Mensa Otabil - The Lord Has Given Me a Testimony
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Psalm 40, verse 9: I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly; indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord; you yourself know. God wants us to testify of Him, and I believe that this week you have a lot to testify about. Throughout the 40 days of power, you have a lot to testify about, and you have to testify to what the Lord has done for you. That’s what David is proclaiming here: that we declare the testimony of the Lord, the good news of His righteousness in the great assembly, the great congregation. Here in the West, it refers to the largest assemblies of Israelites, and this would be at the big feast when they gather, whether it’s for Passover, Pentecost, or the Feast of Tabernacles. David says, when people are gathered, there is a great congregation; I will declare the testimony of the Lord. I pray that God will give you the place where you can declare what He has done for you.
Why do we have to testify of the Lord? We testify of the Lord to share our testimony with Him. Somebody might ask, why do we have to testify to the Lord? Because we have to go and say, «Thank you, Lord.» So when God does something for you, you have to testify to Him: «Say, Lord, thank you for doing this for me. Thank you for healing me. Thank you for giving me hope. Thank you for giving me life. Thank you for turning my life around.» We are testifying to the Lord; we tell the Lord what He has done for us, and it’s important.
The second thing is we testify to ourselves. Why do we have to testify to ourselves? Because we have to remind ourselves daily of what God has done for us. The songwriter says, «Count your blessings, name them one by one; it will surprise you what God has done.» You know, many times God does things for us, and we forget about them. We forget our testimony; we forget that the Lord delivered us last year and delivered us five years ago. But because we have a problem now, we forget all the good things God has done for us. So we need to testify to remind ourselves: testify to yourself, recount all the good things the Lord has done for you-when you were a teenager, when you were a kid, as you grew up-all the things He has done for you. Then your faith in Him will be strong for what He wants to do for you now.
So we testify to thank the Lord for what He has done; we tell Him our testimony. We tell ourselves our testimony so that we don’t forget the goodness of the Lord. Thirdly, we share our testimony with the world. Why do we have to do that? Because people need to know what God can do. There will always be people who need encouragement, and sometimes there are people who are where you are or where you used to be. In David’s case, he says, «I was in the miry clay, and God lifted me up and put me on a rock.» He had to testify to other people who feel that they are also in the mire.
If God did it for David, He will do it for me. People will reason in the same way. When they hear your testimony, they can then say, «If God did it for him, if God did it for her, God will do it for me.» So testify to the Lord to thank Him for what He has done. Testify to yourself to remember and not be discouraged. Testify to the world so that others will be encouraged to know the good things and the good deeds of the Lord. May the Lord continue to give you testimony after testimony in this new season we have entered into, in Jesus' name.
Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, thank You for all that You have done for me. I remember all Your goodness towards me. In Jesus' name, Amen.