Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Faithful Have Vanished

Such is the title of Psalm 12. Now I have read this
psalm many times, but today I saw something new.

Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone
for the faithful have vanished from
among the children of man...

Because the poor are plundered
because the needy groan
"I will now arise," says the Lord,
"I will place him in the safety for which he longs."

On every side the wicked prowl
as vileness is exalted among the 
children of men.
Psalm 12:1,5,8

"The faithful have vanished." For the first time I
understood this to mean that someone was wailing
to God because the faithful were not there. This
psalm of David was being prayed by a person who
was appalled that the godly man was gone and the
wicked had free reign.  It is a picture of the rapture
tucked into the Old Testament, followed by the
tribulation. This same David wrote Ps 22 which is
a picture of the crucifixion.

Reader, I read this psalm on April 12, which is
Passover. The Jews celebrate passover every year
in memory of the night that God delivered them
from bondage in Egypt. I have not been reading
from the psalms, but decided to go there today. I
have read this psalm many times but have never
understood who vanished and why. God hides
patterns in the scripture so that we have the delight
of searching them out. Read I Thes. 4:13-18 where
Paul teaches about the rapture and ends with,
"Comfort one another with these words."

Here are the words of Jesus:
Matt 24:44--...you be ready, for the Son of Man is 
coming at an hour you think not.
Matt 25:13--Be on the alert then, for you do not
know the day or hour. 
Luke 21:34--Be on guard, don't be weighed down
and that day come on you suddenly like a trap.
Luke 21:36--But keep on the alert at all times,
praying in order that you ay have strength to escape
these things that are about to take place...

The hour is late. Take some time to ask the Lord if
there is anything you need to do to get ready for
His coming. Things to take off and things to put on.
See Galatians 5, especially verses 16-26. 

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