GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 71:19-21
19 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God,
you who have done great things. O God, who is like you?
“Righteousness” is one of God’s attributes as our Sovereign King, our Maker. His authority is supreme in all things, and his judgment is always the final and only word. This is why we say his righteousness reaches to the skies. Marom (מָרוֹם) means any sort of height, whether the sky (Isaiah 24:18,21) or the top of a mountain (2 Kings 19:23; Isaiah 22:14). It can also stand for heaven, the abode of God (Isaiah 33:5). Here it could mean all of these, but “heaven” is the easiest meaning for us to understand.
The question, “Who is like you, O God?” is asked by Moses in his victory song (Exodus 15:11), by David in Psalm 35:10; by another Psalm-writers (Ethan, Ps. 89:8), and by Micah (Mic. 2:3). In each and every case, this is always a confession of faith and awe. It is also the meaning of the name of the archangel Michael, whose name means “Who is like God?” (Daniel 12:1; Jude 9).
20 Though you have made me see many bitter troubles,
you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.
21 You will increase my honor
and comfort me again.
Some copies of the Greek Septuagint repeat the third phrase of verse 20 again after verse 21 (καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἀβύσσων τῆς γῆς πάλιν ἀνήγαγές με), “from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.”
Sometimes elderly Christians wonder why the Lord wants them to remain in this life while they see only increasing pain and troubles in the lives of their families. But recalling a lifetime of blessings can be a powerful testimony to younger people.
There is also the power of prayer. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Also, “the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer” (1 Peter 3:12). And there is the proverb: “The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous” (Prov. 15:29). Since God hears the prayers of the righteous (but not the prayers of the wicked), prayer has a great influence on God’s government of the world.
There are many excellent examples of this in Scripture. Paul, in prison in Rome, could be confident that he was restored to his friends “in answer to your prayers” (Philemon 22). He also said, “through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me (his imprisonment) will turn out for my deliverance” (Philippians 1:19). James says: “Is any one of you sick? He should call on the elders of the church to pray over him…in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14-15). There was also the prayer of Abraham, pleading with God about the preservation of Sodom, who imposed on the Lord’s mercy to talk him into looking for fifty righteous people all the way down to a mere ten (Genesis 18:24-32)—and we must recognize that God could even have promised his mercy if the number had been reduced to five, since, in the end, only four were there in Sodom, and even Lot’s wife looked back and was killed, leaving just three survivors.
There are other examples: the prayer of Manoah for help raising his son (Judges 13:8), Samson’s prayer for strength (Judges 16:28), Elijah praying for rain to end the drought (1 Kings 18:36-37), Elisha praying for the resurrection of the dead son of the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:33), and Nehemiah’s prayer for strength to complete the wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 6:9).
We can be confident of these things;
■ God has, from eternity, woven the prayers of his children into his plan of world government (John 16:26-27).
■ Prayers in themselves are the free exercise of each Christian’s interaction with his heavenly Father (John 15:16; Luke 11:2-4; Romans 8:14,28).
■ Christians, having God’s mind, naturally pray according to God’s will (John 16:23; 1 John 5:14).
■ God prearranges the course of events according to his foreknowledge of his children’s prayers. “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24; Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14).
Do not underestimate the impact of any Christian on the course of events in the world (2 Kings 5:3). God will listen to your prayer, and answer it. And you may live to see such changes that even on this side of heaven, you will be lifted up again out of your grief, increased in honor, and comforted. And the gospel Jesus Christ always offers all of these things and more.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota