What causes you to get discouraged? What steals your peace of mind? What unsettles your heart? What causes you to lose sleep?
We can word the answers to these questions with four words: Family. Health. Jobs. Spirit.
Family – problems with our spouse or children. Parents. Siblings.
Health – health issues either with ourselves, our family, or our close friends.
Jobs – where? Co-workers. Promotions. Pleasing the boss. Potential problems.
Spirit – forgiveness? redemption? sinful habits?
When Jesus was experiencing severe pain while hanging on the cross, He uttered seven sentences that have been recorded for us by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. While He was hanging there on the cross, with pain throbbing in His forehead, with pain shooting through His arms from the nails in His hands, with the wound in His side throbbing, His raw back rubbing against the wood, pain shooting up through His legs from the nails in His feet, and above all, with the weight of the world’s sin on His shoulders… He quotes from the Old Testament. Twice. Both times are from the book of Psalms: Psalm 22:1 – “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” And…
Psalm 31:5 (Luke 23:46). Today, I wish us to meditate on Psalm 31 and ask ourselves, why? Why did Jesus find encouragement, peace of mind, a settled heart and a calm spirit, from quoting from Psalm 31:5: “Into Your hand, I commit My spirit”? Let’s feed our spirits on this psalm from David.
JESUS FOUND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM PSALM 31 BECAUSE OF DAVID’S TRIALS:
Imagine where Jesus has been emotionally through His betrayal by Judas in the upper room and the betrayal by the other apostles in the garden and His trial. Now He’s on the cross – not one time has He violated any law. He has never violated God’s law or man’s law. A more innocent man has never before been falsely condemned and prosecuted as Jesus has. What better to meditate on the hope of the resurrection, than to know that God owes Him life, once He dies!
Jesus will be seeking vindication. He has been teaching what the Father has told Him to teach. Now He is hanging on the cross for Truth. He quotes verse 5 and then “breathes His last” (Luke 23:46). What vindication is He looking for? Who do we want to be vindicated by? Whose approval are we looking for? It’s God’s approval that matters the most – right?
What David experienced was more than us, yet (vers 21-22), it is very relatable. “I am cut off from your sight.” It’s a knee-jerk reaction. We often feel like God is not quite listening to us. But when we meditate on the cross of Christ, we can see the presence and the listening ear of God. It goes back to the “Not my will.” We ask God, “Where have you been?” But it boils down to the idea of: “Your will be done.”
JESUS FOUND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM PSALM 31 BECAUSE OF DAVID’S TRUST:
What characteristics of God specifically did Jesus trust?
God’s righteousness – verse 1
God’s immutability (unchangeableness) – verses 2-4
God’s truth (or faithfulness) – verse 5
God’s lovingkindness – verses 7, 16, 21
God’s knowledge – verse 7
God’s grace – verse 9
God’s justice – verses 17, 23
God’s goodness – verse 19
God’s presence – verse 20
JESUS FOUND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM PSALM 31 BECAUSE OF DAVID’S TRIUMPH:
When there’s trouble, we know that since we are in Christ, He hears us in the day of our trouble. It might be that our death is required, but He is still with us. God is aware of me (ver. 7); He is aware of what I face. God is listening; He has considered my life. God has known the troubles of my soul. He brings stability because He listens; He knows.
Family, when you don’t have strength to carry on, remember where you are: You are in Christ. Because of God’s nature, He cannot lie and He will be with you through the trials of life.
CONCLUSION:
As the apostle Peter writes his first letter, encouraging Christians to keep faithful to Jesus Christ and His gospel, He points to Jesus as the prime example of trust: 1 Peter 2:21-25. Then in 1 Peter 4:19, Peter writes to us: “therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall [this is an imperative in the Greek] entrust [the same verb used of Jesus in Luke 23:46] their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”
Even though you might be experiencing trials in life that make your mind unsettled and steal peace from your heart, trust God to carry you through, being used as clay in His hands, and you will experience the triumph of faith!
Paul Holland