“O Yahweh, how my adversaries have become many! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in God.’ Selah. But You, O Yahweh, are a shield about me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head. I was calling to Yahweh with my voice, and He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.”
This Psalm of David, written on the occasion of his flight from his traitorous son Absalom, affords us an opportunity to identify with a truly God-fearing man in our own often adversities and sore conflicts.
The righteous do not always march forward victoriously. They do not always shout with the voice of triumph and joyously sing the song of the conqueror. They, at seasons, find themselves fleeing from the massing hordes of enemies like this sorrowing and mourning monarch. He who sat on the throne yesterday is today fleeing for his life while the cursing Shimei flings dust and rocks at him (2 Sam. 16:5-14).
Adversaries sometimes multiply themselves. They increase. At what time we hope for respite, woe piles up on top of other woes. We scarcely have heard about one until news of another assails us. The significant word here is many. Many trouble us. Few or none comfort us. Many rise against us. It seems everyone has jumped on the bandwagon of persecution. Let one chicken in the yard get a bleeding wound, and all the other chickens will quickly peck it to death. If this is a shame in worldly circles, what a disgrace it is among the professed people of God! Many there are who say, “There is no help for him in God.” Men either say this because they believe that there is no help in God for anyone… that God is only an illusion, a fanciful prop for the weak and foolish. Or they say it because they believe God has now forsaken their victim, and that He will not defend him against their vicious attacks.
All of this clamors to take away the faith of the God-fearing man. Shall he cast away his faith because many have turned against him and declare that there is no help for him in God? Never! Not for the God-fearing man. He fears God and no one but God. “But You, O Yahweh.” His God is only One, though his oppressors are many. God is a shield for me. Arrows may fly from a hundred directions. The one shield of God is sufficient to thwart them all. God is my glory. Though men rob me of my crown, my throne, my possessions, my home, my family, they have not yet touched my glory; for I glory in nothing but the God of my salvation. God is the lifter up of my head. God will be my ultimate victory. He will restore me.
“There is a lifting up in honor after shame, in health after sickness, in gladness after sorrow, in restoration after a fall, in victory after a temporary defeat”
– C. H. Spurgeon
Our defeat and flight, our retreat, is temporary; our victory, permanent and final, for the Lord has heard our cry.
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Conrad Murrell
Conrad Murrell served in evangelistic ministry for over 50 years and was powerfully used by God in many Assemblies of God and Baptist churches in the United States and around the world. Throughout that time, Conrad pastored churches in Texas and Louisiana, successfully hosted numerous Bible conferences, engaged in continuous itinerant preaching, and diligently evangelized throughout the United States and Mexico. In addition to his fruitful ministry, he also wrote several books, many of which are read worldwide today. Mack Tomlinson's biography of Conrad Murrell is a testimony of God's grace and truth in the life of a man called by God for the proclamation of the Gospel.
Conrad Murrell was a significant contemporary and friend to two of the 20th Century's leading experts on revival, Leonard Ravenhill and Richard Owen Roberts, as well as a dearly loved co-laborer and associate of several other significant evangelists of our age, such as Manley Beasley and Al Whittinghill. Like them, he was a committed, passionate, and anointed itinerant minister. He was a man's man, a man of conviction and grit, but most importantly, he was God's man—a man completely devoted to his Lord and Savior.
Psalms | Restoration | Temptations | Trials
January 20, 2024
More from Conrad Murrell
The Blessed Man: Psalm 1:1-6
The blessed man rests under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty. The righteousness of Christ is his hope and refuge.
The Megamystery Pt.1
The Bride of Christ is not declining. If anything, she is becoming more glorious. Christ is doing to her according to his unchanging and indefeatable purpose and presenting her to Himself unblemished without spot or wrinkle. This MegaMystery is not something created out of time and mortality. She and her Husband are eternal entities. She has ever existed in the Mind of the Almighty, having been brought into manifest light in the fullness of time. And because she always has been, she forever will be.
The Godly Man: Psalm 1:1-2
It is significant that this book of blessed meditations, often set to music and sung, begins with a contrast between the two men who make up the whole of humanity. While there is an infinite variety in the human race, the contrasts set forth here are the only ones that matter in the end.
Faith Cometh: First Mention Basics Of Faith Pt.1
There is a principle of hermeneutics (the science of Scripture interpretation) that states the first time a subject is mentioned in the Bible, all its foundational principles are present. How valid this is in all cases we are not prepared to argue, but it seems to hold well in the subject of faith.
Faith Cometh: What Faith Is Not Pt.2
Faith is often preached as a tool to obtain blessings from God. It is a gimmick which, when used correctly, can produce an abundance of worldly possessions. Prosperity and success are indicative of nothing. They certainly do not testify of faith.
Faith Cometh: What Faith Is Not Pt.1
All the false ideas of faith must be cast down, or they will constantly rear themselves up in the reader’s mind, taking exception to revealed truth.
Faith Cometh: An Introduction
Do you desire to know what work it is that God wants you to do? Then this is it. Believe Him.