How do you respond to affliction and pain?<\/p>\n
In Psalm 69 \u2013 our sermon text this week \u2013 David calls out to God, \u201cI am afflicted and in pain!\u201d He then, as we would expect, calls out for God to deliver him: \u201cLet your salvation, O God, set me on high!\u201d (Psalm 69:29)<\/p>\n
But the next verse is surprising: \u201cI will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words: \u201cI am really hurting. And I will sing praises to God. I will show how great He is by thanking Him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is that how you respond to affliction and pain?<\/p>\n
Note that David has not yet been delivered when he offers praise. He praises God prior to any deliverance, because God made promises to him and to his people \u2013 and He always keeps His promises.<\/p>\n
This is what the Advent season is all about: God has made promises. We eagerly await the fulfillment of those promises. We don\u2019t know when they will be fulfilled. But we know He is faithful.<\/p>\n
This is the position of God\u2019s people again and again over the centuries. We hurt. We are in pain. And we praise God, looking forward to His fulfillment of His promises.<\/p>\n
Consider these examples:<\/p>\n
We find ourselves in a similar position today. Our Lord promises us, \u201cIn the world you will have tribulation\u201d (John 16:33). We will experience pain and affliction. Jesus guarantees it. And we don\u2019t have to look far to find it. In our own neighborhoods \u2013 indeed, in our own families \u2013 we find broken relationships, poverty of spirit, and oppression of the soul, as well as physical needs and maladies.<\/p>\n
But Jesus also tells us in that same verse, \u201cIn me you may have peace. . . . Take heart! I have overcome the world.\u201d And the Scriptures conclude with His promise, \u201cSurely I am coming soon! (Revelation 22:20).<\/p>\n
So in this interval between the First and Second Advents of our Lord, we will experience troubles similar to those endured by our brothers and sisters in the faith across the centuries. Like them, we will be afflicted and in pain. Like them, we will witness suffering and suffer ourselves.<\/p>\n
But also like them, we can follow David\u2019s example in Psalm 69, and, in the midst of trials and hardships, cry out, \u201cI will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.\u201d For the Lord is a faithful God. He always keeps His promises. And all who love His appearing, all who trust in Him, will see Him face to face \u2013 and will know the reality, then, that they have believed all along: That \u201cthe sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us\u201d (Romans 8:18).<\/p>\n
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How do you respond to affliction and pain? In Psalm 69 \u2013 our sermon text this week \u2013 David calls out to God, \u201cI am afflicted and in pain!\u201d He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[109,111,1866,610,1867,1868,1120,1869,1870,1409,1482,1519,1526,1871,1872],"class_list":["post-2665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","tag-advent","tag-affliction","tag-broken-relationships","tag-glory","tag-gods-faithfulness","tag-overcome-the-world","tag-pain","tag-psalm-69","tag-romans-818","tag-second-coming","tag-sorrow","tag-suffering","tag-surely-i-am-coming-soon","tag-waiting","tag-you-will-have-tribulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}