There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
(Debra Heine – American Greatness) Dr. Peter McCullough, a top cardiologist and leader in the medical response to the COVID pandemic, said in a recent interview that myocarditis in young people post vaccine is far more dangerous than the COVID version of the heart disease.
Cases of myocarditis—inflammation of the heart muscle—have spiked dramatically among previously healthy people in heavily vaccinated countries….Health officials have maintained that vaccine-induced myocarditis is rare, and worth the risk because COVID-induced myocarditis is much more prevalent.
I think it’s time that we say ‘You choose not to get vaccinated, then you’re also going to assume the risk that if you do catch COVID, and you get sick, the responsibility is on you,'”
The potential corruption and abuse of such a rule should be obvious to anyone familiar with just how mendacious insurance companies can be.
In all likelihood insurance companies will simply demand a negative Covid test before paying anything, and if you test positive, no matter what you were treated for, you will be called a “covid case” and forced to pay out of pocket.
The bill could, essentially, wipe all health insurance off the books for unvaccinated people.
The vaccinated should take no comfort from this, because their vaccinated status is entirely temporary, and subject to rules that could change on a whim.
Any “double jabbed” who misses a booster, or got a brand of vaccine that was subsequently unapproved or discontinued, or wasn’t updated for the latest variant, could suddenly find themselves one of the “unvaccinated” underclass.
Of course, once it applies to vaccination status it can apply to other things. You travelled to the wrong place, or you didn’t wear a mask, you “associated with known anti-vaxxers”.
And, even more concerning, is the potentially slippery slope this starts us down. Unvaccinated don’t get health insurance. Neither do smokers who get lung cancer. Or overweight people who get diabetes. And so on and so on.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic and mask mandates rolled out by governments worldwide have caused an “exponential increase” in face mask pollution, comprehensive research based on data collected in 11 countries suggests.
The damning study by a team of researchers with the University of Portsmouth was published in the Nature Sustainability journal on Thursday.
The group conducted a comprehensive study of personal protective equipment (PPE), observing an “exponential increase” in such litter amid anti-coronavirus measures. Their findings are based on data collected across 11 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US, using a litter collection application Litterati.
The research spans 14 months, with September 2019 figures used as the baseline. Covid-related litter began to grow at alarming rates in March 2020, when the spread of the virus turned into a full-blown global pandemic, with governments worldwide introducing various restrictions, including mandatory face mask-wearing.
“Overall the study shows the impact that legislating the use of items such as masks can have on their occurrence as litter. We found that littered masks had an exponential increase from March 2020, resulting in an 84-fold increase by October 2020,” Dr. Keiron Roberts, lead researcher with the University of Portsmouth, said.
Among the countries sampled, the UK has shown the “highest overall proportion of masks, gloves and wipes as litter,” according to the study. In August-October 2020, for instance, masks accounted for more than 5% of all litter produced there, with wipes and gloves accounting for a further 1.5%.
The nearly 9,000% increase in PPE litter clearly shows the enforcement of face mask-wearing “must be accompanied with education campaigns to limit their release into the environment,” Roberts added. While pandemic-related restrictions, such as curbs on international travel, have had a minor positive impact on the environment, the skyrocketing PPE pollution has become truly alarming, the researchers said.
“In April 2020, it was beginning to appear that there were some small positives in the decrease in human activity caused by lockdown, with improvements in air quality and water quality. Reduced human activity also saw reports of animals coming back to towns and cities,” Roberts stated, adding that masks also began appearing “where they hadn’t been before.”
Christians have warned about the use of tarot. Yet we are in a time when the wisdom of the church is often rejected, and many people are not even aware of its warnings about the occult.
No longer does the all-knowing, all-seeing, jolly Old St. Nick need to rely on antiquated elves on shelves and other seasonal snitches in order to know when you’re sleeping or awake, and if you’ve been naughty or nice.
Thanks to the government’s almost limitless powers made possible by a domestic army of techno-tyrants, fusion centers and Peeping Toms, Santa can get real-time reports on who’s been good or bad this year.This creepy new era of government/corporate spying—in which we’re being listened to, watched, tracked, followed, mapped, bought, sold and targeted—makes the NSA’s rudimentary phone and metadata surveillance appear almost antiquated in comparison.
