The Lord who delights in my prosperity
[Psalms 35:17-28]
What is a “prosperity”? The term “prosperity” is often expressed in Hebrew as “sakal” and “tsalach”. “Sakal' means to thrive and succeed. And “tsalach” means to advance, prosper, make progress, succeed, be profitable. Also, the word “shalowm” is often used, which means “safe,” “prosperity,” “peace”. Here comes the word “shalom,” that is, goodbye, peace, happiness, and the Hebrews greet each other with this word. Therefore, it can be seen that prosperity refers not only to the external and material aspects, but also to the internal, mental, and spiritual aspects (Internet). But for some reason, it seems that many of us are thinking that “prosperity” is everything turns out as we wished that is without hardship and adversity. We think that prosperity is without any hardship and adversity but success and flourish. But we shouldn't hope for this kind of “prosperity”. Basically, I think that the attitude to thinking that everything turns out as we wished is not right. I don’t think there is such thing as everything turns out as we wished. On a website, I came across this saying: ‘God leads us to a curved line rather than a straight line to protect our souls. Here is the deep will of God’ (Internet). I agree. There are a lot of curves in our lives, like riding a roller coaster in Disneyland. But what's surprising is that we are glad that we also have curves in our life's journey to discover God's deep will, just as it is not fun for the children to ride on a train without a roller coaster.
Let's take an example of two people in the Bible who have experienced a curve in their lives. The first example is Joseph from Genesis in the Old Testament. We can learn true biblical prosperity through Joseph. The prosperity that we can learn through Joseph is the fact that God is with us is prosperous, even if there is suffering and adversity and not everything goes well without any suffering (Gen. 39:2, 3, 23). True prosperity is not whether we have suffering for not and whether we are abundant or needy. True prosperity is God with us so that His will can be accomplished. The second example is Apostle Paul in Acts 16 of the New Testament. On the Sabbath day, Paul and Silas went outside the gate to a riverside, where they supposed that there would be a place of prayer (Acts 16:13) and met a woman named Lydia and eventually both her and her household believed in Jesus and were baptized (v. 15). And when they were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met them (v. 16). After the she was healed, Paul and Silas were persecuted and eventually went to prison (vv. 17-24). But about midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns of praise to God (v. 25). Then, in response to prayer, the prison door was opened by the presence of God, and the guard and the whole house believed in God (v. 34). There were so many curves in Paul's life, but eventually God's will for salvation came true. And the Philippian Church was also established. When I think about "prosperity" in these two examples, I think prosperity is "the Lord's will being done."
The Bible Psalms 35:27 says, “Let them shout for joy and rejoice, who favor my vindication; And let them say continually, ‘The LORD be magnified, Who delights in the prosperity of His servant.’” I would like to receive grace by thinking of God in two stages how He makes us prosper under the heading “The Lord who delights in my prosperity”.
The first step in God’s making us prosperous is ‘the look on stage’.
Look at Psalms 35:17 – “Lord, how long will You look on? Rescue my soul from their ravages, My only life from the lions.” The psalmist David who was in the midst of suffering by his enemies cried out to the Lord, “Lord, how long will You look on? …” When we suffer too long, we sometimes feel the limit of patience and lament “How long should I suffer like this?” In the midst of such lament, we sometimes look at God with a frustrated heart, like David, how long will the Lord just look on? This is what David already said in Psalms 13:1-2: “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” The lament prayer of “How long?” is asking why God is only looking on him who is in pain and who feels the limit of patience. We can say this look on stage ‘the silent stage’. Look at Psalms 35:22 – “You have seen it, O LORD, do not keep silent; O Lord, do not be far from me.” David cried out to God for help even though he didn’t understand why God was silent and why He was away from him, when he was suffering.
