“I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth”. (Psalm 34:1)
The men who understand the secret of praise will bless and praise the Lord even during fiery trials because they know that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose’. (Romans 8:28). What does this mean? It means that those who are genuinely devoted to God are called into a life of purpose and they know that there is a reason for whatever God allows in their lives.
They know that God is intentional and not experimental with whatever He allows to come their way. Most importantly they have this firm believe during their challenges that God has the ultimate and final say.
Therefore, as they pray for grace to endure and overcome they equally praise the Lord for his predetermined counsel and victory over whatever He allows in their lives.
This is the secret of such Christians who bear their pain with a calm confidence in God and not with a sense of panic and disorientation; these men are therefore able to praise God during their challenges.
Like our Lord Jesus, they know that nothing can happen to them without a predetermined purpose.
In this manner, the trial of Jesus was predetermined and not accidental, in the Book of Acts 2: 23, we understand that the passion of Jesus in the hands of His enemy was a predetermined counsel of God.
We see that ‘Jesus was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge by the hands of the lawless, who put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross, but God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches’. (Acts 2:23-24).
When a believer examines his life and shuns sin, he begins to see his disappointments and trials as a lesson in God’s school of growth and with this understanding comes praise even in the dark hour. He knows that disappointment in the curriculum of God means divine appointment.
We should however understand that before His ordeal our Lord Jesus was without sin, so His trial qualifies for a trial of purpose and not a trial occasioned by a life of sin. It is always important to make this clarification.
In John 14:30, Jesus had boldly proclaimed, ‘for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me’. What does this mean? It means that Jesus’ trial was not because there was sin in his life which led to His suffering.
Rather it was because God had predetermined that he would suffer for the remission of the sin of many (Is. 53:5)- he was called into this purpose, and this gave his life an eternal meaning.
Like Christ, men who are able to praise God in the midst of their trials have examined their lives and have expunged all known sin therefore their confidence and praise derives from the fact that Christians cannot be touched or controlled by Satan.
Because ‘We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18) They know the difference between God’s touch which allows trials for a while to school, teach and grow and the touch of Satan which is rooted in sin that comes ‘to steal, kill and destroy’. (John 10:10).
The outline of our message today fits perfectly with King David, a man of praise who went through the school of hard-knocks with a predetermined counsel of God to shape him into a great King he became- and a type of Christ in the Bible who was a shepherd, warrior, and King.
Why was David able to praise God during his unpleasant challenges?
On the surface it made no sense that a man who experienced deep adversities like David would have time to compose Psalms of praises when his life was constantly in danger to the extent that he wrote: “There is hardly a step between me and death” (1 Sam. 20:3).
That was how hard David’s life was as he became a nomad to escape king Saul who was determined to extinguish his life, and of course the promises of God concerning David.
As Saul pursued David with a deadly determination God’s pre-determined counsel was shaping David through adversity, putting him in fiery oven of trial after trial and he had to learn to praise God for every deliverance and to trust in God alone.
David was able to praise God because he did not lose the sense of his calling to be King. He had an understanding that God had called him, and he also had a firm believe in the faithfulness of God and His ability not only to keep him during troubles, but to also fulfil what he had said concerning his life.
David understood that his adversities were not accidental but a prelude to glory, after all the Bible says, “Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom he receives. He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness” (Heb. 12:6, 10).
When our lives are free from the grip of sin, we will come to the place of understanding God’s divine purpose for our lives.
Where we know that the trials of our lives serve a greater purpose to trust God alone and to praise him in faith knowing that ‘our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison. (We therefore stop being confused or wallowing in self-pity) as we learn to fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal’. (2 Corinthians 4:17).
Reading
Habakkuk 3
