Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me. Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.
All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.
Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.
The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life— men without regard for you. But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant.
Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
Have you noticed that even people who don’t believe in God are beginning to wonder if the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters means that we’re nearing the end of the age?
I forget where I first heard that we all have a God shaped hole in our hearts and spend all our lives trying to fill it. In times like this the effort becomes more urgent as thinking people everywhere seek to understand the meaning of it all.
We’re not like the ancients with their plethora of pagan gods. Statues of wood and stone, planets, trees, birds and animals, you name it they worshiped it, because man intrinsically knows there’s someone greater than himself, someone who preceded him and produced him.
Today our gods are science, money, material possessions, ourselves, even random chance, and we worship them just like our ancestors worshiped theirs because that innate knowledge of something greater, that God-shaped hole, is still there.
All the behaviors that stemmed from the worship of gods back then are still evident in humankind today as man continues in his effort to find something, anything, to fill that hole in his heart.
But apart from our Creator Himself residing in our hearts nothing else will do. For among all these “gods” there is none like Him, no deeds can compare with His.
“I am God and there is no other.” He had Isaiah make this declaration on seven different occasions within the span of seven chapters. (Isaiah 42-48) And, “There were no gods before me and there will be none after me.” (Isaiah 43:10)
To prove Himself to us He said, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come.” (Isaiah 46:10) He said that no other so-called god could make this claim (Isaiah 44:6-8) and indeed none has.
Any comparison of prophecy to history will clearly reveal the presence of God. Many great and learned men, C.S. Lewis, Simon Greenleaf, and Josh MacDowell among them, have set out to prove once and for all that there is no God. The outcome of each investigation was the opposite, and each investigator became a believer and devoted the remainder of his life to spreading the word.
The Lord told us more about the times in which we live than any other in the long history of man. In answer to questions about the signs of His coming and of the End of the Age, He said there would be wars and rumors of wars, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famine and pestilence, and anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. He said that the frequency and intensity of these things would increase more and more as time grew short.
In the last few years, we’ve had more killer storms and earthquakes in the world than any time prior. The outbreak of famine and disease has experts warning that millions could soon die, the winds of war are blowing strong in the middle East, and another major terrorist strike in the US is called inevitable.
David asked for a sign of God’s goodness that his enemies would see and be put to shame, and today such a sign is about to manifest itself. For Jesus promised us, “When all these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28) So get ready for the Rapture. It’s the sign of His goodness in an age gone irretrievably bad. For the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. (2 Peter 2:9)