Why is God seems to be just looking at us and still silent when we are suffering? It is for our spiritual benefit (Park). In other words, it is for our spiritual benefit that God is silent when we suffer. Then, what is that spiritual benefit? It is none other than ‘prayer training’ and ‘patience and test’ (Park). The reason God is silent when we are in trouble is so that we can pray to Him and depend on Him more (Ps. 28:1, 7). This is what Isaiah 30:15 says, “… In quietness and trust is your strength ….” Even when God is silent, we must trust Him and rely on Him. Therefore, we should pray to Him. What was David’s prayer topic in Psalms 35? Look at Psalms 35:19-21: “Do not let those who are wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me; Nor let those who hate me without cause wink maliciously. For they do not speak peace, But they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land. They opened their mouth wide against me; They said, ‘Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it!’” David's prayer topic was that the enemies who hated him would not be pleased with the reality that God wasn’t helping David when he was suffering. Another spiritual benefit is that we learn patience through the tunnel of suffering, and also through patience, the proven character, that is character becomes more and more like Jesus. Our character is being shaped by suffering. Look at Psalms 119:71 – “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.” Because we learn the commandments of God through suffering, through obedience to those commandments, our character becomes more and more like Jesus.
This is what Song Won-Jun said about silence in his book ‘Silent God’: ‘God may be silent. God was silent for forty years when he took Moses out of the court of Egypt and then caused him to live in the Midian wilderness. God anointed David as king at the age of seventeen and remained silent until he was crowned. God was silent about the tearful prayer of Paul who did the mission to the world, that is, the prayer of the petition to cure the disease that became a thorn in his flesh. He refused his earnest prayers and said to him, ‘My grace is sufficient for for you.’ And God was silent when the Man on the cross cried out to Him ‘take this cup from me.’ … Henry Nawen declared that God's absence is like God's active presence. … The psalmist didn’t know this fact, so he was coldhearted because of the silent God. But God is working hard in silence! God rather strengthens my heart in silence. … God rather makes us to pray in silence’ (Internet). Personally, as I was reading this, I thought I should be passive. In other words, once again I determined to become a passive Mary rather than an active Martha. The reason is because God gave me the belief that when I became passive, God would work more actively. As we depend more and more on God, we pray that we will wait in anticipation of God's greater and more active work while praying in silence.
The second step in God’s making us prosperous is ‘the stir up and awake stage’.
Look at Psalms 35:23 – “Stir up Yourself, and awake to my right And to my cause, my God and my Lord.” When ‘God who delights in my prosperity’ kept silent even thought He saw David’s hardship (v. 22), David asked God to stir up Himself and awake to judge his enemies (v. 23). Here, the word ‘stir up’ here means ‘to give more effort to be courageous,’ and “awake’ means ‘to wake up from sleeping like state to judge’ (Park). Is God really asleep? Does God really need to wake up? This is what Psalms 121:3-4 say: “He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.” David prayed that God would awake from sleep and judge his enemies with His justice. David didn’t want his enemies to rejoice in his defeat and say, “We have swallowed him up!” as God judged with His justice (vv. 24-25). Further, he asked God that the enemies would fail. In other words, David prayed that God would no longer wait, but stir up Himself and awake to reproach his enemies: “Let those be ashamed and humiliated altogether who rejoice at my distress; Let those be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves over me” (v. 26). Also, David's prayer was asking God to help saints like him to sing praise to Him: “Let them shout for joy and rejoice, who favor my vindication; And let them say continually, ‘The LORD be magnified, Who delights in the prosperity of His servant’” (v. 27). This supplication was possible because God's answer allowed David to overcome his enemies. In doing so, David was able to praise God with such saints, those who considered David righteous [those “who favor my vindication” (v. 27)].
The Lord who leads us to a place with a curve rather than a straight line, where He shows His deep will to us. Why is “God who delights in my prosperity” just looking at our pains and sufferings? Are we seeing with the eyes of faith that God is working hard and actively in His absence and silence? Are we being trained in prayer as we quietly trust God? Are we enjoying the blessings of patience training and character building? Eventually, God strips up and awakens, judging our enemies with justice, causing our enemies to fail and perish. Therefore, He makes us to be grateful and sing praise to God: “I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty throng” (v. 18).
Desire to experience the active work of God who delights in my prosperity in my passive prayer attitude,
James Kim
(In the process of being established as a worshiper who praise God at the end of the curve)