The Comfort of God

Transcript

GR 1789
11/9/2014
The Comfort of God
2 Corinthians 1:2-6
Gil Rugh

We're in 2 Corinthians in your Bibles. We have just begun our study in this great book, the most personal of Paul's epistles, as he shares something of his heart and his burdens, God's grace that brought comfort and encouragement to him. We've just looked at the opening verse. We talked about Paul's apostleship and what it meant to be an apostle. We talked about the church, focusing our attention for a couple of studies on what the church is. There is much confusion. We often start these letters that we have as part of God's Word to us address to the church of God here at Corinth in this letter, but we don't stop and consider what is the church? We've looked at some of the varying ideas that people are coming up with in the evangelical world. This is what the church is, this is what the church is to do. There is a lot more attention given on methodology than there is on establishing the substance of what is the church. And that will determine what the church is to do, and to a large extent how it is to do it. The church is comprised of the saints, the holy ones, those that God has set apart by the grace of His salvation for Himself. The church is not the gathering place for the unbelievers. The church in its ministry in worship is not focused to the unbeliever. Unbelievers are welcome to attend the meetings of our local church, as they would have been for the church at Corinth. And Paul wrote in his first letter that the Corinthians ought to be sensitive to the impact of their worship service if an unbeliever does come in. Not that there is any change in the message, but they need to be careful that things are done properly and in order so that they may present a clear testimony for the unbeliever. Unbelievers are welcome to attend but they are not members. You cannot be truly part of the church of Jesus Christ until you belong to Jesus Christ.

We noted the church has a universal dimension comprised of all believers, all believers from Acts 2 down until the rapture of the church which is yet future. But the manifestation of God's church in the world are local churches and while each local church is not all there is to the church, it is a complete church in and of itself. We don't have a view of the local church as something that is incomplete unless it is attached in some way to a denominational structure or something like that to make it more complete. Paul wrote, we noted in the first letter to the Corinthians, that you have every gift necessary. God has provided for His church in its local manifestations.

So with that established Paul is ready to move into the letter. And this letter begins as no other of his letters do. Usually he begins by thanking God for His work in the life of the believers in that church and talks something about that. That's a normal beginning. Here Paul is going to turn attention to himself and the blessing that he has received from God and remind the Corinthians that the same blessings God has provided for him are their blessings as well. And Paul is going to begin talking about affliction and suffering and the comfort that God brings to His children in their afflictions and in their suffering. And God's comfort will not just be offering pity, but it is an enabling comfort, a strengthening comfort that provides for them to endure and experience His peace in the worst of trials. As we will see as we look into this section, the trials and afflictions that believers experience in this world are not necessarily any different than the trials that the unbelievers experience. There are times when there is persecution and certain kinds of suffering directed because of our testimony for Christ, but generally we have to experience the same thing that the unbelieving world experiences. We get sick, loved ones die, we lose jobs, we have financial pressures, we go through the same kinds of trials and suffering and afflictions that the world generally does. The book of Ecclesiastes was written to remind believers that they experience the normal trials of life. What will mark out the believer as different is the provision he has from God in Christ to handle those afflictions, those sufferings differently than the world does.

In verse 2 Paul gave a greeting, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” In many ways this is his prayer for them, his desire for them. This is not just a standard greeting to get out of the way so we can move on to substance and things. The Spirit of God has directed in the writing of this, to remind them and express his prayer for them that they would experience the grace and peace that comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is God's unmerited favor bestowed upon us. Bestowed upon us to bring us our salvation, that we might be justified by faith in Christ. But it doesn't stop there. That grace that brought God's salvation to our hearts and lives when we turned from our sin and placed our faith in Christ is a grace that continues on to sustain us, to empower us, to comfort us. It's God's provision for us as His children, His peace, a peace that brings tranquility. It brought peace with God, Romans 5:1, “Therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Until a person comes to place his faith in Jesus Christ, the salvation God provided through His death on the cross, he is the enemy of God. God is opposed to him. “There is no peace, says my God to the wicked,” Isaiah wrote. But through Jesus Christ we have peace with God.

