“When God lays men upon their backs, then they look up to heaven.”
Thomas Watson
One way to make God’s praise glorious is to give him praise when we pass through a season of difficulty. In the 66th Psalm (which James M. Boice calls ‘a praise psalm of thanksgiving’), the psalmist includes an extensive passage cataloging the very great and many difficulties that God’s people have experienced:
- 10 For you, O God, have tested us;
- you have tried us as silver is tried.
- 11 You brought us into the net;
- you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
- 12 you let men ride over our heads;
- we went through fire and through water;
- yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
(Ps. 66:10-12)
Verse twelve highlights the sovereignty of God in allowing certain devastating trials into our lives, “you let men ride over our heads…” One of the illustrations in the sermon was drawn from the life of Joni Eareckson Tada, who at the age of 17 suffered a spinal cord injury from a diving accident. She recounts a visit with her pastor:
That night, Steve leaned across the family table, and said, “God put you in that [wheel] chair, Joni. I don’t know why, but if you will trust him instead of fighting him, you will find out why — if not in this life, then in the next. He let you break your neck, and perhaps I’m here to help you discover at least a few reasons why.”
Steve paused and then summed it up with ten words that would change my life:
God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves.
And what has the Lord accomplished in Joni’s life? He did for her what he did for the psalmist. He brought her to a place of abundance. And what is the most abundant place a person can be led to? A relationship with Jesus Christ is the answer. Are you in that place today? Have you come to trust Christ personally? Have a blessed week and we will see many of you on Sunday.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Dale
