Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Psalm 3:1-2 LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in God."
THOSE WHO WERE OUTNUMBERED
When we look back on the saints of the past, it would be difficult to find a time frame in which the true Church was not outnumbered and surrounded. Even King David in the midst of his reign as King in Jerusalem writes, "Many are they who rise up against me." Many of the Baptist and "Evangelical" churches wonder what they are doing wrong that Christianity is under such attack and so few are willing even to listen. They believe that the decline in church membership and attendance in our nation is indicative of something severely wrong with what we are doing. But the history of the church shows us that we should wonder if there were no one standing up against us.
Certainly the words, "how they have increased who trouble me!" well describe our own day. We have writers such as Sam Harris who write books denouncing the Christian religion and claiming it to be a big fraud. There are men who despise Christianity, treating it as barely even worth their notice. There are scientists who snicker at any poor fool who would actually believe the world was created in six days. There are men such as Joel Osteen who so pervert the gospel that it is no wonder the atheists consider it a joke. There are other relatively orthodox Christian churches who consider us loveless and fruitless Christians, puffed up and only concerned with knowledge. Even among ourselves we too often act as if they are right, speaking out of pride and arrogance instead of out of love and humility; speaking derogatory words of division instead of words that build up in love. Certainly they have increased who trouble us.
What are we going to do? It doesn't seem possible that we could ever survive under such conditions. It doesn't seem possible that we could ever find a way through. Under similar persecution King David, and with him all those who have gone before, found refuge in one fact: "Salvation belongs to the Lord." In this truth we find that we do not need to retaliate; to fight fire with fire. We do not need to rant and rave back at the world. We can lay aside all doubt and anger, speaking the gospel in love and humility, waiting patiently for the Lord's deliverance as is the example of all the saints who have gone before. The Lord did not fail them, neither will He disappoint us.