But that's not the end of the peace. Then we are provided the peace of God that stands guard at our hearts and minds, a peace that is beyond human comprehension, that brings tranquility to our hearts and minds even under the greatest pressures. Philippians 4 talks about that.

Come over to 2 Peter and note how Peter begins this letter. Verse 2, he is writing in verse 1, “to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Not just the grace you've experienced that has brought the righteousness of God to your account, but a grace and peace that will be multiplied to you. In other words he is talking about in his prayer for them, desire for them is that they experience that ongoing grace for every situation of every day, that His peace stand guard at their hearts and minds in all the circumstances of life, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, but it doesn't stop with that initial entering into His salvation. It is a wonderful, full, complete salvation and the power that brought that salvation to our life continues to work in the new life we have in Christ. And “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us.” That's what we have in Christ—that grace, that peace, that provision. Come back to 2 Corinthians. These come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First let me note, we see here a clear statement of the deity of Christ. Grace and peace come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Could you say this any other way? Could you say grace and peace from God our Father and the angel Gabriel? Grace and peace from Michael the archangel and God our Father? No. Grace and peace from God our Father and the Apostle Paul? No. Grace and peace can only come from the living God. So a reminder here of the deity of Jesus Christ. And put that in your minds because in a moment he is going to turn attention to the humanity of Jesus Christ. But he identifies here God our Father, what a remarkable statement. Grace and peace come to us from God our Father. Only those who have God as their Father experience this grace and peace, and only those who have come to bow, letting go of their trust in everyone and everything and placing their faith in the death of Christ as paying for their sin have been born into God's family. Remember Jesus said to Nicodemus, “you must be born again.” That new birth occurs when you place your faith in Jesus Christ. “We are born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, by the living and abiding Word of God,” Peter wrote. That's the new birth, how we have God as our Father and Jesus Christ as our Lord. And we have grace and peace from them.

Now he is ready to move into what we might call the focal point of the letter, the theme which will dominate really the first seven chapters, as he talks about the comfort that God brings to the heart and mind, the life of the one who belongs to Him in the midst of their pressures, their afflictions, their sufferings. He starts in verse 3 by saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That word translated blessed is a compound word—eulogetos. The eu in the front means well, logetos means to speak. The foundation means to speak well of someone. When we speak of blessing God we are speaking of praising Him, of honoring Him with our speech, thinking well of Him, declaring His greatness, His honor, His worthiness of our praise. And important here, we will come back to this as we move toward the end of our section, this context of talking about affliction, of talking about suffering, of talking about the comfort that God brings to His children, he begins to ascribe praise to Him for who He is and what He does. And that needs to be a focal point for us as His children. We are constantly reminding ourselves and offering to Him our gratitude, our thanks in praise for all that He has done, for His greatness, for His works and for His love for us. And the greatest demonstration of love—in that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” We give Him praise and express our gratitude.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now you'll note the God who is our Father is also the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We noted the deity of Christ is seen in verse 2 because grace and peace come from Him as well as from God the Father. But here we see that we give praise and thanks to the One who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not only God our Father, He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You have the humanity of Christ brought out. On the cross Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” The One who Himself is God who has dwelt in eternity with God, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” He created all things. But then He took upon Himself humanity. Without ceasing to be deity He became fully human and we have the God/Man, containing mystery and truths which our finite minds can only scratch the surface of. One person, two natures, “all the fullness of deity dwells in Him in bodily form,” Paul wrote to the Colossians. Awesome truth. And as Man the Father is His God, He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our connection to God as our Father comes through God the Son. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, the salvation provided in Him, we enter into a relationship with God as our Father. So the connection here.

