Today we conclude our look at the four purposes of the doctrine that even for the righteous, God sends sorrow as well as joy, and hardship as well as material blessing.
Even for the righteous, God sends sorrow as well as joy, hardship as well as material blessing. Today we begin our look at four uses of this doctrine.
1. Reverence for God. The first use of this doctrine is to encourage reverence for God and humility in us, since God's ways are not our ways and his ultimate purposes in life are usually beyond our finding out.
As we read in yesterday's study, even the bad things of life are in God's hands. To paraphrase H. C. Leupold, no one is brought low or raised high unless God wills it to be so. Today we look at two great biblical confessions of that truth.
Yesterday we read of the Pilgrims’ abundant first harvest in their new home and their three-day thanksgiving celebration. But there is another side to this story, and it is that the good times were succeeded by hard times again. As far as the Pilgrims were concerned, there was anxiety over divisions caused by people who arrived at the colony from other places, distress at being cheated by ship captains who had hoped to profit at the Pilgrims’ expense, and fear of war with more distant Indian tribes. And, of course, the crops sometimes also failed or did poorly, and sicknesses returned.
In the first two parts of Psalm 107,,the introduction (vv. 1-3) and the overview of the diverse deliverances of the people of God (vv. 4-32), we have followed the first half of that stanza. We have seen how God delivers his people from the many dangers, toils and snares of this life—specifically from wandering in desert lands, wasting away in prison, perishing because of acute illnesses, and from perils at sea. Now we are to see how he also brings us home, anchoring our souls in a safe harbor at last.
