Seeking the face of God when one is afflicted by wicked people - Psalm 9

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note".
{For full listing of all articles in this Psalms exposition series, click here}

[To me, this psalm is about seeking the face of God when one is afflicted by wicked people. This is a supplication by David to God when he was faced with wicked enemies (this was most probably not the first time he had faced wicked enemies). Because the heading of the psalm had in it, direction to the music director pointing to the tune of “The Death of the Son”, some commentators said that it got to do with the death of his, David’s, first son with Bathsheba (2 Sam 12); but I could see no apparent link with the death of David’s son (the son was from the adulterous affair with Bathsheba). The death of the child was pronounced by God as a punishment for David’s triple breaking of the Ten Commandments. David was guilty of covetousness, followed by adultery, and finally murder.

So, let us just treat this psalm as such, David’s psalm in a time of facing enemies who were wicked.]


1I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders. [This is a psalm of King David. He opened this psalm with a reminder to himself, as well as to tell God that he would always do this one thing. And this one thing was to praise God. Praise is easy to understand – it implied singing, singing songs of praise, and worship, psalms, odes, etc. It can include other outward manifestations like clapping of hands and even dancing for the Lord. Another very important aspect of praise is to tell others how good and great God is, i.e. sing his praises, so to speak. Those were what David did – singing, and dancing and performing for the Lord, and he would do this with great exuberance (in fact with all his heart), as well as telling others of all of God’s wonders. David, ever since he was drafted into Saul service, from being a shepherd boy, was growing in influence. David used that which gave him influence, to spread the goodness and greatness of God.]
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. [David said he will be glad and rejoice in God. It was not that there were no occasions at all that David had moments of sadness, and filled with frustrations. It could be, and can be for us all, too. Why? Because we are all living in a fallen world with Satan hard at work, and we are also subject to chastisement (which are not always to our liking) from God for our growth. Yet, just as David had and did, we must know that we have an underlying peace and fullness of joy that comes from the Holy Spirit that lives in us (for David, possibly not in him but was often with him because of the devotion and time David spent before the Lord, of course the Holy Spirit could come into David from time to time but unlikely the Spirit was dwelling in him like He is doing in us all); and we must choose to be glad and rejoice in God, in recognition to that belief. Faith must be acted out – in this case like David, we are to sing praises to God; when we do that, we are saying to God that we have faith in God to see us through all our life afflictions.]
3 My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.
4 For you have upheld my right and my cause;
you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.
5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished. [How can we get ourselves to praise God despite our sad and frustrating circumstances? How can we act out our faith in belief that God is good, righteous, and great? Remember and recount, that was what David did here. David used a mix of past and present (present continuous) tense to declare to himself that not only God did, God would continue to do for him, the turning back of his enemies, the stumbling of enemies, and the perishing of enemies. David reminded himself that God was and is a righteous God; He had judged righteously and had upheld his right and cause. He was and is great; He had rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked, even blotted the names of the wicked forever and ever. Endless ruin had overtaken God’s enemy, their cities God had uprooted; even the memory of them had perished – in the Book of Judges, there are recordings of such cities or places, one of them is Meroz (recorded in Judges 5 – Song of Deborah).]
7 The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will govern the peoples with justice.
9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.
11 Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
12 For he who avenges blood remembers;
he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted. [When faith had arisen, David started to magnify the Lord. He declared the Lord reigns forever; He had established His throne of judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice (there is always justice with the Lord, not necessarily equality – the two is not the same). For the depressed, the Lord will be a refuge, and for those afflicted, the Lord will be the stronghold. For all who know God, and therefore have their trust in Him, when they seek the Lord, the Lord will never forsake them. So David was saying, with one who reigns forever, and judges righteously; one who is a refuge for the oppressed, stronghold for the troubled; and one who never forsake those who know Him and have placed their trusts in Him, and are seeking Him, as our Lord, we are to rejoice and sing praise to our God who is enthroned in Zion, the Holy Mountain, and proclaim His name among the nations – give testimonies to glorify the Lord. God is our avenger, and the marvelous thing is that He remembers, and he does not ignore the cries of the afflicted (cries against wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah, for e.g.; also the cries of Israelites in Book of Judges when oppressed wickedly by enemies in the Promised Land), Hallelujah.]
13 O LORD, see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death, [Psalm is in fact, also a prayer. We see here, as typical of a prayer, now David present his request before the Lord. He said, “O lord, see how my enemies persecute me!” It was as if David said, “Help, Lord, help”. Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death. We see here that actually at this moment David was in affliction, yet we saw in the earlier verses of the psalm how David still got himself to magnify the Lord despite his circumstances; that is the attitude of heart that we must assume, in whatever circumstances that we are struggling in, we must arouse our faith to rise up to praise and magnify God.]
14 that I may declare your praises
in the gates of the Daughter of Zion
and there rejoice in your salvation. [It was as if David was telling God to do it again for him, “so that I may declare (yet another time) your praises (sing God’s praise) in the gates of the Daughter of Zion {possibly referring to Jerusalem}, and there, greatly rejoice (celebrate) in your saving of me.”]
15 The nations have fallen into the pit they {referring to the enemies in v13} have dug;
their {referring to the nations} feet are caught in the net they {referring to the enemies in v13} have hidden. [David explained to the Lord that he was (again) up against wicked people. David knew the heart of God concerning wickedness; put it mildly, God does not like wicked people. I believe this is one of the reasons why David was said to a man after God’s heart. David went on to paint the picture of the wicked people and what they did: Wicked people are like people digging pit or setting net to snare others. David said that nations had fallen into the pit dug by these wicked people; they were caught in the net the wicked people set for them.