We have grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and we ascribe praise and thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has provided for us our salvation and all that is necessary for a life of godliness. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.” Come back to Galatians 4, we see this connection of Christ becoming man so that as the God/Man He could die, thus making possible a relationship for sinners whereby God is their Father. Verse 4, “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.” We see He enters into the realm of humanity. “Born unto the Law that He might redeem those who were under the Law.” Because Paul here as a Jew is writing, addressing Jewish issues among the churches in Galatia that he established. “That we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying abba Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, if a son an heir through God.” And yet he draws the contrast of what we were like before we came to salvation in Christ. You see Christ was born into the human race so that we might be redeemed and placed as God's sons. So now the Spirit of God who dwells in us moves in our hearts and we cry out to God, Abba, Father. I am a son of the living God, He is my Father. The same truth is developed in Romans 8: 14-17 by Paul.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. He identifies God who is our Father as the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, then he reverses the order, dealing with Father first. He is the Father of mercies. As a Father He is tender, He is compassionate, He cares for His children. We have God as our Father and He is the Father of mercies. He is the God who is tender toward us, kind toward us, loving. Just like an earthly father, the picture with that young child—cares for him, is compassionate toward him, tender toward him.

Come back to Lamentations, written by Jeremiah as he laments over the destruction of Jerusalem for their sin. In Lamentations 3, you'll note the context. Important here. Remember Paul started out offering gratitude to God, praising Him in thanks for who He is and what He has done. Note Jeremiah's context here, verse 19, “remember my affliction.” And Paul is going to talk about the affliction of believers in the verses before us in 2 Corinthians. “Remember my affliction, my wandering, the wormwood, the bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me.” Now note, “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's loving-kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I have hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him,” and so on. In his affliction, in the crushing suffering of his life. It's so bad Jeremiah compares it to, verse 16, “He has broken my teeth with gravel. He has made me cower in the dust. My soul has been rejected from peace. I have forgotten happiness. My strength has perished, my hope is in the Lord.” Things are so bad but in the midst of it I recall to mind something that gives me hope. “The Lord's loving-kindnesses never fail, His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.”

He is the Father of mercies, His compassion will never fail. This day, I don't know if I can face the day and what is before me. Well, in my own strength I can't, but I belong to the God who is my Father and His compassions never fail. Is today going to be any different than yesterday? It may be worse, but His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. I love the way that is put—they don't get old, they don't wear out, they are new every day. Sufficient for every situation. Great is your faithfulness.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. In verse 3 “He is the Father of mercies, He is the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction.” I love that connection—the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction. All comfort for all afflictions. It doesn't get any better than that. The God of all comfort.

I want you to go to Isaiah 51. This idea of comfort has been emphasized in Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 40:1 he said, “Comfort, oh comfort my people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem.” Here in Isaiah 51:12, the last statement of verse 11, “sorrow and sighing will flee away. I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, the son of man who is made like grass, that you have forgotten the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor as he makes ready to destroy? But where is the fury of the oppressor?” Look at verse 15, “I am the Lord your God who stirs up the sea and its waves roar. The Lord of hosts is His name. I have put My words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of My hand.” This is talking about God's comfort, God's mercy, God's protection. “to establish the heavens, to found the earth, to say to Zion you are My people.”

What are you concerned about? The turmoil of the world around you? The afflictions that you are presently going through? What looms on the horizon? “I am He who comforts you. Why would you be afraid of what man could do? Remember Jesus said, “don't fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. But you better fear Him who after He has killed the body is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. I am the God who creates everything and all things.” Man comes and goes, the mightiest of men. We're going to talk about Nebuchadnezzar tonight, one of the greatest of earth's rulers. Where is he? Dead and gone, a memory, someone written about in history books. Anybody afraid of Nebuchadnezzar today? No. The God who is the creator of all things, He is our God. I am under the shadow of His hand. Does it get any better than that? It doesn't matter what is going on out here, I am under the shadow of His hand. He is the God of all comfort. But look what is going on, look what's happening, look what I have to face today, look at the pressures that I'm dealing with.

