Mensa Otabil - God Will Intervene (11/01/2025)
Psalm 4:6: There are many who say, «Who will show us any good?» Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us. As you know, this Psalm is tracking the life of David, and it is happening at a time when there is a big rebellion going on in his kingdom. His son Absalom has gathered people, and they are now getting rid of David.
As more and more people joined Absalom against David, David’s camp began to feel very discouraged, in despair and despondent, because every day they would hear that some important person had joined Absalom. Every day, it would seem as if some trusted advisor had broken ranks, and so they were hearing bad news after bad news after bad news.
The servants of David, or the people around David, started asking, «Who will show us any good? Who will be favorable to us?» So David repeats their words and he says, «There are many who say, 'Who will show us any good? '» There are many other people around him, and it happens in life sometimes when people get discouraged around us, or people around us start spreading words of discouragement, and other people pick it up. Before you realize it, everybody is saying the same thing. There’s so much despair, and people are giving up hope. It looks as if, although you are trying to salvage a situation, everybody has just lost hope.
So that’s where David is, and it seems as if there is a long streak of failure coming their way. They are just losing after losing, and they don’t seem to catch any break. Would they ever have a favorable break? If you’ve ever asked that question, where it looks like so much despair surrounds you and you’re wondering, «Will things ever turn around for me? Will somebody just be good to me? Will somebody be kind to me? Will somebody come and help me?»
So when David says that, in the next sentence he says, «Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us.» The people of David are complaining, but David prays to God and says, «God, smile on us; lift up the light of your countenance upon us.» That statement was part of the Priestly blessing in Israel. It simply means, in today’s words, «Lord, look favorably upon us» or «Lord, smile on us.» Just do something nice; turn your attention on us and let something good happen to us.
So David says, «Lord, everybody says nobody will do us good, but I look up to you to do me good. I look up to you to smile on me and to treat me well. Turn your countenance upon us, O Lord.»
Today, I just want to pray for you if you are in that situation, feeling that no good thing is happening to you. May the Lord smile on you and turn His countenance upon you. We can learn from David that even though people around us may be discouraged, we have to learn to encourage ourselves in the Lord. The way we encourage ourselves in the Lord is instead of joining the complaint, we address our thoughts to the Lord and ask God to do something for us: «Lord, smile upon us " or «Turn your countenance upon us.» The eyes of the Lord are able to break through the darkness and bring light, and although we may be surrounded by so much darkness, the light of the Lord will break through, and the light of the Lord and His countenance will shine upon you.
So as people ask, «Who would do us any good?» our response is that the Lord God will. He will turn His countenance upon us. Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, your presence with me is more than thousands against me. Smile with favor upon me. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»