Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

The Lord is Touched

I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me. (Psalms 69:2 NKJV)

Those who hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, Being my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it. (Psalms 69:4 NKJV)

Reproach has broken my heart, And I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none. (Psalms 69:20 NKJV)

Background

I am told that Psalm 22 and Psalm 69 are the two most quoted Psalms in the New Testament.  We know that they are Messianic Psalms—that is they speak prophetically of the coming Messiah.  These two Psalms should be enough to convince us that Jesus was and is the Messiah and that God inspired the Bible.  These two Psalms should also convince us that while Christ was God, He was also human in every way except in the sin department.  But He understood bullies and rejection and it hurt Him just as it would us.

Now I know that David was a prophet (see Acts 2:30) and there are things that he wrote in the Psalms that may have been the Lord’s experience that were not David’s experience.  For example, in Psalm 22 we read that they pierced his hands and his feet.  That happened to the Lord, but there is no record of it being the experience of David.  David was not literally crucified as the Lord was and it is in the crucifixion that the Lord’s hands and feet were pierced. However, when it comes to the bullying and rejection, David seems to have had most of the same kinds of experiences that the Lord did.

Misery Loves Company

I don’t suppose it should be encouraging to know that the King of Israel, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the one who was “after the Lord’s own heart (Acts 13:22)” had periods of deep depression because of the way his friends were treating him.  He said, “it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in the throng (Psalms 55:12-14 NKJV).”  David was always loyal to the Lord when it came to who he worshiped and trusted but those who were truly loyal to David, particularly when he was fleeing from his son Absalom, were not that many. Most of his kingdom had been deceived by the kisses and beauty of Absalom. 

Some of his Psalms cover the period when he was fleeing from Saul.  Some of them cover the period when he was fleeing from Absalom.  Fleeing from Absalom, his own son, had to hurt. When I see the sufferings of David and through David the sufferings of the Lord, it makes me realize how good I have it.  And when I have a “down day,” I will just go back and read about reproach having broken the Lord’s heart. I will be reminded that there were those who hated David for no good reason.  But more than that I will remember that while David deserved some of his rejection, the Lord did not deserve the treatment He got.  But he endured that treatment because of His love for you and me. 

Pity Party

If you, like me, have days when you feel like having a pity party, just go back and read these Psalms.  It will remind you as it does me that David and the Lord suffered through depressing circumstance and they lost friends and they had enemies.  David endured some of his problems because of his own mistakes but some of it he endured just because he wanted to serve the Lord in the way the Lord wanted to be served.  Even though he had opportunity, he would not attack the Lord’s anointed who was Saul; and Saul had become his enemy.  The Lord endured all of this so that we who are sinners can have a home in heaven. 

Why?

Why should the creator of the universe, the Son of God, the Almighty, become a worm and not a man (See Psalm 22:6)?  It is hard for me to comprehend some of the sorrows and reproaches that both David and the Lord felt.  Sometimes I get just a little glimpse of what was meant by the writer in Hebrews when he said, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16 NKJV).”

The Lord suffered and because of that we understand that He understands.

Bruce Collins

Meditation for the week of August 4, 2019

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