Quite a few Bible commentators viewed verse 15 as David stating that wicked nation {Strong number used was 1471 which can mean “heathen”, but not necessarily wicked, but if the parties were taken to be self-referring, then wicked nations were implied, which was not necessarily the case} had fallen into the pit they themselves had dug, or that they were caught in the every net they themselves had set. The verse by itself can be interpreted as such, and if such was the interpretation, the next verse, v16, was just to reaffirm the same position; although some scholars chose to explain verse 16 as God in executing his justice, ensnared the wicked with the works of his (God’s) own hands.

However, I personally feel that firstly, verse 15 was a description of the modus operandi of the wicked, and secondly, it was to be a clarification of the nature of David’s enemies mentioned by David in verse 13, i.e. it was meant to give a description of the kind of enemies that David were facing. In other words, the “they” in verse 15 were referring to the enemies in verse 13, not necessarily referring to the “nations” in verse 15 itself. If one was reading verse 15 in isolation or by itself, of course, “their” could only be referring the “nations” in the same verse itself. You can take either interpretation, but I believe whichever interpretation we use, clearly the NIV translation of the next verse, v16, is correct, i.e. the wicked are ensnared by the works of their hands, not God’s hands. That, I believe, was why the special musical notation “Higgaion” was used here (see next verse).]
16 The LORD is known by his justice;
the wicked are ensnared by the work of their {own} hands.
Higgaion {mediate on that}. Selah
17 The wicked return to the grave,
all the nations that forget God. [David knew how God would deal with wicked people. God would and will use the wicked people’s very snare to punish them, i.e. God would/will cause wicked people to be ensnared by the works of their own hands! {Of course, it does not mean that God cannot execute his own form of punishment}. David said this was God’s known justice. Even in our times, under the New Testament times which many regarded as an era of grace and mercy (of God’s preference to be long-suffering, to be deferring judgment until the End, and to be giving people time and chances to repent), I believe God still does let the stubbornly wicked people get a taste of their own medicine even presently (present life). Wickedness and holiness are directly opposite. God is holiness, and you need holiness to see God. Where God is enthroned it is holy because He is holy. So, heaven is a holy place. God is holy and heaven is a holy place, and we want to go to heaven; the Scriptures exhort us to be holy as God is holy. If holiness gets to do with God, wickedness, Satan. If holy people get to heaven, wicked ones, Hell (or temporary, Sheol). So, in a figure of speech, it is correct to say holy ones come from heaven, wicked ones from the grave or Sheol (or even Hell). David said here, let the wicked return to the grave. What David was imploring God to do was to act presently concerning wicked people, send them to the grave; including all the nations that had forgotten the Lord. But why, you might ask, that nations that had forgotten the Lord be included? I believe nations that had forgotten the Lord had in them great numbers of wicked people, because nations that had forgotten the Lord, many depravities went unchecked, there were no voices to speak up against any form of wickedness. On the other hand, for nations that had not forgotten the Lord completely there will always be some voices speaking for the Lord, and calling for repentance.]
18 But the needy will not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.
19 Arise, O LORD, let not man triumph;
let the nations be judged in your presence.
20 Strike them with terror, O LORD;
let the nations know they are but men.
Selah [While David was calling for action presently by God towards the wicked people, he was also imploring God to help those who need the help of God (the needy here are not necessarily limited to those in physical destitute, of lacking food and clothing, although these could be included), and fulfill the hope of the afflicted ones so that that hope would not die out.

