Hope, Comfort and Joy - Part 2 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, The praise of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

This is LeSaire Bradley Jr. welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. Hark, a jubilee, it's sounding, all the joyful news is come, Free salvation is proclaimed, in and through God's holy Son. Now we have complete redemption, through the make and molding Lamb. Glory, honor and salvation, Christ the Lord is come to reign. Now that each one sees from wandering, come and follow Christ away. We shall all receive a blessing, in from him we do not strain.

Oh, the moment we neglected, yet the Lord forgives again. Glory, honor and salvation, Christ the Lord is come to reign. Come, dear children, praise your Jesus, praise him, praise him evermore. May his great love now constrain us, so his great name we'll adore. Oh, when let us join together, his one trust came to proclaim. Glory, honor and salvation, Christ the Lord is come to reign. Today we continue in Psalm 119, verses 49 to 56. This section of our study we've entitled, Hope, Comfort and Joy. I pray that the message will be a blessing to you, if it is, we'd certainly appreciate hearing from you.

And if you can help with the support of the program, we'll be very grateful for that. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Oh, be joyful, oh, be jubilant, with your sorrow far away. Come, rejoice and sing together this holy day. Oh, be joyful, oh, be jubilant, with your sorrow far away. Come, rejoice and sing together this holy day. Oh, be joyful, oh, be jubilant, with your sorrow far away. Come, rejoice and sing together this holy day. Oh, be joyful, oh, be jubilant, with your sorrow far away. Oh, be joyful, oh, be jubilant, with your sorrow far away. Then in verse 50 of Psalm 119, he says, This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. Surely we all recognize that we need comfort along the way. And this very passage recognizes that God does not exempt His people from affliction. This is my comfort in my affliction. I know what it is to be afflicted. I know what it is, says the Psalmist, to face setbacks, hardships, sorrows and troubles.

I've encountered these things. And the passage we've often referred to in John 16, 33 are the words of Jesus that reminds us we need not be surprised by tribulation. These things I've spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace, in the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

He didn't say you might have it. There's an outside possibility that it may happen periodically, in the world ye shall have tribulation. There are some things we encounter just because we're living in a fallen world, a world that's under the curse of sin. Some things that we struggle with because of the fallenness of our own nature.

Some things that come imposed upon us by the actions of others. Sometimes we are persecuted for righteousness sake, but in a variety of ways we can rest assured that there will continue to be tribulation as long as we're in this world. Peter talks about that in his first epistle.

Why do you suppose the scriptures have so much to say on the subject? Is it not that God's people need to be reminded that tribulation is a part of life and to understand how to react when it comes? 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 6, Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for the season if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. It's necessary from time to time that you go through a variety of trials, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

He says, look out to the future. This trial that you're experiencing right now is very unpleasant. This trouble that you're going through seems to be without purpose. But God is trying your faith, and the trying of your faith is much more precious than gold, and he intends to bring you through the fire with the dross consumed. He's going to teach you to rest more upon him.

He's going to teach you something about your own weakness and the emptiness of the things of this world and of that which is material and have you looking more to him and to heaven itself when you will one day be with him. So he acknowledges God's people are not exempt, and the psalmist speaks of my affliction. Every person to whom I speak has a different set of circumstances to face in life.

There's some similarity between all of us in our endeavor to serve God and the obstacles we face along the way, but also with everyone there's something that's special and unique. You can say, my affliction. This is what I have to deal with. This is the burden that I carry.

This is the testing that's come my way. But he says, this is my comfort in my affliction. Just as there is an affliction which comes to you, and God deals with you in a special, personal way, there is also that comfort which is yours. And there may be times that the Lord comforts you in ways that you're not able to fully express to others.

In fact, have you at times tried to express something about how God was working in your life and you could tell that the person to whom you were talking did not grasp what you were trying to say? Well, it was your comfort. There are times we're able to share what God has done for us and the comfort that he has given us, and other times it's simply ours, and we can thank God for how he has blessed us to be comforted. God is the source of the comfort.

