation starts when we turn to him rather than some media outlet for the change that we desperately need.

4.  Listen to reliable sources about what is important (v.6-7, 11).

So often we are manipulated by curated messages and meanings which could be avoided if we sought out primary sources (the actual documents, interviews with the person themselves, etc.) instead of people talking about what others have said about something or someone else. It is also a nudge to spend my time learning truly important things—the things of God. He is the one who “encamps around those who fear him and delivers them” (v.7). David was a primary source for learning about the character of God for he had experienced his goodness first-hand.

5.   Actively seek God, he will satisfy your soul (v.8-10).

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!                            

    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (v.8)

This stanza is a sweet remedy for what ails us! The “young lions” that run around roaring and raging ultimately end up empty, but those who seek God, who experience his presence through the Spirit of grace and the Word are satisfied with good things. Where do we go to satisfy the longing in our souls, to wash the angst away? “Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” (v.8)

6.   Don’t spread “Conspiracy Theories,” speak the truth in love (v.12-13).

So many made-up stories and problems are shared via the internet and broadcast news producing panic in some and anger in others. Much is rooted in small inaccuracies that soon swell out of control into full-blown conspiracy theories. As followers of the one who is himself “The Truth” we should not be guilty of spreading false news about unimportant issues because it simply gives others an excuse to doubt our veracity when we speak of important things such as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. My personal policy is to share purported news-related stories via social media very rarely, and certainly not without fact-checking them first. Paul advised the younger pastor—Timothy— “But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene… Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.” (2 Tim. 2:16-17, 23)

7.   Repent, actively turning away from evil to do good (v.14a).

Turning away from the comment threads on most un-moderated social media posts is a good place to start! What evil wants to rise in our hearts in times like this? To what evil does our anger or fear drive us? We should repent, turn away from doing harm to others in our twisted efforts at self-preservation or self-justification, and turn towards the Lord who loves us and, by extension, the others whom he wants to love through us.

“We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:19-21)

8.   Pursue peace, not power (v.14b)

Part of the “do good” encouraged in the first part of verse 14 is to actively “pursue peace” which is a very holistic concept that covers the entire well-being of God’s people. This is what we should pursue. Sometimes that means that we must stand up for the peace of others, but it doesn’t mean that we are to demand our own rights. Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth… Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:5,10). Likewise, Paul wrote, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:3-4). Those who truly pursue peace will not be induced to believe that the ends justify the means. The kingdom of God is more about the means justifying the end.  

9.  Remember that God hears and delivers the righteous (v.15-17)

I am so thankful for verses like these that remind me that God really does hear my prayers—not because of my righteousness but because of Christ’s—and delivers me from the troubles that threaten to overflow the backs of our lives! The opposite is also true, that God opposes the wicked, and in the end, they will not succeed in making a great name for themselves.

10. Will we join him? (v.18)

I know this isn’t really a lesson, but the truth about the Lord is that he is never nearer than when we are brokenhearted.

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted                           
    and saves the crushed in spirit.”

If the Lord is where he says he is, and doing what he says that he does, then are we willing to join him? Our congregation is in the middle of a very needy community. A community whose poverty is sourced in broken relationships. Will we be near to them, relationally participating in what God is doing on their behalf? Certainly, we cannot participate directly in the suffering of everyone, but we can come alongside someone. Where is the Spirit leading us to engage?

11. Life is tough, God is tougher (v.19-20)

         “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,                 
              but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (v.19)

I love the Bible’s realism, even when I don’t like the reality of what it says. It gives us the bad with the good. The psalmist makes it clear that good people have at least as many problems as everyone else, but he doesn’t leave it there in the "Slough of Despond." He points us back to the Lord who delivers us out of all our afflictions. No matter how bad things get, if our hope is in the Lord, then the affliction is not our final destination.

   12. Trust that God will deal with it (v.21-22)

The last two verses poetically describe the Lord justly settling accounts. God loves justice for all, indeed, the very authority of his kingdom (symbolized by the scepter) is uprightness.

But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
    the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” (Heb. 1:8-9)

We don’t have to take matters into our own hands to get “what we deserve”—that is always a mistake—but instead, we process our issues through the character of God and come forth trusting him to deal with them in his way and in his time.

Hopefully, these simple observations from Psalm 34 have been encouraging and an effective antidote to the angst of our media overload. Now, where should we get involved when we turn off the news and have more time on our hands?

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #22)

Read Psalm 119:169-176

“Seek”

I didn’t want to leave the last stanza of Psalm 119 out. Even though it has been a long-haul journaling and posting each day on each successive stanza over the last three weeks, it has been a sweet time as well. So here is Day #22, an encore!

Today, in church, we read this final stanza together and thought about prayer as modeled by the psalmist. He begins with a prayer to be heard in verses 169-170,

Let my cry come before you, O Lord;
    give me understanding according to your word!

Let my plea come before you;
    deliver me according to your word.

He is concerned with the need for the Lord to hear his pray, be it cry or plea. Isn’t that what we want as well—to be heard? Secondly, beyond being hear the psalmist is seeking understanding and deliverance.