David, knowing God’s heart concerning wickedness, also hated people setting themselves up against God or were proud, having no regard for God (and God opposes the proud, said the Scriptures), so he called on God to arise, not to let man triumph; he asked that God judge presently the nations (wicked nations or nations that had forgotten God), and display his wrath [a display of wrath like that on the wicked place of Sodom and Gomorrah would surely strike great terror) so that the nations would know they were but men.]


Points to note/learn:

This psalm gave us a good model to follow when we want God’s help when facing wicked people.

1. Despite our circumstances, (and I can tell from first-hand experience that it is very demoralizing, and depressing, and outright frustrating when you are up against wicked people), we must remind ourselves, and even tell it to God, that we will always praise God, with all our heart. Very difficult, at times, but we must, if we profess that our trust is in the Lord.

2. Remember that praises include both singing (and dancing ,etc) praises to God, and singing his praises (testifying His goodness and greatness)

3. We must choose to be glad and rejoice in God. We must firstly know and believe by faith that we do have an underlying peace and fullness of joy that can come from the Holy Spirit. We must choose to act out our faith by singing praises to the Lord. The Apostle Paul was imprisoned yet he chose to be glad and rejoice in the Lord by singing praises to God. What happened after that? The prison shook and prison doors opened.

4. Still find it difficult, use David’s approach – recount God’s goodness and greatness. In the past, how have God delivered you? If you did not have much to go by, hang onto those of others, testimonies you have heard of. If even that, was lacking, look to the Word, many had been afflicted in the Bible; what God did for them, God can do for you too; claim them for yourselves.

5. And when your faith has arisen, even magnify the Lord. Are singing praises (v2) to God and magnifying God the same? Not necessarily, just in matter of degree or shades, we go from singing praises to magnifying. From a choice, and recounting of the past, you push your faith into action, to sing, to sing praises, more of referring the past in giving of your exaltation to God. Magnifying calls for moving into declaration, into making things bigger so to speak (you can never over-stretch God), of attributing greater importance (to the role of God, for example), of injecting greater expectation and excitement into your circumstances, of letting your faith to call forth the reality of God into your future, as opposed to referring to the past when you started off in singing praises. It is not hyping; it is speaking of the true perspective – God is gigantic, and your problem or enemy is tiny, God can fix it.

6. Tell God your problem or enemies; in this case, the problem is with wicked people, the enemy is wicked. Tell God to judge for you because you cannot likewise be wicked, go tick for tack. If indeed, your enemy is wicked, God knows how to turn your enemy’s wicked scheme back on him, the enemy, and turn your situation around. Please understand that we cannot be wicked just because someone is wicked towards us. If you turn wicked as well, you may lose the hands of protection/blessing of the Lord.

7. And when you secured your victory, do not forget to sing God’s praises, and give thanksgiving unto God (v14).



Anthony Chia, high.expressions - Lord, deliver me from my wicked enemy.

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The Lord as the papa eagle – a vision of faithfulness, comfort and assurance

Today, I want to share about a vision I had at the end of October 2009. It was in the early hours of the morning. I was up praying for what the Lord wanted to say through me through words of knowledge for my church weekend services.

It started in a room
The vision started with me in the vision itself. In the vision I was in a room, and there were two other persons in the room. One of them I could recognize was a long time church friend, the other was a unknown young man. This long-time friend was at one corner of the room and was not involved with the rest of what happened. As to why he was in the picture I was not sure. Possibly it was to be consistent with my asking, i.e. an asking for the body of Christ - he is a Christian and is a member of my church. Also this brother had gone through much in life, especially in his career, worked for others, was in businesses for many years, been through business partners’ squabbles, had much ups and downs, and then went back to employment, and then finally out , and was on some multi-level selling late in his life.

