Psalm 129
English
Standard Version (ESV)
A Song of Ascents.
129 “Greatly[a]
have they afflicted me from my youth”—
let Israel now
say—
2 “Greatly have they
afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed
against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon
my back;
they made long their furrows.”
4 The Lord is
righteous;
he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate
Zion
be put to shame and turned backward!
6 Let them be like the
grass on the housetops,
which withers before it grows up,
7 with which the reaper
does not fill his hand
nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
8 nor do those who pass by
say,
“The blessing of the Lord be upon
you!
We bless you in the name of the Lord!”
Israel has been
afflicted and continues to be afflicted but when they have called upon The
Lord, He has delivered them. Did He
always deliver them immediately? Did He
allow them to wait, to be separated, to feel abandoned? Yes, but He was always there for them. He sent Christ into the world to redeem them
yet they rejected Him. How can that
be?
God used the
trials and tribulations of the Israelites time after time to show that He was
and is God. The entire purpose of the
Israelite people, God’s people, was to be missionaries to the entire
world. In I Samuel we see David as a
youth, fighting against the Philistines.
David tells the Philistines, in I Samuel 17:46, why he is going to be
successful over them. 1 Samuel 17:46, English Standard Version (ESV),
46 This day the Lord will deliver you into
my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the
dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and
to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God
in Israel, (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I+Samuel+17%3A46&version=ESV)
It is no
different for us today. We do not have
to be descendants of the Israelite people to be chosen of God. He used this nation to tell the world about
Him and they did. Today, if any of us
have put your faith and trust in God, we are His children, His chosen, we too
must share His message with the world.
All that happens to us in this life is for a reason. That reason is that others may know Him. Israel had many conflicts, heartaches, and
disappointments and they continue to this very day. Yet, when they called upon
the Lord, He delivered them and He will do the same for us. Seek Him and know that He is God, our
deliverer and all the earth will know as well.
Seeking Him with
all my heart,
Sheila
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