“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.” Psalm 40:1-2.
It has been noted in these last four studies of Psalm 94 that the psalm is prophetic of the time during the tribulation which is rapidly coming upon us.
In these next four verses we begin to see who rises up for the believer in this time of hopelessness.
“Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” Psalm 94:16.
The speaker here is completely surrounded by evildoers who are searching for Christians to abuse and murder.
This time period is even more perilous than in ancient Rome when Christians were persecuted and thrown to the lions.
What many folks do not realize is that the Roman persecutions were not continually intense; some emperors were less interested in wiping out Christianity than others. In fact certain provinces were more lax than others when it came to such persecutions.
So while the horrors of the games went on for many years and Christians were constantly in peril, there were periods of respite. But this will not be the case during the tribulation, in that time the persecution will be worldwide, intense, and unrelenting.
It is important for anyone who reads this to remember, if they have not received Christ before the rapture of the church, they will go through the tribulation.
This will have only two results; one, the people entering the tribulation will either follow the Antichrist and after just a few short years find themselves cast into the lake of fire for eternity.
Or two, persons entering this period of worldwide horror will accept Christ as Savior and go through just a few short horrific years of intense persecution and then enter the millennial world of the reign of Christ, and then on to eternity in heaven.
While the second option is the best, neither is very appealing when it is considered that all of that can be avoided by just accepting Christ’s finished work on the cross as payment for all of your sins right now.
“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5:11-13.
There are many who have been given disinformation about Christianity all their lives.
As a result they mock hell and the lake of fire, and say that if He were a loving God such places would not exist. But they do exist both heaven and the lake of fire.
Nearly all of the false religions have some version of heaven and hell, yet, no one mocks them.
Everyone’s destination is inevitable, and unknown no matter what religion one follows, but Christianity is the only choice that guarantees heaven as a destination; that choice is Jesus.
Are you still skeptical? The answer is simple; you do not have to believe me, just obtain a New Testament, and read it from front to back. The King James Bible can be found on nearly any bookshelf, but is a little hard to understand.
The New King James Bible and the New American Standard Bible are easier to read, and I highly recommend them. Some New Testaments can be found in paperback form, so you do not even need to spend a lot of money.
The only thing you will need besides that is an open mind and the help of God’s Holy Spirit who will teach you things you never thought possible.
Whatever you do, do not go out and buy some book by a man about the Bible; read it for yourself. Neither I nor anyone else can speak to your heart like God’s Holy Spirit, let Him teach you.
But the question has been asked:
“Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” Psalm 94:16.
This question brings to mind One who had no one to stand up for Him, even God.
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent.” Psalm 22:1-2.
“But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, ‘He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!’” Psalm 22:6-8.
“Many bulls have surrounded Me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, like a raging and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” Psalm 22:12-18.
If it were not for the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ there would be no one to answer the cry, who will rise up for me against those who persecute me?
In fact, there would be no one to cry out at all because all mankind would have been sucked into the black hole of sin long ago.
As a result of the sacrifice of Christ, it is God who will rise up against the evildoers and stand against the workers of iniquity. God alone can stop the world’s free fall into complete destruction.
“Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have settled in silence [death].” Psalm 94:17.
These verses are timeless and for everyone no matter what their circumstances. The Lord Jesus is our help, yours and mine; the older I get the more I realize that our lives hang by a thread.
We are in peril in the streets, peril in the home, and in peril at work. We are in peril of street thugs, jihadists, drug and sex trade traffickers’, and deadly drugs like fentanyl.
We live in a country (and not just America) run by people who want to run and regulate every facet of our lives, even though they are completely incompetent and incapable of running their own lives.
There are an incredible number of different diseases, not just heart attacks, cancer, and pneumonia.
We have Y. pestis pneumonic plague and Y. pestis bubonic plague, Ebola, AIDS, parasites getting into the brain from diving into a lake, the return of smallpox, super bugs resistant to treatment for venereal disease (STD’S), pandemic sexually transmitted diseases.
And yet there are men trying daily to invent worse things. They use the innocent name Gain of function which stands for the creation of new deadly diseases for germ warfare, killing people.
However, most of you are aware of this and more, but we must also realize that we cannot live in fear as some do.
Some live in a constant paralyzing fear of leaving their home, others have this or that shredding their nerves, whether marital problems, health, anxiety over the world situation, or job difficulties including possible loss.
Everyone on this planet has something keeping them in fear. This includes many Christians. When will we learn that we can take God at His word?
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9a.
And this brings us down to attitude; what if Gods way of showing Himself strong does not meet our expectations?
“Not that I [Apostle Paul] speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:11-13.
One author likened the words, “Christ who strengthens me” to dropping a tea bag into a cup of hot water; soon the tea permeates the entire cup and you have hot tea. Paul means the same thing; he can do all things through Christ who permeates his entire being.
It is Christ who permeates and fills us and strengthens us to do the will of God, and the more we allow Him to work through us, the more He will fill and strengthen us. This is our expectation, to do all things that please God.
It could then be argued that many die young, and with no visible glory to God. This is true, but it is God who decides how someone will glorify Him, so we cannot trust our eyes or our hearts to judge why someone is taken.
The Apostle Paul may have had many more years left in him if God had just let him die at a ripe old age, but he was beheaded.
“So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:6-9.
“For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” Romans 14:7-8.
Obviously no one is keen on kicking the bucket, me neither, it is human nature, but often a righteous person is taken to save them from a greater evil coming upon them. This is what the following verses in Isaiah mean.
“The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart; merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.” Isaiah 57:1-2.
All of these principles apply to both those of us in the here and now and to those who will soon suffer through the tribulation.
“If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” Psalm 94:18-19.
The psalmist speaks of the anxieties within him, so it is not wrong to feel anxiety. It is wrong to feel anxieties and not take them to the Lord; notice how he calls out to God, “My foot slips”, and God in His mercy comforts and holds him up.
Not only does God hold him up, but His comforts delight the psalmist’s soul. Think of that, comforts him in the midst of the horrors and constant turmoil of the tribulation, God is good.
“The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” Psalm 145:9.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.
“Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:18.
Psalm 94:16-19 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 4-2-15, updated on 3-7-23.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.