Consider just a small sampling of the tools being used to track our movements, monitor our spending, and sniff out all the ways in which our thoughts, actions and social circles might land us on the government’s naughty list.
Tracking you based on your health status. In the age of COVID-19, digital health passports are gaining traction as gatekeepers of a sort, restricting access to travel, entertainment, etc., based on one’s vaccine status.
In November, Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced a mandatory vaccination campaign against coronavirus in Austria, starting from 1 February 2022.
Earlier this year, when inflation was still “transitory” two Fed chairs, Powell and Bernanke, made comments which we joked only make sense if the definition of inflation is changed:
*POWELL:FOMC PREPARED TO ADJUST POLICY IF EXPECTATIONS GO BEYOND
Sadly, our feeble attempts at humor were not unjustified, and as any economic history buff knows the US dramatically changed how it calculates consumer inflation back in the 1980s, an event extensively covered by AllianceBernstein former chief economist Joseph Carson on this website in the past (see “Consumer Price Inflation: Facts vs. Fiction“) with the most important difference being that while the CPI of the 1970s included house price inflation, the current measure does not. Instead, home price pressures have been swept in the purposefully nebulous Owner-Equivalent Rent which can be whatever politicians wants it to be (there have been other definitional changes, see here, here, here and here for more). Bottom line, however, is that if today’s CPI did include house prices in its measurement, the currently reported inflation numbers for house price inflation would push CPI (and core CPI) to double-digit gains.
Of course, it is politically inconvenient to report true inflation is – just see what happens in any banana republic where society is fed up with runaway inflation. It’s also why politicians on both sides of the aisle are always eager to tweak the definition of inflation ever so slightly (or not so slightly) so it appears to be less than it truly is. After all, for them masking reality is a matter of political survival.
In any case, what we though this summer was just a joke appears to be coming true, because as the BLS has reported, starting next month it will adjust the weights for its Consumer Price Index basket, which will be calculated “based on consumer expenditure data from 2019-2020.” Alas, there is no further detail on this critical topic, although we will take any bet that post-revision reported inflation will drop because, well, “adjustments.”
In the same press release, we also read that “the BLS considered interventions, but decided to maintain normal procedures”… whatever those are. Said otherwise, the BLS may not be “intervening” for now, but when the inflationary rubber hits the road next year with the midterms coming up fast and Dems ratings still in the dumps, we doubt that the BLS will have any qualms to “intervene.”
Incidentally, this “update” may explain the conviction behind Biden’s statement today: in a statement after the blistering hot CPI report came out…
… Joe Biden said that despite experiencing the most rapid inflation in almost 40 years in November, U.S. price increases are slowing, in particular for gasoline and cars.
“Today’s numbers reflect the pressures that economies around the world are facing as we emerge from a global pandemic — prices are rising… But developments in the weeks after these data were collected last month show that price and cost increase are slowing, although not as quickly as we’d like,” he said. Biden’s chief of staff Ronald Klain chimed in too:
We've made progress, but we've got to get prices down, and people have to feel the progress at their kitchen tables.https://t.co/YH102YVlQp
Well, all that prices needs to slow “as quickly as we’d like” at least in government reports such as the CPI, is for the BLS to give them a gentle nudge lower.
For the plague upon the beasts, Pharaoh gave no sign of yielding. He sent out messengers to learn if the cattle of the Israelites had indeed been spared, but he maintained an obstinate silence. Then came the sixth plague. It turned from the cattle of the Egyptians to their persons; their own flesh was attacked. Moses “stood before Pharaoh,” and tossed into the air “ashes of the furnace.” Wherever an atom fell “it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.” We know not what special restraint from God prevented the infuriated monarch from having his tormentor stricken dead before him; we are told only that the monarch’s heart was further “hardened.”
This plague tormented all the Egyptians, yet it seems to have been directed more particularly against the magicians, perhaps in punishment because they had pretended to equal the earlier plagues. We are told that now because of their suffering they “could not stand before Moses.” Their spirits were completely broken. Already they had confessed that Moses’ power was beyond theirs; now they wailed aloud. Yet Pharaoh “hearkened not unto them.” We hear no more of them in connection with the later plagues.