That's why he starts out, blessed. We give praise and thanks to our God and Father. Why? That puts it in perspective. We're going to talk about affliction, we're going to talk about suffering. Let's talk about the God who brings comfort. I love the picture—I have covered you with the shadow of My hand.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. He's the God of all comfort. That word comfort, God who comforts us in our affliction. That word comfort is the main word in verses 3-7. It is used ten times in these verses. The end of verse 3, it's used four times in verse 4, it's used again in verse 5, it's used three times in verse 6, it's used at the end of verse 7. You mark them, underline them, highlight them, ten of them. He is the God of all comfort, all comfort. This is a comfort as Paul talks about it and it will be a major emphasis in this letter, 2 Corinthians. It is a comfort that is not just offering His pity for what we are going through and making us feel a little better, it is a strengthening comfort, an enabling comfort, a comfort that brings His peace to hearts, a comfort that enables us and moves us to give praise, thanks to Him.

He is the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction. Now when we use the Greek word here, it will make you think of one particular passage—He is the paraclete or the paracletos, different forms of the same word. Remember we talk about the paraclete. Come back to John 14, there we see it as a reference to the Holy Spirit. But this is the characteristic of all three persons of the triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. John 14, this is the night, the disciples are about to face what for them will seem like the greatest of catastrophes, of overwhelming pressure, despair. The Messiah that they have followed for these years, they have served is going to be crucified and they will be scattered in disarray. He is preparing them, and He says in John 14:16, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper.” That word helper is the same basic word we have translated comfort. So you could translate it another comforter. You have in the margin of your Bible, the Greek is paracletos, compound word, one called alongside of, to give aid, to give comfort, to give help. He is another, another of the same kind. Christ said, I will give you another comforter, another like Me, but I am leaving. But you won't be left as orphans and uncared for. And the Holy Spirit will be with you forever, He is the Spirit of truth, “He abides with you but He will be in you,” the end of verse 17. The end of verse 19, “because I live, you will live.” Down to verse 26, “but the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.” Verse 27, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.” Who else but the sovereign God could declare that? Yet as Man He is about to go to the cross, but His work is an accomplishment of the God/Man. Mysteries and depths that we cannot comprehend, but the reality of it.

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.” When we talk about the afflictions and the trials and the suffering that comes, we're not just talking about that line where Paul maybe would get persecuted in a certain city for his testimony, we're talking about all the afflictions and suffering and fears that come to our lives as God's people. Don't let your heart be troubled, don't let it be fearful.

Turn over to John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation,” there is the word we're going to talk about in our passage in 2 Corinthians 1—tribulation, thlipsis, pressure, the trials, the suffering, the hardships that come. Pressure describes it, the word originally meant pressure. And we talk that way. We say, well I'm under a lot of pressure right now, talking about the trial you are going through, You feel the weight of it, it weighs on your heart and your mind. Sometimes it keeps you from sleeping. In the world you have tribulation. He doesn't say, in the world I'll keep you from tribulation. He says you will have it. “Take courage, I have overcome the world.” There is our victory. In this world of tribulation and trial and suffering we have the provision of a gracious God to care for us, to give us peace. We understand in a fuller way than Isaiah could understand, we live under the shadow of His hand. We have the indwelling presence of His Spirit to sustain us, to strengthen us, to calm us, to encourage us.

