December 31, 2019 -- Psalm 119:84 -- Can Persecution be used by God?
/How long must your servant endure?
When will you judge those who persecute me?
Psalm 119:84 English Standard Version
There is such urgency in this brief text that the original language has no verb in the first phrase. Literally it is: “What days Your slave?” Notice it is the slave or the servant of the LORD Who is crying out. He realizes he has no rights. He realizes he is defenseless. He has no power. He has no tools or mechanisms at his disposal to make things right. And he no ability to defend himself. The Master of the Slave has the right, the ability, the power and legal right to judge the actions of His slave and the one who persecutes the slave.
Perhaps the slave is persecuted at the Master’s pleasure, for the purification of the slave.
Perhaps the slave is persecuted in order to learn greater dependence on the Master.
Notice that the slave knows it is the right of the Master to judge. He judges either to sin or righteousness. The LORD of Heaven and Earth will judge the actions sinful and therefore give consequences; or the LORD will judge actions righteous and the slave will learn from this and therefore grow in righteousness.
It is a question that the slave brings to his Master. He wonders is this an instance of persecution for purification in which case I will need Your help, O God Who sustains us? Or is this an instance where one is judged unto sin and therefore the persecution will soon stop? In either instance, the slave is aware that he would be inclined to consider his own actions in a favourable light while considering the actions or motives of others in unfavourable shades.
How true it is: I hate the sins of others. My own sins I consider to be trivial. John Calvin noted: “Unless men are struck forcefully they have no sense of divine judgment.” Perhaps the LORD of God needed to have His slave forcefully struck so that his own sins would be revealed to him and his utter dependence on and need for God would be fully revealed to him.
Spirit of God, keep me from somnambulating. Whatever trial I am enduring, whatever great trouble is afflicting me, use it to rouse my soul and mind to wakefulness and watchfulness so that I will guard myself in the holiness given to me in Christ. Holy Spirit lead me in the path of forgiveness—offering and receiving forgiveness—so that I will walk blamelessly in communion with the Father in heaven. Amen.
