Notes on Psalm 28

I remember our pastor preached a message not long ago which he called, "When Heaven is silent." There are times when it seems that God does not hear our prayers. If we have been faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us. These are testing times that try our faith. We may not always understand them. Sometimes these are trials that God may not necessarily send but He will use them to get our attention. The Old Testament is full of God's dealings with Israel and how the troubles came mostly when Israel was backslidden away from God and the troubles would get them to call upon God.

Let us not wait until trouble to worship and call on God. We need the Lord when times are good as well as when times are bad. If everything is okay, we tend to forget God and try to make it on our own. These are times when we may be in danger of slipping back into our old ways before we came to know the Lord.

Our desire should be to avoid those that are workers of iniquity. If we begin to desire the company of troublemakers and evil doers, we need to question our relationship with God because the two do not mix. There is an exception to this. If God send us to the lost in order to bring them the gospel, then we have to go among them of course. We just are never to be unequally yoked. Go in the power of the Holy Spirit and when we are directed to go to them. We cannot preach the gospel without the anointing of God.

This is one of the reasons for the Holy Spirit baptism. He is sent to us to give us power to witness. We need to continually abide in the presence of the Lord and remain filled with the Spirit. Never should we try to go it alone.

Here is the gospel. Without the salvation that comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, everyone will surely face judgment and pay for every sin they committed in their lifetime. Sin is what takes a soul to hell. God doesn't just send people to hell because He doesn't like someone. God has a law. Breaking that law is sin. When we sin, we face the automatic penalty for sin and that is eternal separation from God in a place called hell. Ever since Adam and Eve fell away from God in the garden of Eden, sin entered their hearts and the earth became under a curse. That curse caused the gardens to produce weeds and thorns among the fruit. That curse made some of the animals wild and dangerous. God made a plan to redeem or save the lost human beings He had created. He made a way that they could regain the lost fellowship with Him that we had. His law could not allow sin into our eternal souls so He removed the tree of life from our access. This was good because we could not eat of the tree and live forever in our lost condition with no way out.

God made a way that we could receive His very own Spirit in our innermost being. The Holy Spirit could not come to us in our present condition. We had to be forgiven of sin and cleansed of sin. He sent to us, God in the flesh, His own Son, Jesus Christ. Christ or Messiah was the say of our salvation. The bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The sacrifice of animals in the Old Testament pointed to the one who was to come to pay the final price for the sins of all mankind. Jesus came as described in Isaiah 53. He first preached the gospel, healed the sick and even raised the dead to show us that He had the power of the resurrection. His main purpose in coming was to make a final offering for all of our sins. Jesus never sinned himself so the penalty for sin (death in hell) came upon Him but He didn't deserve that penalty. He took that penalty for all of our sins. When He was on that cross, every sin that mankind ever made came upon the sinless Son of God. At that point, God looked away and Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me." He then died. His body was put in the grave and His soul and spirit went into hell to preach the gospel to the souls in hell.

In order to conquer death and bring us the hope of everlasting life, after three days, Jesus rose from the dead and returned to the Father in Heaven after He appeared to many and instructed them to receive the Holy Spirit and go into all the world with the message of the gospel. Now in the appointed time we too will have the resurrection of the body (the soul and spirit will already be in Heaven at the death of our natural bodies).

This gift of eternal life has a condition to receiving it. We have to have faith in the one who brings our salvation. We have to believe in this and believe in the one who came to save us from our sins.

Remember though that the devil believes in the existence of Jesus Christ so it takes more than just to believe He exists. To believe and have saving faith, one must receive Jesus into our own hearts by faith. To do this we need to be willing to turn away from sin and turn to Jesus Christ. Jesus will impart to us the Holy Spirit. We become "born again." We are baptized into the body of Christ and we are saved. Old things pass away and all things become new. We are no longer under the curse of sin.

Those that reject the sacrifice and plan of salvation will suffer everlasting destruction in hell. If our sins are still within us at the point of death, we will die in our sins.

This is why it is necessary that the gospel reaches everyone on the face of the earth. Woe to them that hinder the preaching of the gospel as some are doing.

I fear for those that refuse to allow preachers of the gospel to preach to the lost this message of salvation. I fear for those who try to silence this message and keep citizens and children from being saved. This is why there is so much violence in schools, cities and countries. Without the saving power within us, there will be violence.

After we come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, God hears our every prayer. Sometimes as I mentioned after verse one, there may be times when Heaven seems to be silent but be assured that if you belong to Jesus Christ, He hears you and will answer in a way that benefits your eternal soul. God is good.

The Lord becomes our strength and protection. He becomes our constant companion through His gift of the Holy Spirit. He deserves our praise.

This will surely come to pass and is being fulfilled daily as we come to God by faith in Him. God is our inheritance and Heaven is our eternal home.

Psalm 29

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