Remember

04.22.10
J.A. Matteson

"Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice." Psalms 63:7

The capacity to remember the Lord’s grace in days past informs our perspective regarding present circumstances. The tendency of the fallen nature is to forget the mercies of the Lord that have sustained and nurtured our sanctification thus far. If it was not for the grace of the Lord we would be consumed in an instant by unrelenting terrors and innumerable perils.

In this delightful Psalm David reflects back on the Lord’s goodness in the midst of present distress, carefully chronicling in his mind past evidences of divine blessing. The resultant outcome is joy in the midst of present adversity, a joy firmly established by a gift of God; viz., the grace of a heavenly perspective. David chooses his words thoughtfully when he proclaims, “…You have been my help…” for “have been” (ἐγενήθης) in the Septuagint is rendered from the aorist past tense indicating a perpetual or unending activity; he is not implying a single past act of divine protection in isolation from all others. What David is asserting is that the protective grace of the Lord has been with him moment by moment, day by day, year by year, and it is only by means of this grace that he stands in the present and has any hope of doing so in the next moment. And is this not what the Apostle states when he exclaims?, “there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (1 Cor. 8:6).

Key to establishing and maintaining joy in the present is comprehension the Lord’s providence over our lives, expressed by David as protection “in the shadow of Your wings.” To this end David, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, understood a three-fold aspect of divine oversight of his life. The first is divine preservation; that is, David realized that the Lord possesses within Himself the power to preserve that which He created (in this case, David’s life). Secondly, he perceived that in some way the Lord worked concurrently (in parallel fashion) with his will and decisions to bring this preservation about. Third, David maintained an eschatological perspective of the present and future that were informed by the promises and character of the God. And this divine providence by which “we exist” is known in nature by things physical or invisible, so that we may with confidence look to Him who is the Author and Sustainer of “all things.”

While in the mist of trial at the hands of wicked Saul who sought his life, David perceived God’s hand of protection, deliverance, and sanctification over his life. The Lord often accomplishes His providential plans through the means of secondary causes, whether good or evil, Saul being a prime example of a secondary cause. Pharaoh serves as another reminder of a secondary cause where the concurrent aspect of divine providence, God’s decree, and human responsibility are wed together, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH" (Rom. 9:17). Into this mystery—the connection between the eternal decrees of God and human responsibility—we approach cautiously.

While some are inclined to conclude God’s foreknowledge in the case of Pharaoh is such that God peered down the corridor of time to discover what the man would do, and based on what He saw (Pharaoh’s wicked acts) God “raised him up” for destruction. But is that what the Word of God teaches regarding God’s divine decrees and providence? For that assessment collides head-on with multiple alternate Scripture passages which clearly assert that when it comes to the Lord’s foreknowledge, He sees the future clearly because He decrees or ordains what the future will be in accordance to His governance aspect of providence; that is, God is actively directing redemptive history to His appointed ends for His purposes and glory.

In this regard Jude offers clarity, “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever” (Jude 1:12-13), or, their destruction was decreed from eternity past without regard to future acts by them! Why? The Apostle enlightens us, “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” (Rom. 9:22).

Pilgrim, coming back full circle to David, it was this awareness of God’s decrees and providence that brought joy to his heart. For he by the grace of the Holy Spirit was able to apprehend the glorious mysteries of God, and he understood that no wicked scheme could prevail against him, and that in the final analysis every aspect of his life was under the scrutiny of the Lord for his good and His glory. David lived under the authority of a wicked king who sought his life, but in that reality he continually remembered back to the Lord’s past goodness in preserving his life in order that He might bring to pass all that he had decreed for the youngest son of Jesse.

Once again, beloved, let your heart be filled with joy and peace in the knowledge that the times and seasons of your life are in the faithful hands of the Lord, “who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 24-25). Remember His past goodness to draw confidence and strength in the present.

Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isa. 40:8).