Thy testimonies also are my delight And my counsellors (Psa 119.24).
The psalmist has just testified of the dire circumstances he faced. “Princes” or rulers, people with power over him, humanly speaking, “did sit and speak against” him (119.23), bringing him to “reproach and contempt” (119.22). Hostile words, especially from our functional superiors (whether civil authorities, employers, teachers, parents, etc.), are apt to demoralize us and throw us into confusion with respect to our best response. Even the innocent can suffer a sense of false shame, as if he had done something terrible, and this may easily induce great and deep spiritual grief, especially to those who are most spiritually-sensitive. Further, knowing what to do in the face of such enemies is much more complicated than when we are living comfortably amongst godly people seeking our best interests. How can a believer escape these common pitfalls of being persecuted?
Perhaps the single most important means of grace is meditation upon the Word of God, that is, Scripture. “Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statues” (119.23). The Hebrew grammar closely connects this verse with the next, implying that in 119.24 the psalmist elaborates on two specifics of how this biblical meditation helped him. He mentions twin supports answering the two problems above, namely, depression and confusion.
In the worst of times, meditating on God’s Word imparts to believers both joy and guidance.
DELIGHTS OF THE PERSECUTED
One major pitfall of suffering persecution is its tendency to demoralize even the best Christians. In other places the psalmist testifies to his fear that the Lord has departed from him, that the enemies of God’s people are continuing their oppression and that they seem to be getting away scot-free, and that his own misery as one oppressed seems to go on and on forever with no light at the end of the tunnel. Persecuted Christians often suffer from overwhelming feelings of frustration that things are apparently so upside-down from what one would expect under an Almighty and Righteous Governor of creation.
Add to that the fact that true believers are not without sin or above making things worse by real mistakes of judgment, and those who strive to maintain a conscience void of offense are left very introspectively-wondering whether they have not deserved much of what they suffer, even when they have behaved themselves honorably in the conflict.
Enter God’s Word. In the Scriptures all these miseries have remedies. The Lord our God has promised repeatedly and emphatically that He will never, no, not EVER forsake His beloved and persecuted people! Even when God seems far away, the true Christian may find immense comfort in God’s written promises which, as sure as He lives, He will keep.
God’s Word also assures us that the flourishing of the wicked is only temporary, and that it will be followed by just and severe punishment. Because God is merciful and longsuffering, the church’s enemies are not immediately cut down in judgment. Some among them are His elect whom He intends to save at last (e.g., Saul of Tarsus). The reprobate are allowed to continue that they may heap upon themselves more guilt and more wrath, that God’s glorious retribution may be magnified in the day of their sentence and its consequent execution. Both kinds of persecutors, elect and reprobate, unwittingly are instruments in God’s hand to promote the ultimate salvation and sanctification of the tried church on earth. Through persecutions, hypocrites within the church lose heart and depart, leaving her more purely composed of sincere believers. Persecutions also work toward making sincere believers more serious and heavenly-minded, more dependent upon God alone instead of earthly supports, and more eager for our heaven of perfect rest.
Scripture brings joy to believers meditating upon it because it often reminds us that the sufferings of this present age are only temporary and not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. You can take virtually anything if you know it won’t last much longer. Special strength comes through knowing that the reward will be much, much greater than the trial. When we neglect our Bibles and look only at the circumstances, they can seem interminable. Most probably have a tendency to feel as if things will never change, but nothing is more certain in the human experience than change, and for true Christians, change for the better! Hallelujah, praise Jehovah!
Meditation upon God’s Word is sufficient to raise the persecuted from the depths of depression to heights of spiritual joy, even before deliverance from trouble.
COUNSELORS OF THE PERSECUTED
A second common problem vexed Christians face is knowing what to do. Human sin obscures the will of God. High ethics are the most complex in warfare. Opposition by our higher-ups places enormous pressure on us to compromise truth and right. Even very godly men have committed great wrongs under pressure that seem like obvious mistakes to outside observers.
I wept in my soul this week as I read of the life of Thomas Cranmer, the first Reformed Archbishop of Canterbury (1489-1556). Some historians have judged him an unprincipled compromiser because at times during his life, depending upon who sat upon the English throne, he seemed to vary his policy. But Cranmer was himself coming to clearer and clearer light, and long before he died he was aiming to reform the Church of England away from the theology and practice of Romanism, and toward Evangelical and biblical principles.1
After the deaths of King Henry VIII who originally appointed Cranmer, and then Protestant King Edward VI, there was no male heir to the throne. Hasty preparations were made for Lady Jane Grey to become Queen of England, but her reign was only nine-days long because of a bloody coup by Queen Mary I, of deep Roman Catholic sympathies. She burned hundreds of Protestants at the stake in a mad attempt to Romanize the Anglican church. Through brainwashing and torture, she coerced Cranmer, imprisoned in the Tower of London, into signing statements of recantation from his Protestant beliefs and affirmation of his allegiance to the Pope of Rome. Having secured this, she sentenced him, too, to be burnt at the stake at Broad Street in Oxford, where his fellow bishops Latimer and Ridley had already paid the ultimate price for their faith. Cranmer was brought to the gibbet and given one last opportunity to confess his “sins,” but God gave him amazing strength to testify to the true gospel. There he recanted of his recantations (!) and announced he would put his right hand into fire first, as it had offended in signing the statements made under duress! Among his last words were these:
As for the Pope, I refuse him, as Christ’s enemy and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine . . .2
Cranmer died in the flames, praying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Obviously it was Cranmer’s deep familiarity with the Scriptures that guided him into this courageous martyrdom under the murderous reign of his Roman Catholic queen.
Under such pressures, we all must resort to Scripture meditation if we would be able to discern the will of God. “Thy testimonies are . . . my counselors,” literally, “men of my counsel” (Heb.). Biblical texts become like so many advisors gathered around the perplexed, all speaking with the single, harmonious sound of divine wisdom, to direct his steps. Admittedly God uses godly people to counsel us, but in the final analysis, we must remember these truths articulated by Charles Bridges:
An undue dependence upon human counsel, whether of the living or the dead, greatly hinders the full influence of the counsel of the Word. However valuable such counsel may be, and however closely it may agree with the Word, we must not forget, that it is not the Word—that it is fallible, and therefore must never be resorted to in the first place, or followed with that full reliance, which we are warranted to place on the revelation of God.3
A practical, working knowledge of biblical counsel, and an appreciation of biblical delight, only come to us by long, prayerful, disciplined meditation upon the Scriptures over an extended time. Having done this, we will find that when persecutions increase, we will be able to say in all sincerity with the psalmist, “Thy testimonies also are my delight, and my counselors.” Amen.
Notes:
1. “‘Setter-Forth of Christ’s Glory’: Remembering the Life and Martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer” by Michael Haykin in The Banner of Truth magazine (#525, June 2007).
2. Ibid, p. 14.
3. Commentary on Psalm 119.
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