CHAPTER SIX We find something very significant in verse 9. David, after such a union, strangely prays, “Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, 0 God of my salvation.” Have you ever felt in your life as though there might be something of an eclipse of God? Life is cold; He seems far from you. You don’t know which way to turn. You may be even doubting the reality of Christianity and perhaps even the very existence of God. Listen, if it’s any comfort, there’s no need to wonder where God has gone. He hasn’t moved. He doesn’t orbit around us. He’s right where He’s always been. He hasn’t moved one iota. The problem is one hundred per cent with us. Verse 8 suggests that if we don’t seek God after this gracious invitation, then He’ll be hidden from us, as David suggests in verse 9. The Lord never forces Himself upon anyone. So the prayer, “Forsake me not, leave me not.” The original would give us the beseeching, “Don’t let go of your hold upon me.” In verse 10, we find perhaps one of the most interesting statements in the entire chapter. David observes, “When my father and my mother for sake me, then the Lord will take me up.” It’s interesting to consider our human progenitors. I think of an essay on parents which was written by a child. A part of it declared, “The trouble with parents today is that when we get them, they’re so old that they’re very hard to change!” That’s quite an observation, isn’t it? What did David mean when he sug gested that his father and mother would forsake him? Some Bible scholars have felt that he might be referring to the death of his parents. That’s possible. More than this, how ever, he’s suggesting that this is the ultimate in loneliness. N a tu ra lly speaking, parents would be the last
ones to leave their own children. This envisions the worst thing that could possibly happen. Verse 11 is a continuation of this saint’s prayer. It’s profitable for closer study, “Teach me thy way, 0 Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.” Notice that David doesn’t ask for his own way. Isn’t it true that if we were honest, quite frequently our prayers would in essence sound like this: “Lord, here are my plans; will you please bless them ?” Then we wonder why we’re miserable and have frus trations. It doesn’t work that way. It’s God’s path and only He can re veal it to us in His own time. The twelfth verse continues the prayer of the Psalmist, “Deliver me not over unto the will of mine ene mies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.” There are those who seem bent on our downfall and de struction. There are people who seem to enjoy finding fault with things we do. Do you know anybody like this? The other day someone gave me a card about three by five and in large letters it offers, “We welcome criti cism. Please write yours here.” Then, there’s a little box provided for the writing of the criticism. The square is only about a quarter of an inch square. In other words, no one likes to be told what he’s doing wrong. Criticism can sometimes rankle us, “We’re only human,” we explain. James, the third chapter, is the hall mark of the Word of God concerning teaching on the tongue. In the eighth verse it is stated, “The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” While it’s a fact that no man can tame the tongue, God can and does, as we seek His help and strength. The Lord needs to be given the opportunity to con trol the speech of many of us as Christians. It was Charles Haddon Spurgeon who painted the graphic word picture that, “Slander is an 13
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