Category: Bible Thoughts (Page 2 of 2)

Revelation 5: 12-13 (KJV) And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.  And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. 

             Earlier this year, I had the honor to hear a live production of several selections from Handel’s Messiah.  My favorite selection is from this portion of Scripture.  The Messiah follows Christ from prophecy to His birth to that glorious day when He is seated on His throne with believers of all ages praising Him.  The audience stood when the choir sang “Worthy is the Lamb”, the words of which are from this passage of Scripture in Revelation.  “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us to God – to God by his blood.”  As they sang, I began to imagine singing it with them.  Not just here in an earthly choir, but at the throne of Jesus Christ with my loved ones who have gone to heaven before me.  

             Imagine it for just a moment.  There’s a rainbow around the throne – a reminder that Christ has kept every promise throughout the ages.  And He who sits on the throne is more beautiful that any jewel or gemstone known to man.  And around Him, there is throng of grateful believers.  And I am there too.  I am one of those praising Him because He is worthy to receive all my praise.  I am the one singing “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” to my Savior.  He is so worthy!  

             The greatest exhibition of the love of Christ was His death on the cross for the sins of the world.  Isaiah prophesied Christ’s horrible death.  Here are some passages from Isaiah 53.  “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities… and with his stripes we are healed… and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.”  

             The afflictions Jesus suffered on the cross are unimaginable.  Doctors have tried to tell us what His physical pain must have been, and preachers have tried to explain the pain of God the Son being separated from God the Father.  And yet, I believe it must have been much worse than we could ever express with words. But Christ was willing to go to the cross because He loved us.  He loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).  He loved us even when He knew who we were.  He even loved those who He knew would reject Him.  There is truly no greater love than this.  That God Almighty, Creator of the universe, perfect in every sense of the word, would shed his blood for me, die in a horrible, painful, shameful manner, so that I could be with Him in heaven.  He truly is worthy of an eternity of praise and glory and honor and blessing.

Psalm 51:7-8 (KJV) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Have you ever felt like you didn’t have any more joy in your life?  I don’t know your circumstances, but I know in my life, when I have felt like that, it was when I was battling sin or guilt in my own strength.  Usually, I was trying to hide from the Lord out of shame.  

I’m sure that’s how David felt when he wrote Psalm 51.  David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.  Then he planned how to kill her husband so his sin wouldn’t be found out.  He was adding sin to sin.  And he was trying to hide from God – whether he would admit it or not.  David forgot that God had seen and knew his secret all along.  God sent Nathan the prophet to point his finger in David’s face and tell him, “Thou art the man!”  I don’t know how long David tried to hide from God, but I can imagine he must have been miserable.  I can hear his misery in Psalm 51:

Have mercy upon me, O God!

Blot out my transgressions!

My sin is ever before me!

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned!

After admitting he had sinned, David started praying for cleansing.  “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice” (Psalm 51: 7-8).  Charles Spurgeon said of these verses, “He is requesting a great thing; he seeks joy for a sinful heart, music for crushed bones.  Preposterous prayer anywhere but at the throne of God!”  I love that!  Yes, what a preposterous request, but it is one that God longed to hear from David.  He longs to hear this request from us too.  Sin breaks our fellowship with God.  When He chastises us, He is trying to get our attention.  Sometimes God has to break us.  God broke David, but instead of complaining about brokenness, David acknowledged it was God who broke him so that he could be restored.  Remember, it wasn’t until David was faced with his sin that he repented and turned back to God.  

Did you notice David’s petitions for cleansing in verse 7?  Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.  Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.  David was praying for complete cleansing.  He was praying with the expectation that God not only could, but would, wash him whiter than snow.  He didn’t just want a surface cleansing either.  He wanted perfect purity.  White as snow.

Then in verse 8, David requested that his joy be restored.  In his hiding, in his misery, the weight of sin and guilt had burdened him so that he had no joy left.  Perhaps he tried to sing and felt his voice crack; or maybe he tried to write but couldn’t move his pen.  It reminds me of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim Christian, so burdened by the weight on his back he could barely walk until he got to the cross and the burden rolled away.   Joy was restored when sin was confessed.  The Lord removed the burden.  Bones that were broken by that weight of sin were healed by the One who did the breaking.  Spurgeon said, “yet if he who crushed would cure, every wound would become a new mouth for song.”  

I believe God restored David’s joy.  Though David’s life was turned upside down from that time forward, with war and heartache on every side, he had the joy of a forgiven man.  He knew the Lord had broken him and the Lord had restored him.  He would know heartache, but he would also write Psalms.  Even today, we read the Psalms of David and find encouragement, comfort, and solace.  We look at the life of David, and we see a man who messed up but continued to seek the Lord.  Acts 13: 22 calls David a man after God’s own heart.  

We can follow David’s example.  When we sin, when we feel the weight of guilt, we can ask for forgiveness.  We can pray like David, in faith and with expectancy that God will cleanse us.  Then, we can ask for joy to be restored – that preposterous prayer, as Spurgeon called it.  That prayer God will both hear and answer.  He will forgive, and He will restore our joy.  I don’t know what you’re dealing with today, but I know this: you can have joy again.