You know that Jesus had seven famous last words that He uttered from the cross.
As we are in Holy Week this week, it would be a good time to
see what Jesus said in his own “darkest hour”: The hours on the cross.
The President and others are saying that this week could be
our darkest hours of this coronavirus crisis. What did Jesus do when things
quite literally got dark?
From the cross, Jesus’s final words are a quote from Psalm
31: 5, saying “Father into Your hands I commend my Spirit,” and with
that, He gave up His Spirit to God.
From His final utterance, I want to ask First Baptist
Church, Killeen this question: “Is there someone you really trust?”
Read Psalm 31 and as you meditate on it, ask yourself, “Why
would Christ quote this verse, this chapter, as His final word?”
1 In You, O LORD, I put my TRUST; Let me
never be ashamed; Deliver me in Your righteousness. 2 Bow down
Your ear to me, Deliver me speedily; Be my rock of refuge, A fortress of
defense to save me.
3 For You are my rock and my fortress;
Therefore, for Your name’s sake, Lead me and guide me. 4 Pull
me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my
strength.”
And here Jesus quotes the Psalm as His final utterance of
His final seven utterances.
“5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You
have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.”
If you haven’t seen why Christ would find refuge in this
Psalm, then keep reading. See if this is also a psalm we can claim for our
times of distress.
6 I have hated those who regard useless
idols; But I TRUST in the LORD. 7 I will be glad and rejoice in
Your mercy, For You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in
adversities, 8 And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a wide place.
9
Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with
grief, Yes, my soul and my body! 10 For my life is spent with
grief, And my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity,
And my bones waste away. 11 I am a reproach among all my
enemies, But especially among my neighbors, And am repulsive to my
acquaintances; Those who see me outside flee from me.
12 I
am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. 13
For I hear the slander of many; Fear is on every side; While they
take counsel together against me, They scheme to take away my life.
14
But as for me, I TRUST in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” 15 My
times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from
those who persecute me. 16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant;
Save me for Your mercies’ sake.
17 Do
not let me be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon You; Let the wicked be
ashamed; Let them be silent in the grave. 18 Let the lying lips
be put to silence, Which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against
the righteous.
19
Oh, how great is Your goodness, Which You have laid up for those who fear
You, Which You have prepared for those who TRUST in You In the presence of
the sons of men! 20 You shall hide them in the secret place of
Your presence From the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a
pavilion From the strife of tongues.
21
Blessed be the LORD, For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong
city! 22 For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your
eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried
out to You.
23
Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints! For the LORD preserves the faithful,
And fully repays the proud person. 24 Be of good courage, And
He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD.
Your “Trust” is a precious gift, to be given out with great
discretion. “Trust,” “hope,” “faith”, and “belief” are beautiful gifts and
themes presented throughout the Bible. It is God’s “gold standard,” His
“benchmark” by which all other things should be measured against. Few psalms
speak more about trust than Psalm 31 and several psalms following this one.
We should be cautious on giving our trust but the person we
should be the most suspicious of is the person we see every day in the mirror,
and by that of course I mean, we should not trust in ourselves! We don’t want
to let down our guard around others but how often have we let our own selves
down?
A better place to anchor our hope is not with others and not
within but rather of course with God. Be sure, others will let you down and you
will let your own self down. And in all honesty, there are times when we feel
God has let us down.
So, what do we do? Go back to trusting ourselves or our
health or our wealth? Should we anchor our faith in our loved ones or our
philosophy or our government, or, God forbid, our political party?
How’s that working for you?
Even if that works for a while, eventually everything EXCEPT
the Lord will fade away. David saw that self-reliance was futile, his body was
weakening; his soul was tiring; those around him were falling. “But as for
me I trust in You O Lord.”
This psalm begins with trusting God, using two different
Hebrew words four different times to convey trust (verses 1 and 19 convey
"protection"; verses 6 and 14 emphasize "confidence").
And the psalm ends with a close cousin to trust: hope. “Be
of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in
the LORD.”
A good way to remember in Whom we should trust is to spell
out the word FAITH this way:
Forsaking All, I Trust Him.
Jesus did this. Should not we also?
