1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation:
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
2 For thou art the God of my strength:why dost thou cast me off?
why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 O send out Thy light and Thy truth:let them lead me;
let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
4 Then will I go unto the altar of God,
unto God my exceeding joy:
yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?
hope in God:for I shall yet praise Him,
who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Comments by Joan Boney
For us to allow ourselves to fall into heaviness, oppression of Spirit, is wrong.
We have the Spirit of God ... We have God ... We can feel that heaviness coming on us but we do not have to accept it or wallow in it. Instead, we turn to God in prayer in faith in God asking HIM to help us.
We can turn our own mind to think on that which God has done in our lives. We can be thankful to God. And when we do this, how can the devil continue to oppress us? Joy will be the result when we think on that which God has done for us.
Thus the apostle Paul says ... Phil. 2 ... 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
I take Ambium nightly and I have to go to medical doctor to get prescriptions. When I go in yearly to clear for this prescription, they give me pages of paper with many questions which I am to fill out. One section of the questions has to do with depression ... "you are depressed regularily, moderately, mildly" ... I do not choose any of these answers for they do not fit me. Instead I write the following at the side of the depression questions: "I am a Christian. When depression tries to come to me I stop and begin praying, asking God to help me, which HE does. Therefore I do not have regular, moderate, nor mild depression. I do not have any depression because I turn to God and HE helps me." This is the normal way for a Christian to live.
God is my "exceeding joy". By HIS Spirit God sends HIS light to lead me as I am on this earth. God led HIS people in the wilderness by a column of light that went before them to show them the way to go through the wilderness. God leads us today by "a column of light" from HIS Spirit by giving us HIS word on the matter at hand so we know the way to go on this present earth.
Psalm 43 ... 3 O send out Thy light and Thy truth:let them lead me;
Concerning suffering, the apostle Peter instructs us ...
I Peter 4 ... 12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ (the Word of God), happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you:on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.
16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God:and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.