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July 16 Daily Devotional

God Avenges Mischief

Frans Bakker

Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless. —Psalm 10:14

Bible Reading

Psalm 10

Devotional

Scripture reveals to us that God beholds our troubles. He knows and sees all the afflictions, the sorrows, and trials that His people go through. But there is more in the text. God sees the sorrows and trials as a means by which men will commit themselves to Him. And God will requite the mischief. That is to say, God will avenge all the harm done to His people.

God is omnipotent. He sees all things, but He also holds all things in His hands. All we have is given to us from His divine hand. In turn, we must lay all we have back in that same hand by committing everything to Him. We rely on a God who holds us in the grip of His hand. The psalmist says, “He is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense; I shall not be moved” (Ps. 62:6).

And yet we struggle to commit our lives to God. We want to keep things in our control. If we cannot keep things in our own control, then we would rather commit our needs into the hands of people. We would rather place our adversities in the hand of someone who may be able to help us; our trials we confide to another; our sickness we commit into the hands of a doctor. Granted, we should be thankful that we have one another; but how dismal it is when we do not lay our trials in God’s hands.

“The poor committeth himself unto thee.” What a miracle to be able to lie and rest in God’s hands. Although we do not always fully understand, God is our refuge in times of trouble. It can be that we follow God as a blind person, yet all our affairs are then in the best hands. Then we do not desire to change matters, even if we could do so. Of course, when we are in hours of darkness, we may ask the Lord to change this, for He never causes His people to be careless about suffering. But then we don’t want to change matters with our own hand, even if it were possible.

“The poor committeth himself unto thee.” This text also refers to Christ, but who is here able to speak sufficiently of Christ? It is because of the work of the Surety that the Lord is waiting with open hand to receive all the mischief and spite, and all the sorrows and trials. He was not allowed to give His mischief and spite into the hands of His Father. The Father did not take anything of Him. Christ had to remove the curse out of all mischief and spite. He wanted to do this. His love was so great that He took the bitterness to Himself, so that He could give sweetness to sinners. He was forsaken, so that His people would be restored to communion with God. He was cast off so that His people would be accepted. Surely, it is only because of Him that even the bitter can be sweet.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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