“Providence”

Psalm 119:21-24  You rebuke the proud—the cursed, who stray from Your commandments.  Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies.  Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes.  Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.

The old problem of the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the good is dealt with in these verses.  The Psalmist was in seemingly great misery, while his enemies flourished; but it was not really so.  The Psalmist had privileges to which his oppressors had no title.  He had God’s testimonies as his delights and counsellors; while those who oppressed him were of a debased moral character, and were under the condemnation of God.       

            It does seem that the wicked are often in power, wealth, position, and popular esteem.   The wicked are also arrogant and self sufficient.   The righteous on the other hand are reproached for their conscientious scruples, integrity, endeavors, and aims. They are treated with ridicule and contempt because of those things that they hold most dear: God’s Word, Christian character, hope of heaven.  They are unjustly judged because man cannot estimate the worth of godliness.

            Our real state is what we are in the sight of God.  The wicked stand rebuked of God, and are therefore cursed.  There is nothing for a believer to envy when you consider the end of the wicked.

            The believer’s adversity is man made, and therefore temporary—it will be removed by the justice and compassion of God.  God’s testimonies tell them of God’s will and how to submit to it with resignation and patience.  God’s Word testifies of God’s presence, God’s comfort, God’s heaven.  Where is the adversity now?