He provides it. Just as we read that he is the God of hope, we read in 2 Corinthians 1 that he's the God of comfort. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, and so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. He provides it. Comfort comes from him. He's the God of comfort.

Now he may use a variety of ways to bring it to us. Paul was comforted by the coming of Titus, but it wasn't just his presence. This young servant of God was no doubt able to speak words to the beloved apostle that would be meaningful to him.

You sometimes hear people say, Well, I just want to know that you're going to be there for me. Well, the comfort that God gives us is more than a person just being there for you. Because this comfort involves the comfort of which God is the source and therefore depends on his promises and on what he has declared in his word. Isaiah chapter 63 verse 9, In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them in his love, and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them and carried them all the days of old. God comforts us by his word. So you go to his word and you read about what God did for his people in the long ago, and how he is mindful of our needs today, and we are enlivened, we're quickened by the promise.

That's what he's saying. This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. I may have felt like I was dried up. I may have felt like I was just dead spiritually, but the word came to me, the preached word, the written word which I read and meditated upon, and I was enlivened by it.

I was quickened by it. This then is my comfort in my affliction. Think of the instruction Paul has given as he writes to the church at Thessalonica. And in that marvelous passage in chapter 4, when he tells us that we are not to sorrow even as others which have no hope, he begins in the thirteenth verse by saying, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

What a wonderful thing to consider. Think of it, the Lord himself descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, the dead in Christ rising, those that are alive caught up in the air. To be with him, so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Now, what does he say in the eighteenth verse? Wherefore comfort one another with these words. God comforts us with the word of his truth. Certainly it's a comfort in time of great loss or sorrow for somebody to be there, somebody to put their arm around you and say, I love you.

That means a lot. But what's the comfort that's going to last when that friend has to go back home? What's the comfort that's going to be meaningful to you on some lonely days when nobody's there to speak a word? Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

See what God says, because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And what God says and what God promises stands firm. And therefore there is comfort when we rely upon him. We must actively seek this comfort. Since the comfort is found in his word, we must be seeking it. It's not just a matter of sitting in silence, suffering in loneliness, or even beginning to complain, complaining about the situation, or after circumstances, or even complaining because no one has come to comfort you.

Is that not the tendency of human nature? If we need comfort, we wonder why someone hasn't come to assist us in giving us comfort. We may have the tendency to think that our trouble is greater than anybody else's, that we have been terribly mistreated, and we began to grumble and complain. But we must actively seek this comfort by remembering what God says in his word. Lamentations chapter 3 reveals how Jeremiah the prophet, the weeping prophet, sought comfort and found it. When he had reached a low place, the very depth of the valley saying, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Lamentations chapter 3 verse 18. And then he comes to the 21st and says, This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion fails not. New every morning, great is thy faithfulness. He remembered something. What did he remember? He remembered the Lord. He remembered his mercies. I've made it this far because of the mercy of God. His mercies are new every morning. And so as the psalmist says, This is my comfort in my affliction, and by word hath quickened me, we know that by going to what God has said and to his promises we find comfort. Now he goes on to speak of the proud, having him in great derision. But even in that time of affliction, he had not declined from the law of God. He didn't say because I've got such a fierce battle to fight, because I've got so many enemies, so much opposition, there's no need for me to try, just give up trying to serve God.

No, he's going to do the right thing no matter what anybody else says or does. That seemed like such a difficult lesson for us to learn. A person says, Well, look what so-and-so did to me. Look what they said about me.

Look what's happened to me. As though that's justification either to retaliate or just to give up trying to serve God. But David says, Though the proud have had me in great derision, I have not declined from keeping thy law. I remembered thy judgments, O Lord, and have comforted myself. This is the point we're making as we speak of Jeremiah, not complaining and waiting for somebody else to come. He comforted himself.

How did he do it? By remembering the mercies of God. This I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.

Can we say that? That as we see people living in open rebellion against God, pursuing a wicked course, are we horrified by it? Do we think about what this means with respect to the judgment of God ultimately befalling them? Do we have a heart of compassion to pray that God would bestow His grace upon those that are traveling in darkness and down the wrong path? Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. So here we come to joy. We see in the passage then that there is hope, there is comfort, and there is joy.

