Psalm 84:5-7
So what we find in this psalm is an account of how David dealt with himself in that situation. Here is this man of God, hemmed in, as it were, in the wilderness, with all the trials and perplexities, and he tells us (we should thank God for this!) how he faced it all-what he did and how he reacted. He thereby teaches us, as he has taught God’s people throughout the centuries, how we also should deal with ourselves when we find ourselves in a similar state and position.
Now, this is true of many individuals at the present time, people facing troubles and trials, grievous problems, with everything apparently against them. And it is equally true of the Christian church as a whole. These are evil, difficult days for the Christian church. In this country we are but a little remnant in a kind of wilderness of paganism with enemies set against and all around us. But here in this psalm is a lesson as to how we should conduct ourselves at such a time and in such a situation. The method of the psalm is typical. Indeed, the chief characteristic of all the psalms-that is the wonderful thing about them-is that almost all of them are saying exactly the same thing, but they vary according to the circumstances. In other words, the presentation varies, but the method is very much the same.
Let us approach it like this. A time of trouble or of difficulty is always a testing time. And what it does is to test where we really are and what we really have. So I want to approach this psalm from that particular angle because such times, above everything else, test our profession of the Christian faith. If you really want to know whether you are a Christian or not, the simplest, most direct way, always, is to discover what you are like when things go against you. A time of affluence and prosperity, when the sun is shining and everything is going well, never tests our profession. But the moment things go wrong and you are in a state of perplexity, then you will know exactly the value of what you claim to believe.
It is, alas, possible for us to have an intellectual belief in these things. The Bible contains an incomparable system of truth. Merely looked at from the standpoint of philosophy, there is nothing superior to it. It is an old book and a very wise one. It is a book that knows people; it knows life; it has an understanding; there is no profounder wisdom. And so there are many who have come to it and taken it up in that way, simply from the standpoint of its teaching and its wisdom, as something purely intellectual.
Unfortunately, it is possible for us to accept even the Christian way of salvation with our minds only-in a purely theoretical, detached manner. In a sense it is reasonable to do so-the system is such a complete one. Some people have been brought up in the church and in the atmosphere of these things; they have received instruction and have taken it in and accepted it. Indeed, there are many who say that they cannot recall a time when they did not believe it. Well, that is all right, but the real thing we need to discover is whether their belief is only in the mind. Is it only something theoretical? And so, let me emphasize it again, the most direct way always to discover the real value of what you claim as your profession of the Christian faith is to know how you react and how you behave in a time of trouble.
Furthermore,
—Martin Lloyd Jones
When all things seem against me,
To drive me to despair,
I know one gate is open,
One ear will hear my prayer.
–Oswald Allen
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