To see You Are my Prize!

Michael E. Wood

July 10, 2016

Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?  If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. Psalm 94:16-19

It is absolutely amazing how many ways we can be distracted from seeing clearly by faith things that are above. The psalmist, while longing and crying out to the LORD God to bring an end to the wicked, is enabled to see how God uses the wicked to bring correction to His people resulting in our ultimate blessedness. He understood that the LORD would never forsake or abandon His people. Martin Luther closed out his song “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” with these words, “The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.”

As the psalmist bore witness to the murder of widows, sojourners and the fatherless, by those who were foolish enough to think the LORD neither sees nor perceives, he faces the immanent prospect of meeting the same end. He is in this case delivered not only from death but from his own fears and cares by the providence and unchanging love of our Sovereign God. In the midst of a multitude of distractions the consolations of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit cheer his soul. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Does He not bring consolation to your soul?

Frustrations, doubts, and fears arise

And cause me to forget

Priorities You give to me

And by Your Word You set

Each thing in order as You please

Beyond what I can see

For when I think, “I slip”, Oh LORD,

Your promise then will be

The truth of steadfast love upholding

Me when I would fall.

As only You could answer as

You will before I call.

And when I am distracted by

The cares which blind my eyes,

Your consolations cheer my soul

To see You are my Prize!