“Scripture Studies” is a journal dedicated to the study and exposition of the Bible, for those who love the study of the Bible, for those who respect the Bible as the Word of God, for those who want to know the Bible better.
The Lord Answers
5“Because of the oppression of the weak
and the groaning of the needy,
I will now arise,” says the LORD.
“I will protect them from those who malign them.”
6And the words of the LORD are flawless,
like silver refined in a furnace of clay,
purified seven times.
7O LORD, you will keep us safe
and protect us from such people for ever.
Here, God answers David’s prayer. Although it is not always apparent to us, the Lord sees injustice and oppression, and acts upon it. He hears the cries of weak, even the unintelligible“groaning of the needy”, and in His time, He will “arise”. Oftentimes, if we cannot recognize that God is working in the situation, we mistakenly conclude that He doesn’t know of our suffering, or that He doesn’t care about our suffering, or that He is powerless to act to remedy our suffering. Nevertheless, God is in control of every situation, working each circumstance, even our suffering, according to the wisdom of His will. We, even God’s children, do suffer, but we suffer within the will of God. “[T]here is [a] reason why the good are afflicted with temporal calamities–the reason which Job’s case exemplifies: that the human spirit may be proved, and that it may be manifested with what fortitude of pious trust, and with how unmercenary a love, it cleaves to God.”[Footnote #18]
No, our sufferings do not prove the absence of God, but rather, the results of our sufferings prove the presence of God through our sufferings. God has promised, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5), and so He is with us even in the worst of times. We suffer in this world so that we might not cling to the things of this world, but rather cling to God and the things of God, longing for the treasures He has promised. Both the righteous and the wicked suffer the same ills, but there is a great difference in that God is with us in our sufferings. “Wherefore, though good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both suffer. For even in the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in the sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow brightly, and chaff to smoke…so the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked. And thus it is that in the same affliction the wicked detest God and blaspheme, while the good pray and praise.”[Footnote #19]
So, in this, we see that “the words of the LORD are flawless.” “God’s words are pure from all error, all mistake, all equivocation, all deception, all encouragement to sin, all weakness.”[Footnote #20] What God says is pure and perfect, tested and tried, “like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” David knew this, and affirmed it even though he suffered greatly, and often, in his life.
Footnotes
18. Augustine, The City of God, Book I, Chap. 9.
19. Augustine, op. cit., Ch. 8.
20. Plumer, Studies in the Book of Psalms, pg. 189.
“Scripture Studies” is edited by Scott Sperling and published ten times a year by Scripture Studies, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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