Psalm 9:13
13 Have mercy [chanan] upon me, O LORD; [Yahovah] consider [ra'ah] my trouble [`oniy] which I suffer of them that hate [sane'] me, thou that liftest me up [ruwm] from the gates [sha`ar] of death: [maveth] KJV-Interlinear
13 Be gracious to me, O Lord; Behold my affliction from those who hate me, Thou who dost lift me up from the gates of death; NASB
David's prayer for grace, Gods plan and policy for mankind is grace.
God does all the work for the benefit of mankind. Man can neither earn nor deserve anything that he has. None of us can earn nor do we deserve anything that we have. God provided our genetics, our human life, our IQ, our ability, our circumstances of life. We had nothing to do with what we are, except for the volition that we present to God, either for or against Him and life.
If for God, then Bible doctrine shapes our thinking, and that is from God. If we are against or apathetic toward God, then our sin nature shapes our thinking and God in not in the darkness of our sin nature, therefore we are shaped by God by the mere absence of God and His Word.
Our failure is our fault. Our success is Gods credit.
God placed us in this world at this exact point in time of our individual lives. God knew that our lives would be shaped by the environment of today, the technology, the philosophy, the social interactions or lack of them, our career choice, and so forth. God gave us grace, a means of preserving our life despite our good or bad decisions.
We have afflictions merely by living in this world. The world is decaying. It was never designed to be eternal. The earth and the universe will one day be replaced, but for now we have it for better or worse.
In this earth are people, bureaucracies, natural disasters, not to mention our own thoughts. These four areas provide us with a limitless supply of affliction either from within ourselves or from without.
Bible doctrine is the solution of all such problems.
Who hates David? The same sources that hate each one of us. The world in general hates anything that is of God.
The world is a conspiracy, a conspiracy by definition, not by paranoia. Conspiracy is two or more involved in some activity. They conspire to conduct themselves in their 'chosen' pursuit. Anything that is anti-God is a pursuit, chosen by those who desire it and pursue it by their own volition. They do not have to be working in concert with each other, but merely pursuing the same pattern.
Therefore there is the conspiracy y defnintion, initiated by Satan, and pursued by many who have followed in his pattern of anti-God policy.
This is the source of our affliction. The world in not perfect nor fair. People are not perfect nor fair. We are the target of gossip, inordinate competition, social ostracism, politics in the office, and so forth.
When we succeed others will hate us. We may never know who they are, not even be aware of them. Yet too, we may be faced with their frontal bitterness against us, and we may have to endure their little tantrums and gossip assaults and games.
Thus David's prayer. Not a specific prayer targeted toward one specific individual but targeted toward the general direction of worldly pressures that only God can protect us from.
God alone lifts us up from the gates of death.
In salvation from the gates of the second death, the final judgment, the Great White Throne, which we will escape because we have believed in Jesus Christ.
In our spiritual life in this time we spend on earth, God protects us from a carnal death, a life without Bible doctrine in our souls. If we choose, of course, to study Gods Word on a regular basis. Then we are delivered from the bonds of our sin nature and that carnality which smothers a person in the dead productions of the sin nature.
A person is either carnal, negative toward God, or spiritual, positive toward God. We either live in carnality, out of fellowship, or in Gods power sphere, in fellowship in the spiritual life, through confession.
By salvation God delivers us from eternal separation from Him.
In our spiritual growth, God delivers us from the pressures of this life, from the fears, and frustrations, and anxieties that could overwhelm an unprepared person.
God lifts us up. He forgives and forgets our errors.
The world tries to remember all our mistakes, great or small, and attempts to remind us of our worthlessness. Others are always putting us down in order to advance themselves at our expense. God advances us despite our failures or circumstances.
Within the spiritual life there is doctrine, learning and understanding, and finally wisdom.
Wisdom leads to opportunities and ability.
Ability leads to innovation and success.
Success leads to promotion and prosperity.
Prosperity leads to wealth and happiness. And happiness, not by means of the things that you possess, but by means of all of the above which create the completed person within you. Doctrine by which is the cornerstone and building material of your soul.
From the world all of these steps exist as well, however from the world the only result is emptiness and nothingness. The world has no substance in reality.
Gods policy of Grace, is the only means to security and safety, and the completion of ones life, while still living within the adversities of this world.
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