Psalm – Psalm 137-139

Bible Passage: Psalms 137 to 139

Are Our Hearts In Tune With God?

Psalms 137 is a lamentation of the Israelites during their capivity. Their sorrow and longing for their own land, the land given by God, are felt in these words,

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down, yea, we wept

When we remembered Zion.

137: 1

“How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?

137: 4

The Israelites were taken captives due to their disobedience to the commandments of God, and now they are feeling the punishment of their own sins, and they are weeping and longing for the land which God had given them.

Now let’s look at ourselves and ask, have we ever fallen into the same situation as the Israelites, and felt similar regrets? Then, due to our fall, do we also weep and yearn earnestly for something?

If we do weep, why and what do we weep for? Do we weep because we felt God is treating us unfairly? Or do we weep in remorse for our sins? Do we weep for not meeting the standards of God?

In the process of our realizing our sins, do we only yearn for God to lift us out of the sorry state we are in, or do we yearn for spiritual advancement, to draw closer to God?

All these are the questions I often ask myself when I think about my life as a Christian, especially when I’ve done something wrong and sinned against man and God. We are called Christians because we belong to Christ, but are we willing to FOLLOW Christ’s examples and words, and be in tuned with the will of God? Are we willing to persist on to lead a righteous and blameless life before Him?

We were once sinners under the bondage of the devil, but now, through the love and mercies of God, and the Blood of Jesus, we are freed from the bondage and we no longer live in the devil’s world. We are in the world but not of the world, for we have come into the Kingdom of God.

The Church of God is the Kingdom of God on earth. We, who are being called into this Kingdom, must treasure the grace that God has given us. Be true to God and to fellow brethren whom God had also called into His Kingdom.

God Goes Through Everything With Us

I think many of us, or even all of us must have grumbled at some points of our lives, “God, where are you when I needed you most?”

But David, the psalmist for this psalm, 138 assures us that God is faithful and will always be there in whatever situations we maybe in.

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;

You will stretch out Your hand

Against the wrath of my enemies,

And Your right hand will save me.

138:7

God will not only be by our sides to just look at how we can face our challenges, but He also strengthens us to face these challenges and to defeat our foes!

In the day when I cried out, You answered me,

And made me bold with strength in my soul.

138:3

So let us cling on tightly to the faithfulness and mercies of God, devote ourselves to God’s praise and glory and repose ourselves in his power and goodness.

Nothing, Nothing At All, Could Escape The Eyes Of God!

There is simply no doubt about the Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Omniscience of our Great and Awesome God!

Nothing can escape His eyes and His knowledge! He is the Author of all things that exist, the very details of our human bodies are His handiworks of wisdom and creativity. He knows us even before were being formed! How marvelous?! God’s wisdom can never be fathomed!

Very often we thought we know ourselves very well, but think about this for a moment, are we very sure that we know ourselves better than others? Well maybe. But there are often times when we can’t understand how our emotions work, or we can’t even see our own mistakes!

I’m quite sure many times we have exclaimed, “I don’t even know what I’m doing! I wasn’t sure why I said those words!” That is why the psalmist prays,

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psa 139:23 – 24

When God sees a person, the very first thing He sees is the heart; everything is laid bear before the eyes of God.

In the 2^nd sermon of the Year End Spiritual Meeting, Pr Simon Chin expounded on the truth about the Absoluteness of Biblical Morality, and he mentioned that God wants us to be blameless before Him. To be so, we have to observe the Absolute Biblical Morality.

According to the standard of the Bible, we don’t have to commit great sins in order to be guilty of missing the mark, but as long as we don’t do the things required of us, we are already sinning. (ref. 4:17)

We all tend to overlook or we can’t even detect the immoral thoughts, the pride and stubbornness we have been keeping in our hearts, and often forget or even refuse to repent and to ask for forgiveness from God.

So David the psalmist gives us a very wise reminder, and that is to ask God to search our hearts to see if there be any wicked ways that are still lingering in our hearts, so that we can repent. But of course, when God reveals to us of the hidden sins in us, we must be willing to admit that we have sinned for harboring such wickedness in our hearts even though we do not do it physically.

Let us always remember the attributes of God, and realize that nothing can escape His eyes. We want God to be around us at all times to comfort us, to strengthen us and to guide us, and definitely He can do that, but let us also accept the fact that He knows all our secret things, and so there is no point to harbor any “secret” wickedness in our hearts.

Today is the end of our Spiritual Meeting, we have had a great spiritual feast and communion with the brethren and with the Lord, but is that the end? No, it’s another new beginning for all of us after being nourished by the Word of God in these 3 days!

So are we all ready to diligently hold fast to the pattern of sound words, and to pursue a blameless life before God?

And also, are we all ready to diligently preach this pattern of sound words to the people in the world?