Creation was a great mystery, for all things to be made out of nothing, order out of confusion. For God to make man a glorious creature of the dust of the earth, it was a great matter. But what is this in comparison for God to be made man?
Richard Sibbes (1577–1635)
God Chose This Day to Be Born
Luke 2:11; John 14:9; Galatians 4:4
God, the Son of God, equal and of the same nature from the Father and with the Father, Creator and Lord of the universe, who is completely present everywhere, and completely exceeds all things, in the due course of time, which runs by His own disposal, chose for Himself this day on which to be born of the blessed virgin Mary for the salvation of the world, without loss of the mother’s honor.
Leo the Great (ca. 400–461)
“God Contracted to a Span”
Luke 2:1–20; John 1:14
Let earth and heaven combine,
Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made man.
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
God Glorified His Justice in Sending Jesus
Romans 3:25; Hebrews 10:5; 1 John 2:2; 4:10
God glorified the attribute of His justice more by sending Jesus Christ into the world, to undergo the execution of that wrath that was due to sinners, than if He had taken particular vengeance upon sinners and sent away every soul of them to hell. No other sacrifice could avail to appease the divine justice, but that true and only sacrifice of the Son of God, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God.
Ezekiel Hopkins (1634–1690)
God Has Sent Down to Us His Son
Isaiah 9:6; Luke 2:13–14
Join, all you joyful nations,
The acclaiming host of heaven!
This happy morn
A Child is born,
To us a Son is given:
The messenger and token
Of God’s eternal favor,
God has sent down
To us His Son,
A universal Savior!
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
God in Our Nature Is Forever in Heaven
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23; Hebrews 4:14–16; 7:25
This Emmanuel has taken our nature forever; He has taken it into heaven with Him. God and we shall forever be on good terms, because God in our nature is forever in heaven, as an intercessor appearing for us. There is no fear of a breach now; for our Brother is in heaven, our Husband is in heaven, to preserve an everlasting union and amity between God and us.
We could not be “with God,” but God must first be “man with us.” We were once with God in Adam, before he fell; but there being a breach made, we cannot be recovered again till God be with us. He must take our natures that He may reconcile our persons.
Richard Sibbes (1577–1635)
God Now Loves Our Nature as Joined to His Son
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23; John 1:14; Philippians 2:7; Hebrews 4:14–16
Our nature is now acceptable to God in Christ, because He has purified it in Himself, and God’s nature is lovely to us, because He has taken our nature. If God loved His own Son, he will love our nature as joined to His Son, and God’s nature is lovely to us. He took our flesh upon Him, and made himself bone of our bone. And shall not we like and affect that which was so graciously procured by Emmanuel?
Consider of it, and let it be ground of reverent and bold prayer, in all our wants to go to God in Emmanuel.
Richard Sibbes (1577–1635)
God Put Forth His Power to Make Himself Weak
2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 2:5–11
It is an effect of the almighty power of God to unite Himself to human nature, to frail flesh. This was to put forth His power, only to make Himself weak. Is it not almighty power, that the infinite unconceivable Godhead should unite to itself dust and ashes; and be so closely united that it should grow into one and the same person? The glory of God’s power is hereby exceedingly advanced.
Ezekiel Hopkins (1634–1690)
God Reconciled Justice and Mercy in Christ
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23; 1 Peter 1:12
To join and knit two attributes seeming contrary, justice and mercy; to reconcile man by reconciling justice and mercy, and by such an excellent way that God should become man, Emmanuel, this was a great wisdom—to reconcile justice and mercy by such a person as should satisfy justice and give way to mercy, that is, by Christ. God will lose none of His attributes. His justice must be satisfied, that His mercy might be manifested. The wisdom of God found out that way. It is a plot the angels study in.
In an incomprehensible reversal of all righteous and pious thinking, God declares himself guilty to the world and thereby extinguishes the guilt of the world. God himself takes the humiliating path of reconciliation and thereby sets the world free. God wants to be guilty of our guilt and takes upon himself the punishment and suffering that this guilt brought to us. God stands in for godlessness, love stands in for hate, the Holy One for the sinner. Now there is no longer any godlessness, any hate, any sin that God has not taken upon himself, suffered, and atoned for. Now there is no more reality and no more world that is not reconciled with God and in peace. That is what God did in his beloved Son Jesus Christ. Ecce homo—see the incarnate God, the unfathomable mystery of the love of God for the world. God loves human beings. God loves the world—not ideal human beings but people as they are, not an ideal world but the real world.
We prepare to witness a mystery. More to the point, we prepare to witness the Mystery, the God made flesh. While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One, it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task, to suppose that we ever know anything about him except what he has made known to us. The prophet Isaiah helps us to remember our limitations when he writes, “To whom then will you compare me …? says the Holy One.…” Think of it like this: he cannot be exhausted by our ideas about him, but he is everywhere suggested. He cannot be comprehended, but he can be touched. His coming in the flesh—this Mystery we prepare to glimpse again—confirms that he is to be touched.
If Christian children have so happy a Christmas Day, they owe it to Christ. At the very best, no father or mother in heathen lands, of old time or now, quite think of children and deal with them as true Christian parents do. No classical poet ever drew poetry from childhood. Infanticide cannot live in lands where a Christ is known, who was God’s unspeakable gift, and yet was a baby. A baby is a holy thing for His sake. Childhood is a happy time and holy, because of His childhood. Every boy may feel that Christ understands him. And every girl too; for just as no woman ever feels that, because He is a man, Christ does not understand her, so no girl need fear that, because He was a boy, Jesus does not understand her. In His perfect manhood there was perfect childhood, boyhood and girlhood all in Him.
Take a good look around you. This world is quickly unraveling.
The birth pains of terminal times are upon us (Matt. 24:6-8; Luke 21:9-11), and you’re blind if you don’t see it. Adverse weather patterns, earthquakes, and environmental calamities of escalating frequency and consequence are resulting in greater loss of life, economy, and property than ever before.
The 2021 Global Report on Food Crises shows that 155 million people in 55 countries faced acute hunger in 2020, up 20 million from the year before. Famines and malnutrition are mounting as droughts impact the fragility of the global food system, and as poverty skyrockets.
The problems of racial division have sharply surged in conformity to Jesus’ warning that “nation will rise against nation.” The Greek word for ‘nation’ is ‘ethnos.’ We get our word “ethnicity” from it – and in our times, nearly everything is branded ‘racist’ even if racism has got nothing to do with it.
There is no shortage of countries (‘kingdoms’) threatening war with other countries. It’s true in every part of the world. Every day, there’s a palpable expectation that a major conflict will erupt in the Middle East and redefine that region.
Then there is the viral pandemic. The truth about it is actively suppressed. Coercion to take a highly suspect and problematic ‘vaccine,’ and the threat of a loss of liberties for anyone who elects not to take it, shows the leading edge of a deceptive agenda that will ultimately express itself in the future Mark of the Beast (Rev. 13:15-17; 14:9).
Other serious problems are mounting too. There is escalating animosity in many places towards the Jews and Israel. The Jewish nation is routinely blamed for problems they are not responsible for. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in colleges where you’d expect it to be, and in churches where you’d not expect it to be.
Global economics have never been more fragile. The number of companies that have gone belly up is only exceeded in number by those who are about to.
In America, our illegitimate and corrupt leadership has pushed policies that have resulted in record inflation. They’ve made us dependent on nations that don’t like us for basic goods and energy resources. Supply chains are so mismanaged that our ports look like naval mosh pits.
Christians are also being attacked as never before. According to a Forbes Magazine article from January 2021, one in eight Christians live in countries where “….they might suffer very high or extreme levels of persecution,” and this situation is worsening daily.
Truth is being ‘thrown to the ground’ even at the same time as ‘deception is prospering.’ A few decades ago, our politicians were in hot water if they told a lie. Now they are in hot water if they tell the truth. Stating the facts on most social media platforms will get you flagged, censored, and shut down. Hordes of senseless lemmings today no longer want the truth about voters, viruses, and values.
I could say so much more, but my original point is clear. This world is a complete mess.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, I have a couple of thoughts that are top of mind. The first is, “Hang in there. Everything we see here is just the start. If we are still on this planet in a few years, 2021 will look like “the good ol’ days.”
It takes conscious effort to look back at the start of 2020 and realize how wonderful things were then. A switch was flipped in early February that year – my spirit sensed the change as though someone spoke. Others I visited with felt the same thing. The snowball of bad news has since gathered speed and force as it’s rolled downhill. Depravity is in overdrive.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:8 that these socio-political upheavals, natural disasters, persecutions, deceptions, lawlessness, and catastrophes would be “the beginning of sorrows.” In context, “the beginning of sorrows” is likely a commentary on the initial phases of The Tribulation. This is a well-defined period of seven years, also called the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7) or ‘Daniel’s 70th Week’ (Dan. 9:24-27). It’s a future time when God’s primary focus is redeeming a remnant of the Jewish people.
These implications don’t exclude the rest of us from contemplating present events as “birth pains” in their own right – and I said as much at the start of this article. But – it’s important to understand that things happening right now are the earliest dynamics of what will eventually become “the beginning of sorrows.”
My second thought may jolt some of you, but it needs to be plainly stated: “Shame on the church!”
The church, for the most part, is out of touch. It’s not doing its job. Most people IN the church – and BECAUSE of the church – have very little idea what is really going on in the world right now. They’re asking tons of questions, but they’re receiving precious little in the way of substantive answers.
Paul responded forthrightly to the Thessalonians about their fears that they were living in the day of the Lord (2 Thess. 2:1-2). Folks today have the same concerns. Paul counseled and edified his congregants with wisdom. He provided detailed teaching on the Rapture, the Tribulation, the antichrist, and the resurrection of the dead – and in the process, he underscored that a strong foundation in Biblical prophecy is integral to every healthy church.
Most pastors and teachers today could not do any of what Paul did. Many instead mock the themes, the doctrines, and the importance of the prophetic Scriptures (2 Peter 3:1). They defend their own milky messages – tactics that only reinforce the things they most want to believe about themselves.
Every Sunday, thousands of pastors preach “sermonettes,” which do little more than produce “Christianettes.” Numerous studies show that the spiritual vital signs of congregants everywhere are suffering as they are routinely scratched where they itch (2 Tim. 4:3).
Most churches today have made the good the enemy of the best. Too many of them emphasize worship, encouragement, neighborly love, growing in community, and the various themes of a social gospel. Because churches want everybody to feel good and get along, they steer clear of ‘sensitive’ topics and confrontational truth. The Bible is frequently treated as little more than a footnote to a sermon.
The events of the last year or so have shown us that most church leaders are shallow. They feel self-righteous for marching to the beat of woke ambitions and for pushing the points of a deceptive globalist agenda. They rally their congregants with strident appeals for “unity” when “conformity” is what they are pushing for instead.
The sheep are suffering as their ‘shepherds’ fail to see the dilemma they are personally cultivating. Churches everywhere have lost grasp of what it means to properly look in a mirror (Rev. 3:15-18). They cannot see their own condition, and they assert instead that they’re doing fine.
We’re in a tight spot. Our national leaders are high-fiving themselves for every step they take away from virtue, and our church leaders are patting themselves on the back for every step they take towards apostasy. The first group cares little for the truth about responsibility, and the second group cares little about responsibly telling the truth.
I cannot rest silently when I see so many within the church spouting off their errant views of Scripture, interpreting world events by the world’s talking points, pursuing goals to grow budgets and pack pews, and justifying a seeker-friendly agenda the Bible never prescribed for them in the first place. I realize I am not alone in trying to call attention to some of these improper things, and I KNOW I am not alone in receiving the vitriol I do when I do so.
When Jude wrote his little book, he confessed he wanted to write “about the salvation we share” (Jude 3). Basically, he wanted to write about the Gospel. That’s an all-important matter. But – he was divinely inspired to go a different direction, and so he called attention to the urgent problem of false teachers instead.
The rest of Jude puts the spotlight on these leaders who are unworthy of the posts they hold. They are charlatans who “have secretly slipped in” (vs. 4), who “slander whatever they do not understand” (vs. 10), who have “rushed for profit” (vs. 11), who are “shepherds who feed only themselves” (vs. 12), who “boast about themselves” (vs. 16), who “scoff” at the truth (vs. 18), who “divide” their congregations (vs. 19), and who follow worldly and “natural instincts” (vs. 19).
Jude’s words read like a commentary on the modern church – maybe even the one you’re part of right now. Many pastors and teachers would do well to prayerfully and humbly study what Jude wrote and why he did.
Meantime, and as long as it continues to be a passive ally to the world’s agenda – – shame on the church!
59:10 Look down on is literally “look on,” but the context makes it clear that he will look on them as a victor looks on a vanquished foe.[1]
59:10 The psalmist was saying that God will let him “look” (raʾah) on his foes, but the force of the Hebrew verb here is stronger: to “look down” (HCSB), “look in triumph” (RSV) or “gloat.” God will let him see victory and enjoy it. But since the victory is God’s, the praise also must be His. Therefore, the boasting must be in Him and not in oneself (vv. 16–17).[2]
59:10 God … will meet me. God will lead the way in the fight against the enemy. In the time of Joshua, the ark, symbolic of God’s presence, led Israel into the Promised Land.
look in triumph. For now, the enemy gloats over the psalmist, but the psalmist expects a reversal.[3]
59:10My God of mercy: The term mercy is sometimes translated “loyal love” (13:5). The Lord is the “God of my loyal love.”[4]
59:10 Someone has given us this unforgettable paraphrase of verse 10a: “My God, with His lovingkindness, shall come to meet me at every corner.” What a comfort for storm-tossed souls of every age! Linked with this assurance is the knowledge that God will preserve us to see this defeat of our enemies.[5]
Ver. 10. The God of my mercy shall prevent me.—A singular title and a special favour:—
Our trials and troubles, while they test and develop us, do also by Divine grace strengthen and improve us, and ever have we great cause to bless God for them when grace sanctifies them to our highest good. Had not David been a man of many afflictions he would never have penned such a verse as our text, a confident utterance of unstaggering faith, full of meaning, rich with consolation, the very cream of assured hope in God.
I. David’s looking to his God. “The God of mercy,” saith he. Note that this psalm was composed by him upon the occasion of his being shut up in the house of Michal, Saul’s daughter, and surrounded by his adversaries. The messengers of the bloodthirsty king watched the house all night long, to kill him, and when they had not effected their purpose, Saul demanded that he should be brought, on his bed, into his presence, that he might slay him. It was not easy for a man, when his enemies were watching the house, to escape out of their hands. David, however, does not appear to have been at all disturbed, but with perfect confidence in God he expected that a way of escape would be made for him.
1. David looked to God on this occasion because he had before this habitually waited upon Him. His faith had realized the existence of God, and his soul had felt the power of that realized truth. This is a thing unknown to the unconverted, and unfelt to any high degree by large numbers of those who profess to know the Lord.
2. David was driven more closely to his God by the peculiar trouble with which he was environed. It is a blessed thing when the waves of affliction wash us upon the rock of confidence in God alone, when darkness below gives us an eye to the light above. The psalmist says in the verse preceding the text, “Because of his strength”—that is, the strength of the foe—“will I wait upon Thee, for God is my defence.” Because the enemy is too strong for me, therefore will I turn to my God, and invoke His omnipotence as my defence. To come to the end of yourself is to get to the beginning of your God. Blessed is that extremity which is God’s opportunity.
3. As soon as David had looked alone to his God his trials grew small. In his own esteem they grew to be nothing, for he says, “Thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them, Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision”; and methinks something of the laughter of God penetrated David’s spirit; and in that house wherein he was enclosed as a prisoner he smiled in his heart at the disappointment which awaited his foes. Faith laughs at that which fear weeps over; it leaps over mountains at whose feet mere mortal strength lies down to die.