Earlier, in John 16:7, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. If I do not go away the Helper,” the Comforter, “will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you.” Back up in John 15:26, “But when the Helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father.” Awesome verse, here you have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all operating on our behalf. Can I be any more secure? Any better taken care of than that? I mean, this needs to be on our hearts and minds. I don't know what you will go through in the days ahead, I don't know what I will go through, I don't know what you are going through now. Paul is going to talk about this in our next study, some of the afflictions and things we go through just almost seem like they drive us to despair and there is a crushing burden and emptiness or sorrow. But you know what? The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the eternal God who is sovereign over all, who controls all is working on my behalf. I can be of good cheer, He has overcome the world and the world won't overcome me. Later John will write, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

Come over to 2 Corinthians 7, we'll get to this, but you can see how this theme of comfort in affliction will permeate this letter. When you come to 2 Corinthians 7:4, “Great is my confidence in you, great is my boast on your behalf. I am filled with comfort, I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. Even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had not rest. We were afflicted on every side.” There is the pressure. “Conflicts without, fears within.” See we're not just talking about the kind of physical suffering you may get, all kinds of trouble and when you're having difficulty and trouble and things happen it brings fears to your heart. What will I do? How will I handle this? Where will I go from here? “Even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had not rest.” This is the Apostle Paul. I had no peace, I had fears, concerns, conflicts without and fears within. “But God who comforts the depressed comforted us.” See that permeating emphasis on comfort. In the most overwhelming afflictions, in the fears, in the trouble of heart, get refocused and experience the comfort of God.

Come back to 2 Corinthians1:4, “He comforts us in all our affliction.” I have underlined in my Bible all comfort at the end of verse 3, all our affliction in verse 4. That is sufficient, that is adequate. Comforts us in all our affliction. Not some of our affliction, not in certain kinds of affliction. All comfort for all our affliction. Can you believe it? I mean, do we believe God is God?

“So that we.” Now this is not a dead end. He doesn't just comfort us so we can “feel better.” He comforts us so we can serve better, so we can be instruments through which will pass His comfort to other people. “So that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” So the comfort of God does not just necessarily come directly, but it comes indirectly. It all comes from God, but it comes sometimes through other people. And we know how that it. People who come alongside when you are in despair, when you are fearful, when you don't know what to do. And here comes a person that God sends and they have experienced God's comfort in trials, sometimes one similar to yours—the loss of a loved one, the facing of a serious operation, a financial disaster, whatever. And they are used of God to bring comfort. It is God's comfort but He mediates it through fellow believers.

So Paul puts that comfort, the comfort that God has brought to my heart enables me to comfort you. The comfort that Titus brought to me, as we saw in chapter 7, enables me to bring comfort. You know our lives as believers are not lived in isolation. He has put us in a family and God is our Father, and sometimes He is using other family members to comfort us and strengthen us in our time of trials. The solution is not to isolate ourselves and God will have to bring the comfort to my heart. He does and sometimes we go into a room and close the door and go to the Lord in prayer. Sometimes I need to have the door open and have another believer come and help me. Paul didn't say, I just got aside and prayed and the Lord comforted my heart. He said that Titus came, chapter 7, and he brought comfort to my heart. The fears dissolved. So we appreciate what God is doing in my life is not just for me, it's for me to be able to be better used, more greatly used by Him in someone else's life to comfort those who are in any affliction. Doesn't have to be the same affliction. When you've gone through times of suffering and experienced the hand of the Lord, that enables you to help others, even if their suffering is not the same kind. Sometimes it is the same kind.

God uses us to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we were comforted by God. So you see it is God's comfort passed on through God's children. How beautiful it is that God would put us in a family to care for one another, to love one another and be instruments through which He is working in one another's lives.

“But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. Or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort.” Paul says you have to put everything in your life in the context of your relationship to God who is your Father and Jesus Christ who is your Lord. So my afflictions don't cause me to turn inward and just become overwhelmed with my afflictions. I realize God has a purpose in this, not only for me but for other believers as well, for others that will be impacted by my life and my affliction will make me effective. Paul will talk about this at the end of this letter when he talks about when I am weak, then I am strong. That physical weakness, physical affliction do not keep me from being used of the Lord, they enable me to be used in greater ways. At times the tendency is to want to sit down in a puddle because we are afflicted. I have to stop and think that I belong to the living God. He has a purpose in this for me and for the impact of my life because I don't live in isolation. I am part of His family and this is so He can use me in other's lives.

