The Christians who are victorious by the Word of God
“Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. The arrogant mock me without restraint, but I do not turn from your law. I remember your ancient laws, O LORD, and I find comfort in them. Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law. Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge. In the night I remember your name, O LORD, and I will keep your law. This has been my practice: I obey your precepts.” (Psalms 119:49-56)
God reproved, encouraged and exhorted me through the guest speaker at our Church revival meeting. He exhorted me to go on with the vision of raising a leader like Barnabas, a man full of the Holy Spirit and faith (Acts 11:24). Not only did He exhort me, God also comforted me with the word of God and strengthened me so that I could be driven by the vision that the Lord gave me (and the church) with more firm faith. Because of that grace, I want to labor more and more, seeing the possibility of one soul, finding potential leaders, and humbly joining the Lord in building them up as the Christ-centered visionary leaders. I want to devote my life to the work of raising up Christian leaders who will fight against themselves, their sins, the world, Satan and death to win spiritual warfare by the Word of God. Who are the Christian leaders who are victorious by the Word of God? I would like to be instructed in four ways based on Psalms 119: 49-56:
First, the Christian leaders who are victorious by the Word of God make His Word ‘my hope.’
Look at Psalms 119:49 – “Remember the word to Your servant, In which You have made me hope.” The psalmist was “in my affliction” (v. 50). The arrogant utterly derided him (v. 51). The purpose was to cause the psalmist to turn aside from the Lord's law (v. 51). And the psalmist was suffering because of the wicked who forsook the Lord’s law (v. 53). In the midst of suffering, the psalmist prayed to the Lord: “Remember the word to Your servant, In which You have made me hope.” In other words, he pleaded with God to remember His promise to him. How could a true and faithful God forget the promise that He made to the psalmist? If someone forgot, it wasn’t God but the psalmist. So when the psalmist was in trouble, he remembered the Lord's ordinances of old (v. 52). And he remembered His name in the night and kept His law (v. 55). Why did the psalmist remember God's Word? The reason was because the God's word was ‘my hope’ (v. 49). Indeed, the Word of God is our hope.
When we are in affliction, we must look to God, who is ‘my hope,’ in faith. When we are in trouble, we must remember the Word of the Lord, who is ‘my hope.’ And we must pray, expect, and wait for a faithful God who fulfills the promise that He gave us.
Second, the Christian leaders who are victorious by the Word of God make His Word “my comfort.”
Look at Psalms 119:50 – “This is my comfort in my affliction, That Your word has revived me.” The psalmist wanted to be comforted by the Word of God when he was in affliction. So he remembered the Lord's old ordinances and comforted himself (v. 52). Here, “ordinances from of old” refer to the God's Word, which has been shown to be true for a long time and stands firm. In other words, the psalmist remembered the promised word of God that had been true from his past life and that had been standing firmly. As he looked back on the past, he found true comfort in his soul, thinking of God's faithfulness in fulfilling the word of promise.
The Christian leaders need to develop spiritual strength to comfort themselves. In order to do this, they must not only make God's promised word ‘my hope,’ but also go further and make the covenant God who gave the promise word as ‘my hope’ (v.49). And they must remember the word of the promise given by the faithful Lord who is ‘my hope,’ and hold on to them and ask Him in faith. Then through the word of God, which revives our afflicted souls (v. 50), we must experience God's lovingkindness (v. 76).
Third, the Christian leaders who are victorious by the Word of God make His Word “my songs.”
Look at Psalms 119:54 – “Your statutes are my songs In the house of my pilgrimage.” The psalmist considered the promise Word of God, which had been his hope and his comfort in affliction, “my songs” and praised God. He praised God by considering His words of promise as his songs “in the house of my pilgrimage.” How can a pilgrim have a house? Even if he has the house, it's only temporary. The psalmist looked upon the eternal house that is Heaven. He was heading toward Heaven in following the Word of God as he made the Word of God his songs.
We are the pilgrims who are moving toward our eternal house, Heaven. As we live in this pilgrim-like world, we are worshipers who praise God even in the midst of afflictions, seeking a better home. And when we worship God, we must praise God, remembering the work of salvation that God has already done to us in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we must praise God by faith in anticipation of Jesus' second coming. Like prophet Habakkuk, we should sing praises to God in prayer (Hab. 3). Like Paul and Silas, who were in prison, prayed and praised God (Acts 16:25), and a marvelous miracle happened (not only being delivered from prison but also the jailer’s and his family’s souls were saved), we too must experience God's amazing work of salvation by making the Word our song and praying to God.
Fourth and last, the Christian leaders who are victorious by the Word of God make His Word ‘my possession.’
Look at Psalms 119:56 – “This has become mine, That I observe Your precepts.” The psalmist made God's word his own by keeping God’s precepts that was his hope, his comfort, and his songs in affliction. He made affliction as an opportunity to make God's Word his possession. He used his crisis in his life as an opportunity to write down the word of God deeply on the tablet of his heart.
Through the death of my first child, the greatest crisis of my life, God wrote the Scripture Psalms 63:3 deeply in the tablet of my heart. I couldn’t help but praise the Lord's eternal love that was better than my first baby’s 55 days of life in this earth. It was God’s amazing and marvelous love that He showed to me. Even now, when I meditate on Psalms 63:3 again when I go through some difficulties, God writes that word on the table of my heart deeply. The Word of God, Psalm 63:3 became mine (also the promised word of John 6:1-15 for me, and Matthew 16:18 for our church). Even in these days, God enables me to praise Him because through His promise words He gives me hope and comfort.
The Christian leaders who are victorious by the Word of God must make God's Word ‘my hope,’ “my comfort”, “my songs” and ‘my possession.’ Therefore, they must move forward to Heaven by winning the spiritual battle with God's Word and by giving praise to God. I hope and pray that we may become such Christian leaders for His Kingdom and His glory.