II. David’s appropriation of the Divine mercy. “The God of my mercy.” Notice that the pith of the title lies in the appropriating word “my.” Luther used to say that the very soul of divinity lay in the possessive pronouns; another divine said that all the stir there ever has been in the world has been caused by meum and tuum, mine and thine. “It is mine,” says one man; “It is mine,” cries another man, and then comes a conflict. “It is mine,” says one king; “Nay,” says another, “it is not thine,” and then fierce war begins. Nothing influences a man so much as that which he calls his own. “The God of my mercy.”
1. David appropriated to himself a portion of Divine mercy as being peculiarly his; and we shall never advance in the divine life unless we do the same, for the mercy which is in common to all men, of what avail is it to any man? But the mercy which any one man by faith grasps for himself, this is the mercy which will bless him and which he will prize above all things.
2. I think he meant, too, that there was a portion of mercy which he had already received, which was, therefore, altogether his own. The “God of my mercy”—he meant the God of the mercy he had already experienced. Well may it bring the tears into your eyes to think of it. The mercy which nursed you in your infancy; the mercy which watched over you in your youth and kept you when you were apt to stray; the mercy which restrained you from many a deadly sin, etc.
3. And, remember, that all the mercy you have had is little compared with the mercy you have yet to receive. As the rich father thinks, “This will I give to my eldest son, and that to the second, and that to the third,” and so he puts by a portion for each of his children; so has God mapped out and allotted for each one of us some choice and special mercy fitted for our peculiar case, which no one can receive but ourselves, but which we must and shall obtain.
4. But I think David made a larger grasp than this, for when he said, “The God of my mercy,” he felt as if all the mercy in the heart of God belonged to him. If any one saint should have all the wants of all the saints in the world put upon him, and if his necessities should be so great that nothing would supply them but the whole of the infinite mercy which fills the heart of God, that child of God should have all the mercy which the Lord Himself can dispense.
III. David confining in God. “The God of my mercy shall prevent me,” or anticipate me by His mercy. Now, it so happens that the Hebrew word may be read in all three tenses, and some have said it should be understood, “The God of my mercy has prevented me”; others, “does prevent me”; and a third party, like our translators, read it, “shall prevent me.” Whichever tense you choose is true, and the whole three put together may be viewed as the full meaning of the passage.
1. “The Lord has prevented me.” This is one of the grand doctrines of the Gospel, the doctrine of eternal love, spontaneous, self-generated, having no cause but itself. God loved us before we loved Him—he prevented us with love. Before His people were born God had elected and redeemed them, and prepared the Gospel, by which in due time they are called. He is before us in all good things. O Lord, Thou hast the first hand with Thy people; they seek Thee early, but Thou art up before them, Thou hast distanced them in the race of affection; Alpha art Thou, indeed!
2. The Lord hast prevented us, but the meaning of the passage is that He does still prevent us. Is He not daily doing so? Before you can feel the pinch of want the mercy is given. God goes before you day by day, and His paths drop fatness. Even in the common acceptation of the word “prevent” God has often so gone before us that He has prevented us from the commission of many sins, into which otherwise we should have fallen to our sorrow and damage. Again, how often has He prevented our prayers! Before we have asked, we have had; while we were yet calling, we have received. The desire of the righteous is granted oftentimes as soon as it takes shape, and before it is expressed.
3. It will always be so. God will prevent us. A good captain, when he is marching an army through a country, takes care to make provision for every emergency. It is time for the soldier, to camp, and they need tents. Bring up the baggage wagons, here are the tents which you ask for! The men must have their rations. Here they are! Serve them out! The meat needs cooking. See, there are the portable kitchens and the fuel! The army comes to a river by and by, how will they pass it? Why, the engineers are ready, and pontoons are very soon thrown across. It is wonderful how the well-skilled commander foresees every possible emergency, and has everything ready just at the nick of time. Much more is it so with our God. So let us close with these three practical reflections. If He prevents us with mercy, let us not hesitate to come to Him. Loiter not, O soul, if thou wouldst have the mercy of God. Is God so quick? Wilt thou be slow? Does He go first, and wilt thou not follow?