The conversation thereof
The interesting thing was that the young man in the vision engaged me in conversation. I am a fairly old man! What would a young man converse with a much older man about? Young men are enthusiastic, and this young man talked about his plans, about “conquering the world”, how he mapped out every things, step by step how he would steer himself into positions beneficial to himself, to get into business settings, and then into business, and be successful in it. This young man was a Christian too. I could tell by his making reference to the Bible. Although not intentionally trying to dampen the young man enthusiasm about life, I said that if he had gone through as much in years that I had, he would find that things did not always worked out exactly like what he had intended. You see, I too, have had my fair share of upsets in life, career or otherwise.

Ceiling no more
Then suddenly when I have finished saying something to the effect that my setbacks, even the current one, did not necessarily spell the end of me, my eyes looked up and saw the ceiling of the room was no more there. Instead what I saw was the foliage of a tree top. The young man began to look with me, at the tree. This young man thereafter was just there watching with me. We both just watched and did nothing. The room no longer featured in the vision; the concentration was now on the tree and what happened there.

Zoom, zoom, zoom
I first saw an eagle coming into the tree top, onto a section that looked like a nest. The picture began to go on a zoom, i.e. it began to get bigger and bigger. The eagle got larger and larger. Then I saw one of its wings was placed right in front of its body. Then I could see an eaglet behind the large wing of the big eagle. This eaglet was hovering up and down behind the wing, kind of attempting to fly but was faltering. I could see the eaglet popping up and down the top of the held-up wing in front of the big eagle. Then the eaglet got hidden under the wing when the wing was brought close to the body of eagle, and the picture got into greater zoom mode. The close-up was so near that now I could see that the big eagle was really majestic, with full colors – with whites and shades of brown feathers. When I saw the body of the eagle in a close-up shot, I could see that the eagle was clothed; it had a colourful vest on, there were white as well as red stripes. Then I saw the eagle was wearing a tie (neck-tie with blue and white colours), and the impression that came with that sight, was that it was a papa eagle.

Papa, and it unzoomed
The moment the thought of the eagle was a papa eagle came, the picture went into a quick “unzoom”. This is to say that suddenly I was again looking at the spot on the tree from a further distance. I could no longer see an eagle at the spot anymore. What was there a moment ago was an eagle, now was only a coat which surprisingly still retained its form. As I was wondering where the eagle had gone, the large collar of the coat moved, and the thought that came, was that the eagle was still there, it was just that I could not see it (invisible). And with that, the vision ended.

What is the interpretation of this vision?
First, I believe this is a vision of faithfulness, comfort and assurance, and I believe it was meant for the body of Christ, in the first instance, meant for the body in my church, secondarily for the general body of Christ, and this is why I have it articled here. I have had previous dreams of assurance of similar kinds, for myself. I have one of them written up at the end of this article (see Appendix), just to encourage along the same line.

But now for the interpretation of this vision, the eaglet represented children of God. Everyone, at salvation, became a child of God. At salvation, we are adopted as children by God through the Holy Spirit. All Christians, young (represented by the young man in the vision) or old (represented by me and the old church friend of mine, in the vision) are still children, like little eaglets, to God. Some of us may have grown much older since salvation but we are really never fully grown, in the eyes of the Abba Father. I believe the young man’s referencing to the Bible in his conversation with me, was deliberately put in by God so that we know that children of God were being referenced to. And the conversation on life, the journeys and the ups and downs, and the faltering, pictured by the faltering eaglet, and the coming of the papa eagle, was to symbolize the coming of Father God to his children’s aid when they faltered in lives, regardless of whether they are young or old. When I asked the Lord for the meaning of the vision, I came to Psalm 17:8. In this portion of the psalm, King David said this: Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. This verse is spot on for the vision.

The apple of the eye, although could generally be translated as someone’s beloved, it is actually more than just that. As my Senior Pastor rightly pointed out the apple of the eye is the pupil of the eye. The pupil of the eye is rather unique in that it has autonomy to regulate itself; when it is dark, it will open the aperture bigger to admit more light; when it is bright outside, it will reduce the size of the aperture to regulate the amount of light into the eye, all involuntarily – doing it, of itself. But when there is a danger coming to the pupil of the eye, the eyelid will come down to cover it, you might tilt your head away, hold up your hands to block the danger, or do whatever needed to dodge/ward off the danger. As the apple of God’s eye means you are given freedom (your free-will not taken from you) yet when there is any danger, God would protect you at all cost. As apple of God’s eye here in the vision, whether it is represented by the eaglet, with freedom to try to fly, or by the young man and I, with freedom in our engagements in life, when we get into trouble, afflicted or faltered, Father God comes like the papa eagle to hide us in the shadow of His wings.

Therefore the message in this vision is that as children of God, young or old, as apple of God’s eye, papa God is faithful to come to our aid, to protect us. The ending part of the vision is really showing us that God is faithful; we may not see God, we may not feel him, He is there watching over. The Lord brought to remembrance one of the trustworthy sayings of Paul in 2 Timothy 2:

if we are faithless{believe not}, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself (2 Timothy 2:13)

With much regret, I did not manage to deliver this vision to my church congregation over the weekend. As a matter of arrangement I have with the Lord, words of knowledge received prior to the first weekend service, would be for that first service, unless there was a sensation of otherwise. But I could not release this vision because of time constraint. In the first service (Saturday evening service), we were running out of time, and visions such as this one tended to take more time to be fully released to be understood. I had no choice but to skip it. It can be argued that this vision was meant for the entire church congregation and therefore should still be released on the next service which was the Sunday’s first service. Actually it turned out that this service did not suffered from the lack of time. But the session for the word of knowledge came on too soon in the service, and it caught me off guard; I ended up not releasing it, and was praying and ministering to people instead. Maybe I failed the Lord there, I am not sure. But one thing did happen though, a sister, from the congregation gave this word (in its place?) from Deuteronomy:

10 In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions. (Deuteronomy 32:10-11)

I decided that in the 3rd service, Sunday 10:30am service, I would release the vision. I stayed but no time was allotted for words of knowledge for that service.
I believe visions, words of knowledge and manifestations of the Holy Spirit can be spiritual food for us (if you want to catch a exposition on what constitute spiritual food, read this article – Spiritual food), and anyone reading this vision can claim the goodness, assurance and promises in it.



Anthony Chia – Lord, this vision has left an imprint in me of you as the PAPA, may you still use this write-up of the vision to speak to many.

Appendix – saved by the Lord’s golden sash:
This was a dream I had quite a number of months back. In this dream there was no one else in the picture. I was just me in a room, much like in a room of a posh hotel. The room, very well furnished, had glass walls. There was a low cabinet against one of the glass wall, and on top of the cabinet was a black luggage. In the dream, I reached for this luggage. Unexpectedly, I ended up giving a push to the luggage, and before I knew it, I was slipping along with the luggage over the cabinet, and into the air outside of the room! Apparently, the glass could be pushed opened, and somehow, not knowing to me, the wall was not there, the glass was pushed opened. I fell from the room, and then I realized it was a tall building, and I was in free fall. It was a long drop. Just before I hit the ground, suddenly, I went upright. My hands stretched out, and around one hand, and extending to the other hand across the chest was a golden sash, and I began to rise and rise, all the way back up to the room I fell from. I can still remember when I got back into the room, I hung the golden sash on a clothes pole.

Personal to me, as this is clearly a personal dream – no one else was in the dream; I was not particularly praying or interceding for another, and the only character in the dream was me. This dream spoke of the assurance that my God was watching over me. Even if I unwittingly stumble, God is there to save me. The moving back up through the air to the room has the connotation of restoration. So, it is not only that God saves, He will restore. How do I know it was a dream from God? We read in Isaiah 11, the sash represented faithfulness of God (Isaiah 11:5b - … and faithfulness the sash around his waist). In fact, Isaiah 11 is a prophetic description of the Messiah, Jesus. In Revelation 1:12-16, John gave a description of the one “like the son of man”. I believe Jesus was being described there. Notice that verse 13 said that He had sash around His chest. In that dream, Jesus took off His sash, wrapped it around my hands so that I could be propelled up in the air by His sash. This is how personal Jesus can get. This is how faithful Jesus can get.

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Psalm 42 – What to do when discouraged

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note".
{For full listing of all articles in this Psalms exposition series, click here}


Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
[Where are you, God, my soul longs for you just like the deer pants for water? My soul cried day and night while my enemy mocked at me saying, “Where is your God?”]

