"I shall call upon Him as long as I live"
[Psalms 116:1-12]
In the grace of God and the consideration of your love, I have had a good Sabbath month over the past two months. For about 5 weeks, I went to Korea under the concept of ministry on the Cyworld Internet homepage, which I personally run, and had many precious meetings that God gave me. Through these encounters, God not only allowed me to see the tears flowing around their eyes, but also allowed me to see the tears in their hearts. There was pain and hurt and suffering in their hearts. And they were enduring with vague faith in pain and suffering while not being able to understand the will of God. There were hit by the world, and were living day by day looking at the hopeful Lord amidst discouragement and frustration. Some are in the midst of diseases, others in the midst of wounds and pains from the past, and some have marital conflicts and discords, difficulties in raising children and difficulties at work, and some have anxiety over an uncertain future. Would this be all? There will be countless grievances for all of us that cannot be expressed in words. Why did God let me meet these people? I thought maybe God wanted to teach me His hear, the Father God’s heart. I shared it with a few people whom I met, but for some reason, I think God wanted people to meet those who shed tears so that I could see what Heavenly Father sees and hear what Heavenly Father hears. In this way, after carrying out the ministry in Korea by God's grace and returning to the United States, I read the Bible and received a message of hope for those who are weeping in Luke 6:21. The message of hope is that “Blessed are you who weep now”. Why is it blessed for those who weep? The reason is because those who weep will laugh (v. 21). The reason is because God will comfort those who weep (v. 24), and He will reward greatly those who weep (v. 23).
After staying in Korea for about 5 weeks and enjoying the grace that God has given me, I came back to the United States and stayed at my father-in-law’s house for a week. There was not much that I could do, so I just offered praise to God, read the Bible, and prayed to God next to my father-in-law who was suffering from physical ailments. Meanwhile, last Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day), I went to see the family doctor with my father-in-law and mother-in-law, and I found out that my father-in-law had lung cancer. In addition, brother in Christ Kim of our church is hospitalized after undergoing cancer surgery. Another brother in Christ Kim's younger sister is also hospitalized after undergoing cancer surgery. And the mother of our church associate pastor also has cancer surgery. What should we do when we consider those who are suffering from illness and suffering? Indeed, what should we do when we consider these loved ones?
I found the answer in Psalms 116:2 – “… Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.” The psalmist in Psalms 116 is making a resolution to God: ‘God, I will pray to You as long as I live.’ In one word, he devoted himself to prayer. Why did he commit himself to prayer? The reason is because God heard his prayer (vv. 1, 2). Do you really believe that God is the God who hears your prayers? Do you really believe that God is the one who listens to your petitions when you cry out to God in pain? This time in Korea, there was a couple that God let or allow me to meet. The husband is an elder of the church, and the wife is a lady who serves her church faithfully. Through their son, I found out that the elder is suffering from a recurrence of cancer, and that his wife is suffering after undergoing brain tumor surgery. So I visited the couple in order to encourage them. When I first visited the couple, I saw tears flowing around Mrs. Kim’s eyes. So I prayed to God for her. At that time, she kept saying, "Amen, amen." When I was leaving their house, I promised to see them again before I go back to United States. So I went to their house again on Saturday, the day I was returning to United State. On that day, after having conversation, I encouraged them to praise together with me. So we sang the gospel song “God is so Good” together. Then when I got up and tried to pray, the elder grabbed my leg and said to sit down and pray. So we sat in a circle, holding hands and we prayed to God. Even at that time, she said, “Amen, amen.” The psalmist in Psalms 116 believed that God is the God who answers his prayers. Therefore, when he faced “distress and sorrow” (v. 3) and was “greatly afflicted” (v. 10), he cried out to God. The distress, sorrow, and great affliction he encountered was so much that he was at the crossroads of life and death. That was why he said “The cords of death encompassed me” and “the terrors of Sheol came upon me” (v. 3). In the midst of that, he cried out to God. In other words, the psalmist cried out to God when he was at the crossroads of life and death.
What do you think our prayers for God would be if we were at the crossroads of life and death? What do you think we are going to pray earnestly to God? The psalmist prayed to God: “… O LORD, I beseech You, save my life!” (v. 4) He cried out to God, “save my life” (v. 4). At that time, God not only saved him by hearing his prayer (v. 6), but also gave rest to his soul (v. 7). This is it. Even though we are at the crossroads of life and death, we Christians who trust in God and who pray have assurance of salvation and enjoy the peace of souls from God. That’s why we can sing the first lyric of the hymn “When Peace, Like a River, Attendeth My Way”: “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul; It is well, it is well with my soul.” Furthermore, God had dealth bountifully with the psalmist (v. 7). Also He gave him abundant grace (v. 12). The psalmist who experienced this abundant grace said: “What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me?” (v. 12) Do we realize and know all the grace God has given us? Do we realize and know all the grace of God who answers our prayers and gives us “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20)? What should we do if we realize a little bit of that abundant grace of God? Like the psalmist, we must determine to pray to God as long as we live and act upon our determination. Those who have tasted prayer will be compelled to devote themselves to prayer, deciding, “I shall call upon Him as long as I live,” like the psalmist.
I think we need distress, pain, and sorrow in our lives that make us to pray to God. To be more specific, we must become “the simple” in the midst of distress, pain, and sorrow (v. 6). Here, “the simple” refers to the ‘the open ones,’ that is, those who open their hearts and entrust themselves to God and don’t rely on their wisdom (Park). We need training to open our hearts and entrust everything to God, even through the painful circumstances that are given to us. The reason I think this is because our human instincts seldom rely on God for some reason and don't leave everything to God through prayer. Our instinct relies on our own wisdom in distress, pain, and sorrow, so we constantly ask for help from other people. However, because those who open their hearts in their distress, pain, and sorrow and trust in God know that “All men are liars” (v. 11). So they ask only God who is gracious, righteous and compassionate for help (v. 5). Also, we must be humbled by distress, suffering, and sorrow (v. 6). Not only must we open our hearts to God through distress, suffering, and sorrow and entrust everything to Him, we also must be humble before God. The psalmist said that when he was brought low God saved him (v. 6). That's right. We must humble ourselves before God through adversity, difficulties, distress, pain and sorrow in our lives. In other words, through such a difficult, painful, and sad environment, we must humble ourselves before God, fall humbly, and pray to Him. What kind of grace did God give to the psalmist at that time? Look at verse 8: “For You have rescued my soul from death, My eyes from tears, My feet from stumbling.” He experienced God’s grace of salvation. In other words, when the psalmist humbly bowed before God through suffering, God delivered him from death, from tears, and from falling. Don’t you want to experience this saving grace?
Last Wednesday during Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day), after I met the family doctor with my father-in-law and mother-in-law, we came back to the father-in-law's house. Then I praised God with the father-in-law who was lying in the hospital bed. I praised the hymn “When Peace, Like a River, Attendeth My Way,” which is my father-in-laws’ favorite hymn, and the hymn “For Away in the Depths of My Spirit” and so on. The reason is because God gave peace to my father-in-law’s heart. Now is the time to pray. As we see our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering from disease we must unite and pray to God. Just as the psalmist asked God to “save my life” (v. 4) in great trouble, distress, and sorrow, we must also ask God to deliver our lives. Then God will incline His ear to our prayers (v. 2). And He will answer our prayers and grant us the grace of salvation. When we experience the abundant grace of that salvation, we will be able to confess, “I love the Lord, because He hears My voice and my supplications” (v. 1).
With gratitude to God for listening to the prayers of the needy,
James Kim
(After receiving the message of God on the first Sunday after the Sabbath month)