Being a Witness of God Grace

 

Psalm 71:12-24

 

July 9, 2022

 

O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!   May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;   with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt.  But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.   My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,  of your deeds of salvation all the day,   for their number is past my knowledge.   With the mighty deeds of the  Lord  God, I will come;   I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.   O God, from my youth you have taught me,   and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.  So even to old age and gray hairs,   O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation,   your power to all those to come.  Your righteousness, O God,  reaches the high heavens.  You who have done great things,  O God, who is like you?

You who have made me see many troubles and calamities   will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth, you will bring me up again.  You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.  I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre,   O Holy One of Israel.  My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you;   my soul also, which you have redeemed.   And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.

 

One of the most potent Scriptures on God’s grace and forgiveness comes from the book of Beginning, Genesis 50:19-20.  “But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

 

It is amazing the choices we have, on the day his brothers threw Joseph in that pit till they sold him to slave traders, he might not have had this insight and this forgiveness.  No God had more to teach him in the area of what God can do with a man who is exalted from slave to head of Potiphar’s the captain of the guard for Pharaoh, and we are told in 39:3-4, “And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.  And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.”  Then along came the lust for this young good-looking Hebrew by none other than the wife of Potiphar and Joseph went from big shot to prison.  Once more God's hand was on Joseph and the head of the prison put him in charge of the prisoners.  Two guys that had served Pharaoh were now in prison, the king's cupbearer and the head baker.  They both had dreams and Joseph gave them the interpretation of the dreams.  All he asked of them was to remember him to the Pharaoh, we know it did not go well for the chief baker, but the chief cupbearer forgot all about Joseph for years, till one day Pharaoh had a dream, and no one could tell him the meaning.  Joseph came to the mind of the cupbearer and he told the King what Joseph had done, and once more he was exalted to the top man in the kingdom and only Pharaoh was over him.

 

What can we who have been done wrong learn from this account of grace and forgiveness?  It may be we have more to experience before we can say to that person or persons you meant it for harm but God has used it for good in my life. Unlike God, we cannot see around the curve of our main street, those tall buildings block our view of what waiting for us.   But God is over the main street of our lives and if you will receive the grace and forgiveness of our Lord, you will be able to say like Joseph, you meant it for harm but God has used it for good.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice