In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

Psalm 94:19

We may find ourselves with a ‘multitude of anxieties.’  The refreshing fact which presents itself to us in the reading of the psalms is that the writers are honest and forthright about their spiritual struggles.  This writer is no exception.  He speaks frankly about his multitude of anxieties.  His comfort lies, not in his own ability to preach himself into right thinking, or follow a prescribed formula for overcoming anxiety by self-discipline.  The psalmist does the only thing that will truly address his multitude of anxieties, he looks to the comforts of his God.  How does God comfort His people?  He comforts us with Christ.  Within the context, what has triggered him to cause this multitude of anxieties?  He has struggled with the prosperity of the wicked.  He has endured their oppression.  He has arrived at a soul-weariness because these oppressors continue without anyone calling them into account.  Where can such a beleaguered soul find comfort?  He finds it in God, Who shows us Himself through Christ.  If you have a multitude of anxieties today, look to Christ for comfort.  He will comfort you in a way which will be a delight to your soul.  He will uphold and uplift you in spite of all that evil men would do to put you in fear.  Jesus never fails.

Our Kind and Comforting God,
we rejoice that You meet us at our point of deepest need.
We praise You that when we are most anxious,
You show us Christ.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.

Psalm 94:18

When the wicked oppress the people of God it can press us beyond measure.  We may feel destabilized so much as to say, ‘my foot slips.’  If we fall, and especially if the wicked observe it, it will give them great occasion to blaspheme.  They will delight to ask, ‘Where is your God?’  In and of ourselves, we are not able to withstand the oppression of these evil folk.  How shall we go on, when we feel as if ‘my foot slips?’ The psalmist provides the answer when he says, ‘Your mercy, O Lord will hold me up.’  Christ is the Great Preserver of His people. He is the Good, Great and Chief Shepherd.  According to His own testimony, He ‘gives His life for the sheep.’  Christ is more able to uplift than oppressors are able to oppress.  They are limited by His sovereignty.  He is unlimited in His omnipotence.  He Who is ‘able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him,’ is also ‘able to keep you from falling.’  This is the greatest of encouragements to all of us who find ourselves feeling that our foot slips because of the oppression of unrighteous people.  The Christ Who has saved us is the Christ Who will uphold us.  He has promised to never leave us or forsake us.  If you feel today that your foot is slipping, look to Christ.  He has never failed one of His Blood-bought saints yet.  He will not fail you.

Our Gracious, Upholding God,
we rejoice that You will enable us to endure
all the oppressions of the unrighteous.
We praise You that Christ our Savior will go with us
and uplift us, regardless of our circumstances.

Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.

Psalm 94:17

Christ and the help He gives to His people under the oppression of the wicked preserves us from perishing under the weight of that oppression.  The psalmist declares that it is the help of the Lord which has delivered his soul from becoming silent in death.  The oppression of the wicked against us may press us down very heavily.  Christ helps us when there is no help for us from any other quarter.  This help lifts us up from the weight upon our soul which would press us down until our very existence in the earth hangs in doubt before us.  Because this is a very real experience for many of us, and the burden of the oppression is very real, we trust in Christ to preserve us from succumbing to the crushing effects of it.   He has preserved His people from settling in silence in every age.  He preserved David from Saul, the three Hebrew children from Nebuchadnezzer; and Daniel from those who would have arranged his destruction.  God is Sovereign and Christ is God.  He upholds His people under the worst that evildoers can do to them.  Our consolation is that He Who has been faithful to live, die, rise again, and intercede for us will also help us in the midst of oppression to assure that by the upholding of His Almighty Hand we do not ‘settle in silence.’

Our All-powerful and All-wise God,
we rejoice that You rule and reign over all of our affairs.
We praise You that You will uphold us
in the midst of life’s most crushing moments.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

Psalm 94:16

The people of God are not their own defenders, nor do they take vengeance into their own hands.  Having said that, where will they find justice?  As is true in all other things, our hope is in Christ.  The wickedness of the wicked may seem to go on unchecked for the moment.  They may exalt themselves to take first position, and provide for themselves the best of everything.  They may oppress the people of God in disrespecting, deriding, and doing whatever they can to get rid of them.  For the part of the people of God, we have Christ as our pattern to enable us by His Spirit to respond in such a way as to imitate Him.  For Christ’s part, He takes note of the evil behavior of the oppressors of His Body.  The psalmist asks, ‘Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?  Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?’  The answer is, Christ.  We must embrace a whole God and a whole Christ.  This is that Christ to Whom the angel refers in Revelation when he says, ‘Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and was, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.’  Thus, Christ does ‘rise up…against the evildoers.’  Because He does, we His people, need not become our own avengers.  We may return good for evil, and prayer for cursing.  This is not a natural response, but one that by the Holy Spirit we can give.  Today, we look not to ourselves, but to Christ, Who will rise up against the evil doers, in due time.

O Christ, our Great Defender,
we rejoice that You do what is right,
on behalf of Your people.
We praise You, that we may rest,
knowing that You will right all the wrongs.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

But judgment shall return unto righteousness:  and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

Psalm 94:15

There are times when judgment goes astray.  The prophet Habakkuk declared in his day, ‘the law is powerless and justice never goes forth.  For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, perverse judgment proceeds.’  How does what we know of the character of God and of Christ, His Son, help us when we see this kind of perversion of judgment?  Our text for today is a promise to the people of God.  The writer of the psalm, one of the ‘holy men of old’ is speaking truth regarding the return of judgment to righteousness.  For the people of God, it is just a waiting game.  Christ promised to come and to ‘sit on the throne of His glory.’  He describes the scene where He divides the wicked from the righteous, ‘as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.’  He goes on to articulate how He will pass judgment upon them, accepting some and rejecting others.  The conclusion of the whole matter is, ‘these (unrighteous) will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’  We see in the words of Christ the fulfillment of the prophecy of the psalmist, that judgment will return to righteousness and all the upright in heart will follow it.  Christ the Savior is also the Judge, Who will do right.

Our Holy and Just God,
we rejoice that You will do right.
We praise You that You will render judgment and justice
and correct all that unrighteousness has done.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning