15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
And His ears are open to their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
This is said as plainly as it can be stated. The Lord looks upon His children and He listens
for them. The Lord is against those who
do evil. Do we have trouble believing
this? The Lord looks upon you and
listens to you. Can you walk confidently
today knowing this as truth? If not,
examine your belief in Him. Of this, we
should have no doubt.
17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
First, we are told that the Lord looks upon His children
and He listens for them. Now, this is
the action statement. When His children
cry out, He hears. But He doesn't stop
there, He delivers them "from all their troubles". Notice that this does not discriminate about
the type of trouble: trouble from others
or self-induced trouble; trouble out of our control or trouble from our
control. Either / or, the Lord hears our
cry and delivers us. He may not deliver
us in the way we want, but He will deliver us in the way that is best for us.
The next verse is incredibly important. This is back to the check your attitude as related
in verse 12. Is your heart broken over your
condition (if your trouble is your own doing)? Is your heart broken over someone else's condition
(if your trouble isn't your own doing)? Are
you humble in your trouble? Or are you humbled
by your trouble?
In his book and small group study series AHA (Awakening, Honesty, Action), Kyle Idleman
discusses this topic as a part of the Awakening and Honesty portion. He puts it in the following matrix.
Compassion
|
Condemning
|
|
Honest
|
||
Dishonest
|
He teaches that we are in one of the following squares when
we are "dealing" with ourselves or others. He describes each of these well in his work and
there isn't enough room to repeat it here. But in essence, we are either realizing we have
a problem, a fault, and it shouldn't be there or we're not and are in denial (honest vs dishonest).
And we are either believing God can and is
willing to be with us to overcome anything, or we believe we aren't worthy to be
helped (compassion vs condemning).
Again, are we humble in our trouble or humbled by it? A humble person realizes they have a problem, a
proud person is embarrassed by their situation. A humble person accepts the love of God even in
their filth and pleads for His interaction and grace. A proud person wants to be left alone to their
end and doesn't want anyone's "help".
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."
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