4. Is God so quick in mercy? Let us who are His be very quick in service. Say in your heart, “My God, since Thou dost prevent me, I cannot hope to keep pace with Thy mercy, but at any rate I will not lag further behind Thee than I must. When I have done all I can for Thee, how little it is, but that little shall be done.” George Herbert once described the good man as resolved “to build a spital, or mend common ways,” and in his day these were acts of charity which piety delighted in; other good deeds are more fitting for these days. Houses for worship are wanted in many a populous district, and orphan children need to be fed. He who can buy no sweet cane with money, can bring time and zeal and effort, and these are precious. What, then, will you do?
5. And now finally, believer, cast yourself into your Lord’s arms. Have done with fretting; have done with anxiety and doubt. Mount like the lark to your God, and sing as you mount. (C. H. Spurgeon.)[6]
Ver. 10.—The God of my mercy shall prevent me; or, according to another reading, God with his mercy shall prevent (i.e. anticipate) me. God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies (comp. Ps. 54:7).[7]
10. What a very sweet verse is this, considered in any, and in every point of view. The God of my mercy shall prevent me! Preventing mercies, or such mercies as go before hand, and before they are asked for or even thought of, or known to be needed, are sweet mercies indeed. Some read the words, hath prevented me, meaning, that the Lord was always in the blessing before the blessing was sought, and surprized the soul in coming even before the soul was prepared to look for it. Others translate the words doth prevent me, which is as if a soul was to say, I shall not be anxious for the event of this trial, for the carrying me through it is my God’s concern, not mine; he hath promised all I need, and therefore he will do all that is needful.[8]
[1] Warstler, K. R. (2017). Psalms. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 869). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Exell, J. S. (1909). The Biblical Illustrator: The Psalms (Vol. 3, pp. 126–128). New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company; Francis Griffiths.
[7] Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). Psalms (Vol. 2, p. 12). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is God. Jesus co-existed in eternity with God, perfectly self-sufficient and satisfied with Hi communion with the other two persons of the God-head.
But God…loved us and He sent His Son Jesus to seek and save the lost, enacting this magnificent plan of the sacrifice, the cross, the resurrection- the Gospel.
Jesus was and is and is to come. He existed before time and He will be living after time ends. His incarnation and life on earth, death, and resurrection means He will be brining his people into eternity with Him, to live as co-heirs of all there is. Angels aren’t eternal, they had a moment when they didn’t exist but then were created. Humans aren’t eternal either, we have a moment when our own creation begins (Adam & Eve, in the Garden, then all of us in the womb.)
“He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.” – Psalm 106:23
Adam and Eve were banished from the garden. Cain was driven further to the east. At Babel, all of humanity was scattered across the face of the earth. We find a pattern in the Old Testament of growing distant from God.
As the exodus progressed, this sad pattern developed again. Though God’s people had followed Him safely across the Red Sea, they soon began to despise His ways. Psalm 106 reviews this history of rebellion and punishments. God had made it clear that His people deserved to be destroyed. There was a breach between God and His people. The word means “gap,” and it points to a dreadful relational breakdown, a situation where two parties had a chasm or abyss of brokenness between them.
Israel had “cheated” on God with the golden calf. They had fallen in love with an idol and rejected Him. So, He threatened to destroy them utterly and they would have deserved that end (Exodus 32:10). But there is hope in this scene! Moses himself had not been part of this rebellion or idolatry. He was still in fellowship with God and he was allowed to stand in the breach. When Moses pleaded with God for them, he pointed to God’s covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 32:13). Moses became their mediator. His role was preparing God’s people to see how all of us need a Mediator. Though we have not been faithful to Him, He continues to make intercession for us!
Suggestion for prayer
Pray for those in denial of the serious breach between themselves and God. Pray for forgiveness and repentance for “…covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).
Pastor Robert VanDoodewaard currently serves the Free Reformed Church in Powassan, Ontario, Canada as a minister of the gospel.
The Christmas story centers around baby Jesus—born in a stable, wrapped in cloth, and placed in a manger. Jesus came to be our Savior. But we need to understand history to fully grasp the impact of His birth. Hear more on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
The Christmas story centers around baby Jesus—born in a stable, wrapped in cloth, and placed in a manger. Jesus came to be our Savior. But we need to understand history to fully grasp the impact of His birth. Hear more on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
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