April 4

Psalm 94
I receive it once a month, and perhaps you do as well. It is a magazine called The Voice of the Martyrs. Every month it is full of stories of the faithfulness of God’s people in the world today who are willing to lay down their lives for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. They endure hardships, imprisonments, tortures and unspeakable difficulties all for the love of Jesus. A skeptic might ask, “What kind of glory is that?” Even believers at times fall into the trap of thinking in the same manner. What they/we forget is that God is the One to Whom belongs vengeance. In the words of R.G.Lee’s famous sermon, there is a “Payday Someday.” His lack of vengeance now is really His patience and love waiting upon the perpetrators to repent and turn to Him; He loves even them.
The Psalmist reminds us of that. We are reminded that judgment will one day return to the righteous. Woe to the unrepentant in that Day! The Psalmist consoles himself in those thoughts. Whenever the anxieties of the day begin to rise up, he comes back to the thoughts that the Lord will help, and the Lord’s mercy will hold him up. I love verse 19, “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” One of the things I love about the stories in The Voice of the Martyrs, is how those have been persecuted for the sake of His name, so frequently talk about what a privilege it is to be counted worthy to endure hardship for His name. It is a living demonstration of His comforts, which delight our soul. I say that is a greater glory than a would-be god who promises us no hardship! His comfort is so sweet that it exceeds any hardship imposed upon us! Now that is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John