Psalm 12

It can seem hard to follow the Lord in a time and place when His Name is respected. Even then we still have a struggle on our hands because of our own sin and the challenge of living in a world that is under the Lord's sentence of futility as a result of the Fall. But it is especially difficult when it appears that all the godly are gone, and there is no one around us to comfort us.

This feeling of being the last righteous person standing in faith is not always accurate. Remember Elijah after his contest with Jezebel. She was seeking to kill him, and he became convinced that no other worshipers of God were left. God had to tell him in 1 Kings 19, “I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” He gave Elijah a job to do, some of which would only be completed by his successor Elishah, Elijah's life was not over, and he was not alone.

But there is such a thing as solo warfare, and when Christ died on the cross, His disciples had scattered. Perhaps John was there almost to the end. Jesus' mother and a few of the women who had accompanied Him in His ministry were left as eyewitnesses. But what He did on the cross He had to do alone.

What a great blessing it is for us to have a faithful community of courageous lovers of God standing beside us in our day of greatest trial! This is what we should always have in the church, and it should have been that way throughout the history of Old Testament Israel. But there are times when Samsons fight the battle of conquest alone. The faithful vanish from among the children of man, and the Lord's warrior has no one left next to him in his suffering.

A man can even be alone in some great work despite a large crowd of people with Him who claim to be true worshipers of the Lord. It is hard enough for Job to face loss in silence. It is much harder once his friends begin to wrongly suggest that the reason for his trials must be his secret sin. It is hard for the Son of God to die by Himself in the greatest battle of faith in history. It is far worse when religious leaders are stirring up people against the Lord of lords.

In a dark time there may be many making a big show of their spiritual purity, but it's just a show. The man who fights for God alone in the midst of a crowd of unfaithful hypocrites learns that people are capable of being amazingly double-hearted. Could it be that some who claimed to have admired Jesus and followed him for a time might actually get to the point when they would rejoice in His suffering?

What can a man do when everyone utters spiritually gilded lies to his neighbor? What is the right way to respond when lips that used to flatter now give a kiss of betrayal? Still, there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother, and God has told us that He will always be with us. Yet a day comes for the Messiah when He cries out these words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus was heard in that day of suffering love. God knows how to rescue the righteous. He Himself is the Source of all righteousness. It is this righteousness of God that demands that the requirements of His justice shall be met.

Heaven will not be a kingdom where moral confusion reigns, and where the possibility of religious hypocrisy steals away our perfect joy. Lying lips and the boasting tongues of the proud will be cut off. At the present, defeat does not seem like a possibility to those who are accustomed to asserting mastery over others simply by using their voices. They speak like the divine Word that must be implicitly obeyed, but they utter lies, and they pursue what is evil

There is only One who is the true Word of God. He died for the transgressions of those who worship Him, This One is the living and active Word. Before Him all are naked and exposed.

Like the Israelites when they were in bondage in Egypt, we have become aware of our need for a powerful Redeemer, and we have turned to the Lord in prayer. When God sent Jesus to die for us, He saw our poverty, and He came for us at the cost of His Son's life.

If Jesus demonstrated His love for us in His death, and if He has shown His glorious power in His resurrection, surely He will not leave His people groaning on earth forever. Every day the Lord rescues people out of despair and pain and brings them to a world where there is perfect joy. He will come again finally to fulfill all of His promises. He will give His suffering children the safety that they pray for.

God cannot lie. His Word is pure. He will keep all His promises. He will guard us and keep us forever. Though those with lying lips may surround us, the Lord will come. Our hope is in Him.