4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
[God, I remember I used to lead multitude in procession to your house with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive crowd.]

5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and 6 my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

[Oh my soul, do not be discouraged, put your hope in God, my Savior and my God. Praise Him still. God, in my discouragement, I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the height of Hermon – from Mount Mizar.]

7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

[Afflictions have come so thick upon me that I felt overwhelmed. Yet in my prayer, I will declare the Lord will send your mercy in the daytime, and in the night His song will be with me.]

9 I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"

10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
[God, have you forgotten me? I am oppressed by my enemy, I am in grief. I am in agony as my enemy continues with the attack. ]

11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
[Oh my soul, do not be discouraged, put your hope in God, my Savior and my God, whom I will yet praise.]


[When we are discouraged what do we do? What should we do? This is what the psalmist in Psalm 42 did:

The psalmist went before God, told God how his soul longed for Him, how he cried day and night while his enemy mocked at him, saying “Where is your God”. The psalmist reminded God that he used to lead in worship, giving shouts of joy and thanksgiving to Him. Even as the psalmist reminded God how he used to be joyful, he told himself not to be discouraged, to put hope in God our Savior and our God. He told himself that he still had to praise God.

The psalmist told God that in his discouragement, he would remember God. He told God that afflictions had come so thick upon him that he felt overwhelmed. Yet in his prayer he declared that the Lord would send His mercy in the daytime for him, and His song, in the night. He pleaded with God, saying “God, have you forgotten me?” He told God his condition – being oppressed, in grief and in pain as his enemy continued with the attack.

The psalmist ended by reminding himself again not to be discouraged, to put hope in God our Savior and our God. He told himself that he still had to praise God despite it all.]


What we should have learnt:

1. Never forget you have a God you can turn to.
If you are a Christian, never forget you have a God, your Savior and your God that you can turn to. The Christian God is a reliable and dependable God. If you are not yet a Christian, approach a Christian to find out how you too can have this Savior God.

2. Know your God well.
I believe the psalmist knew his God well. He probably knew that his God was a great and mighty God, capable of delivering him from the thick afflictions that he faced. Why did I say that? You can see he did not express any doubts at all about his God’s capacity to deliver him. He was only pleading for God to act. We have to get to know our God well. We should never doubt God’s capacity to deliver us from whatever afflictions that we may face. Make efforts to know your God before afflictions strike you.

3. Cry out to God.
Do not listen to people who suggest that we should just take all the afflictions “lying down”, that God had welcome the afflictions since they happened; that God would not do anything until they are all over. Do not listen to people who suggest that God would have given (gifts, help, etc) if He wanted to, that we do not need to ask. God does wait for people to cry out to Him, and men, big and small, in the Bible, cried out to God when they were faced with afflictions of all sorts. He knows everything, so what, it does not mean He is not waiting for you to talk to him or ask for his help.

4. Tell God you want to repossess the condition before discouragement.
Tell God you remember you used to be joyful and full of thanksgiving towards Him, and you want to repossess that joyfulness and thankfulness towards Him, and that you want to still praise Him. Tell God that in your affliction, you remember Him.

5. Pour out to God your condition now
– how badly you are afflicted, how oppressed you feel, your pain, your weariness, etc. Men may have problem taking your pouring-out but not God.

6. Ask God for His grace and mercy for your situation.
The psalmist asked for God’s mercy to sustain him in the day, and God’s comfort for the nights. God may or may not take you out of your situation, but be sure that his grace and mercy are sufficient to see you through.

7. “Get your hope up”.
This is very important, the psalmist repeated it. We should repeatedly tell ourselves not to be discouraged, and that God is working in our situation. Yes, tell our souls, speak to our souls. One indicator that your soul has listened to you is that you are able to praise God despite your afflictions. Whatever happens thereafter, be confident that in all things, your God will work for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). This is a powerful verse in the Bible. To be sure I am always included, I constantly remind myself to love Him, and try to understand what He wants me to do (do not wait until you are afflicted to love Him or to find out what He wants you to do!).

If you are facing trials and temptations, you might want to read another article of mine, James 1:2-18 (Handling Trials and Temptations).


Anthony Chia – I must always keep my head up. The Lord my God is with me, he is mighty to save (Zephaniah 3:17a).

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