“If we are comforted, it is for your comfort which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we suffer.” We are all suffering the same sufferings, the sufferings of Christ, verse 5. Now obviously His redemptive death on the cross is unique. But what he is talking about here is we see our lives and all that comes into them, whether it is affliction or whether it is comfort, in the context of our relationship to Jesus Christ. We are members of His body, He is the head. So these are the sufferings of Christ. That's different than the world faces suffering.

Come over to 1 Peter 2, we get an example of this. Verse 18, he is writing here to slaves, “Slaves be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor,” literally grace, “if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering. What credit is there if you sin and are harshly treated you endure with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure, this finds favor with God. You have been called for this purpose since Christ suffered for you.” Then the example, “being reviled He did not revile in return.” You see everything that happens, here is a slave, this is not primarily suffering for his testimony for Christ, he has done the best job in serving his master he can and he is still mistreated. But he handles that faithfully as a child of God, accepting that God is even using this unjust, ungodly, unfair master for His purposes in my life. So we are identified with Christ in all we do and how we handle things. We are connected to Christ. We belong to Him. We are living our lives pleasing to Him. And when we function with that as a foundation for our life, that enables Him to bring His peace and tranquility. It's when we get turned aside and think, that wasn't fair, that's not right. Then we look for vengeance. Then we are frustrated and feel we have been unfairly treated as though all of a sudden God is no longer in control. That's not true. So the believer, we handle it differently.

Over in 1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree you share the sufferings of Christ keep on rejoicing.” That will include if you suffer for your testimony for Christ. But in all these things I belong to Christ. It's not like I am out here suffering, having fears, going through pressure and trials and tribulation. I belong to Him, I am His for time and eternity.

We have to close with a passage from the Psalms, come back to Psalm 103. Paul will pick up talking about his own personal situation in more depth in our next section. But come to Psalm 103, where we started. “Bless the Lord,” ascribing thanks to God, praise to Him as we saw. “Blessed be God our Father.” Look how Psalm 103 goes. “Bless the Lord oh my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul, forget none of His benefits, who pardons your iniquity, heals,” and so on. Come down to verse 8, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness.” Verse 10, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving-kindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions.” You see this emphasis on bless the Lord, give Him the praises of a thankful heart for all He has done. This particular trial has to be put in context. God, You have forgiven my sins. You have cleansed me. You bestow your compassion and love and kindness on me and have for all these years. That puts my trial in perspective.

Verse 15, “As for man his days are like grass, the flower of the field, so he flourishes. The wind passes over it and it is no more, its place acknowledges it no more. But the loving-kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting for those who fear Him.” Verse 19, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels; bless the Lord, all you His hosts; bless the Lord, all you works of His; bless the Lord, oh my soul.” Then the next psalm opens up, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh Lord my God, you are very great, clothed with splendor and majesty.” Verse 24, “Oh Lord how many are your works. In wisdom you have made them all, the earth is full of your possessions.” Verse 33, “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live, I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” Then he closes, “Bless the Lord oh my soul, praise the Lord.”

The context of our sufferings enables us to express His fullness, all the comfort of God for all our afflictions.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the greatness of Your love for us, the love that had Your Son come to this earth, be born into the human race, go to the cross, bear our sins in His body so that we could die to sin and live to righteousness. Lord, how awesome it is that You are our Father, God our Father, the creator of all, the sustainer of all, the ruler of all. And we live under the shadow of Your hand, protected and cared for. We have the indwelling Spirit Who provides peace and comfort, enabling strength in every situation. Lord, You know the situation of each one here, Your children going through pain and trial. Bless them with the comfort of Your presence. Lord, for those who are here who don't belong to You, who are outsiders looking in, I pray that they might turn from their sin and bow to receive Your grace in salvation and know what it is to be cleansed and know the living God as their heavenly Father. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.