Thy statutes have been my songs in the days of my pilgrimage. He acknowledges I'm just a pilgrim here. I'm just passing through. And I would ask you the question, do you walk as a pilgrim? Do you sometimes become so enamored with the things of the world, so distracted with worldly things, that you forget that your stay here is temporary? You're just passing through. Heaven is your home.

Your inheritance is on the other side. We can't really live correctly the Christian life if we forget our pilgrim character. In the book of Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13, it says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned, but now they desire a better country, that is, and heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.

Do you desire a better country? Do you look for that city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God? Are you constantly guarding against the influences of this world, so that you are reminded, I am but a pilgrim here? But thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I sing with joy as I travel here, though I've got enemies, though there are those that have held me into rigid, though I've had many troubles and afflictions to face, I go singing, because I know whatever I encounter here is short-lived, it's only temporary, and I'm looking to the time that my pilgrim journey will be ended, and I'll arrive safe home at last. I'm singing as I pass through this world. Psalm 108, verse 1, it says, O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise even with my glory, because my heart is fixed, because I'm settled upon Thee, because by faith I'm trusting Thee, I'm going to be singing, I'm going to be singing with my tongue, I'm going to be making melody, I'm going to be singing so that others may also hear the song. It's a sign that the individual that sings these songs of praise to God has joy in his own heart, and they can become a benefit, encouragement, and edification to others.

In Colossians 3.16, Paul says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Occasionally I've had an automobile next to mine at a traffic light, and even with their windows up and mine up, I heard more than I cared to hear, with some horrendous racket coming out of it that I suppose somebody called music, and the vibration was causing even the car to rock as we waited for the traffic light to change. And I think, what kind of a shape must somebody be in by the end of the day who listens to that sort of thing all the day through? You know, some of what's called music today is ugly. It's horrible, and you know why?

Because the people that sing it have ugly, horrible lives. They're ungodly, and their music sounds like it. Oh, that God's people might be like the singing pilgrim, singing songs of praise to Him. Paul and Silas were in jail. It says in Acts 16, 25, And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.

What a testimony! They weren't there in a terrible state of depression, as though all their plans had been disrupted. God had sent them to preach and to praise His name, and so they're in jail, and they'll praise His name there, and they're singing, and the prisoners heard it. And the earthquake came, and the jailer comes and says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And they baptized the jailer that very night, and it was there at Philippi where a church was established, and that was the very church that assisted the apostles so greatly.

When he traveled, laboring, preaching the gospel in other places. The apostle, like David of old, was singing the praises of God in the midst of his troubles. How often do you sing? Oh, we sing as we come here to worship God, and I'm glad we do. In some places people don't sing.

They just have others sing for them. They go to hear a performance, but we come here to sing. We're to sing, making melody in our hearts unto the Lord, each of us joining our voices and singing praise to our God.

It's an appropriate thing to be singing to Him. In Psalm 9 verse 10, the Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee, for thy Lord has not forsaken them that seek thee. Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion, declare among the people His doings. Sing praises to the Lord. That's what the psalmist says in this passage he had done. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night and have kept thy law.

Can you say that? If you're awakened in the night, what do you think about? Some people find it a convenient time to lay there and worry. But David says, when I am awakened in the night, I remember the Lord. I think about Him. In the darkness of midnight, it's appropriate that we remember the name of the Lord. In the darkness of great affliction, let us remember the name of the Lord. In the darkness of depression, let us remember the name of the Lord. God is always to be remembered. If we remember Him, we have joy. And so, in these eight verses, we see an emphasis put upon hope and comfort and joy. Surely we need them all, and we find them in the Lord. Well, thank you for listening today.

I hope you'll be back at the same time tomorrow. If you'd like to help with the support of the program, you can go to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org and make a donation there. Till we greet you at the same time tomorrow, this is LaSara Bradley, Jr. beating you goodbye, and may God bless you. It is my glory, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, praising my Savior, praising my Savior all the day long.