Understanding is what we so often need when we consider our circumstances or those of others and we just don’t get it. Things just aren’t working out how we expected and as they should (in our opinion). It is in times like this that we wish God would speak order, clarity, and purpose into the world. The psalmist recognizes that this kind of understanding is found in the Bible. Have you ever had one of those moments when as you read you know a passage was revealed to you in a way that answers your cry for understanding? I have, and I cherish those moments.

In asking for understanding he is asking for the Lord to do something in him through the Scriptures. In deliverance, he is asking the Lord to do something for him—likely a physical deliverance from the ongoing and acute threat of his enemies. It is in God’s word that we find not only his promises (and conditions) regarding deliverance but the revealed character of God with which such deliverance must accord.

These requests move me, as does the psalmist’s commitment to the law/ precepts/ statues of the Lord as an assurance that his prayer would be heard and that the Lord would do something about his circumstances. However, despite his repeated commitment to delight in God’s word and to be helped by it, he confesses his own wanderings, for he ends the longest psalm in the Bible with verse 176

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
    for I do not forget your commandments.

This is a prayer of confession (“have gone astray”) and repentance (“seek”)

The reason he is praying this way is because of his trust in God’s revelation (“I do not forget”). I am reminded of the old gospel hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing written in 1757 by Robert Robinson that so poignantly describes our tendency to wander like a lost sheep. I quote verses 1, 3, and 4.

1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,

The Good Shepherd,
painted by Richard Hook

Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

4. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

When Jesus suffered and died on the cross some 2000 years ago, it was for our wanderings. Isaiah 53:6, in the midst of a larger section describing the suffering Messiah, says,

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

And Jesus, in Luke 15, facing criticism from the Pharisees and teachers because he spoke to sinners, tells the parable of the Lost Sheep,

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Can we end this study of Psalm 119 the same way, willing to confess our wandering and ask Jesus our Good Shepherd, to seek us out and deliver us? We too are wanderers who need to turn back to the Lord in relational repentance and bring as many with us as possible.

Dear Lord Jesus, seek your servants and turn our hearts back towards you. Help us to see your beauty and steadfast love and may we be filled with awe and wonder at your deliverance! Fill our hearts with praise so that it spills out in our speech and songs day by day. May we share your love with others and may we rejoice with heaven over each sinner that repents! Thank you for a marvelous contemplation on your word!

Psalm 30: "Daddy! Up!"

Psalm 30:1-3

"I will extol you,

O Lord, for you have drawn me up

    and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,

    and you have healed me.

O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;

    you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit." (ESV)

Comments:

King David had cried out to God to pick him up, rescue him from his foes and deliver him up from the grave. God had answered and David testified that the Lord had “drawn him up.” Further, David admits that his strength and success before the time of trouble were also due to the Lord preserving him, though he had begun to think that his success was because of his own strength. As a result, David saw the time of testing as a gift for it revealed to him his dependence on the Lord (v. 6-7). He saw the Lord not as normally angry but as One who showed a lifetime of favor. Even moments of discipline are an act of love and favor to those who are taught by them.

Ironically, this psalm was to be sung at the dedication of the temple, after David was dead. Perhaps in this light, it is a plea for the resurrection… the ultimate “Daddy, Up!”

Parents can usually remember times when their children were very young and scared and needed to be picked up and comforted. Perhaps we can remember times when we had to snatch them up into our arms to protect them from a very real danger to their lives—lifting them above sneaker waves, out of swimming pools, away from poisonous snakes, broken glass, snarling dogs, wood stoves and campfires are a few that come to mind. Most of these situations have happened down through the generations in my own family. What have you faced in yours?

Despite the failures of our biological parents, we have a Heavenly Father who does not fail, and is neither mean nor demeaning. He is a Father who doesn’t mock us for our weaknesses but is always working for our good. He is with us no matter what we face. His love changes us, but it doesn’t stop there. He has sent us to continue his mission as his hands and feet on the earth.

There are people around the world who face much worse things than the dangers I listed. There are also many children who had no loving parent to lift them to safety in such moments and there are some moments when even a loving parent has no power to rescue their child. There are far too many children who have been abandoned or abused by a parent, many are even sold into economic or sexual slavery. What an unthinkable idea to most of us…and yet it is all too real, especially for young women.  Such situations make clear the depravity of a darkened mankind. It is in the darkest times that the light can shine brightest, but will we?

At Christmas (as I write this post), perhaps we have heard the haunting lyrics of O Come, O Come Emmanuel which depicts the darkness and prayerful longing into which Christ came as heaven’s answer. Or perhaps we wrestle with the contemporary cruelty of people to each other and the apparent lack of “peace on earth” as the author of I heard the Bells on Christmas Day did. The lyrics to this carol were written by the great American poet H.W. Longfellow, in 1863, after his wife died in a fire and his son was seriously injured fighting for the Union (in the Civil War). The song climaxes with these verses,

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Longfellow's conclusion is right, but it doesn't happen automatically. So how can we participate in the Father’s work of deliverance? As one who believes in a miracle-working God, it is my tendency to pray and expect a miracle rather than get personally involved in being part of the answer. There is nothing wrong with praying and expecting a miracle…however, he may want me to be part of the miracle that he plans to work. In which case, I need to assume that the first miracle that results from my prayer is that of the Lord changing my heart to help the oppressed...to advocate with them in their plight.

Our mourning, along with theirs, can be changed to joy by the loving, protecting, delivering, life-giving work of God…even that which comes through us.