Psa 89:46-52 “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound” – Part V: “for the time is at hand”

Psa 89:46 How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
Psa 89:47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
Psa 89:48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
Psa 89:49 Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?
Psa 89:50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
Psa 89:51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
Psa 89:52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

As we mentioned in Part 1 of this study a few weeks ago, this is one of the longer Psalms, so we took advantage of some of the natural breaks within the verses as we pieced together the hope that God intends us to receive via His Word.

“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound” can only be those of the age who have been blessed to be given the desire to read and hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein: “for the time is at hand”. The time is at hand for God’s people to be inspired, to be reproved and corrected, for instruction in righteousness, and all these other events that are at hand in the body of Christ right now!

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Psa 119:159 Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness (Joh 6:63).

This is why we are blessed today to read and hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein: because we are being ‘quickened’ or ‘saved’ by our LORD’S words according to His lovingkindness by grace through faith (1Co 15:45, Eph 2:8-9) which we’ve been granted to have in those eternal words.

Psa 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
Psa 119:161 Shin. Princes have persecuted me without a cause; But my heart standeth in awe of thy words. (ASV)

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: “for the time is at hand” .

Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Heb 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Luk 12:4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

God’s eternal reward for the saints, which is His good pleasure to give them, awaits them because they’ve come to acknowledge, by the grace and faith of God, that they cannot see without Christ, and they know they have been given the faith to forsake Egypt (the flesh and all that is in the world) through the endurance that God has granted us through Christ and his body which makes it possible for us to not be afraid of those who “kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” of (Luk 12:4).

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Another way we can look at how the world kills the body of Christ rather than just the obvious outward physical martyrdom that has occurred throughout the ages, is how the words of Christ, which are read, heard and kept in His body, have been attacked both within us and without as the Lord purifies those words via the many means which He uses, like the “wrath of the king” which we learn to not fear as we are spiritually healed and strengthened of our Lord to be able to drink the cup of His wrath. It is through our communion of suffering “Through faith he kept the passover” of Heb 11:28 that Satan is prevented from touching the first born, first fruits of Christ who Satan has always desired to destroy. It is through the righteous anger of Christ who is angry and sins not that the other king who we do fear, gives us dominion over our heavens so we don’t fear what man can do to our flesh (Rom 13:4, Mat 10:28, Luk 12:5).

Heb 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king (1Jn 4:18): for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Heb 11:28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
Mat 20:23 He saith unto them, My cup indeed ye shall drink: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left hand, is not mine to give; but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared of my Father.

1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? [Through faith he kept the passover.]

Rev 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. [Satan has always desired to destroy the elect (Mat 24:24, Php 3:18).]

This final part of this five-part study concludes with the subtitle “for the time is at hand” which, when we look at the cry for deliverance of which we know flesh is always in need, clearly “for the time is at hand” is a very apropos response to our fleshly weakness that must be constantly put off. It is always in our cry for deliverance that we are to be reminded “for the time is at hand”, and as we are strengthened, we are also reminded of our Lord’s faithfulness to never leave or forsake us in our time of need. Even when the world within and all the world without mocks Christ on the cross, that was all that we could do, and because our Lord did not retaliate, teaching us that through Him we can do the same thing (Mat 5:44, Mat 5:39), our confidence remains in the promises that tell us there truly is nothing that can separate us from God when He is our helper.

Psa 46:1 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psa 46:2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Psa 46:3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

Deu 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, [nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Psa 89:46 How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?

Whenever we see the words “How long, LORD?” the answer is always the same! The answer is ‘just long enough’. Imagine if it weren’t long enough, if God did not allow the world to be brought to the brink of destruction as we’re promised will happen (Mat 24:22). This pattern of intervention is the same over and over throughout God’s word and is there to give us hope, and through the storms and trials that bring us to our wits’ end, comes the perfection that God has always intended, the safe haven, the making straight that which is crooked, the new creation that is made beautiful in time and through time.

Ecc 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Ecc 3:10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
Ecc 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

That’s it – “no man can find out the work that God maketh” just like we’re not to let any man teach us, any carnal man (1Jn 2:27). But what does God say to those who are gaining dominion over that world of sin in their heart (1Jn 2:16) that blinds us to his purpose?

1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

The time is at hand for Christ’s body today to experience His wrath that burns like fire and to know that it is these fiery trials that God is using to save us through judgment and to bring clarity to our heavens so that we can know the deep things of God. This is the only way we can be established as the body of Christ (1Pe 4:12, 17).

Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Psa 89:47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?

We beseech God to remember how short our time is “for the time is at hand” and that we don’t use this vain life to save it, but rather to lose it for each other. That is why we pray “teach me to number my days and apply my heart to wisdom”.

Mat 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Psa 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The wisest thing we can do is to show, out of a meek and quiet spirit, works that demonstrate that we are thinking of others first. This is the increase that we are praying for in the body of Christ that only God can grant (1Co 3:6, 1Th 3:12-13).

1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

1Th 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
1Th 4:12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

1Pe 3:16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

1Ti 1:18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
1Ti 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Psa 89:48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.

Carrying on with our theme about time, “for the time is at hand”, the psalmist asks “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?” which question can be answered several ways, but in every instance we will see that it is only the Lord who can deliver our souls from the grave, whether we live or die.

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom 14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

Therefore our blessing and benefit is that we live and die unto the Lord even as we die daily and consider ourselves dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 14:8, Joh 11:25, 1Co 15:31, Rom 6:11).

Psa 116:8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Psa 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Psa 6:4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
Psa 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Psa 22:20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

When we are alive in Christ, there will be thanks on our lips for the healing and the light which He gives our otherwise blind and deaf bodies, which can only bury the other blind and deaf bodies around us. There is no remembrance of God when we are the walking as the walking dead.

Luk 9:58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Luk 9:59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Luk 9:60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

We will all see death in the sense that we die daily, and most of humanity will die with relatively very few physically alive and resurrected when Christ returns. The point therefore is not to look at the physical question of life and death but to understand how God wants us to look at physical life and death in the spiritual realm.

When we find ourselves doing this, it gives us great reason to pause [Selah], because we start to realize, as we focus in on these questions, just how fleeting this shadow of the valley of death is in which we exist for now, and more importantly how faithful our Father is to provide for us a means to be redeemed as His banished kind of first fruits.

Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psa 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life[in Christ]: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

2Sa 14:14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

1Pe 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

Psa 89:49 Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?

To answer the question “where are thy former lovingkindnesses”, we can easily go to Psa 25:1-12 and read it verbatim to give us an excellent answer that ties into the reason that we must show our works out of a meek and quiet spirit that we talked about earlier (1Pe 3:4).

Psa 25:1 A Psalm of David. Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
Psa 25:2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.
Psa 25:3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
Psa 25:4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
Psa 25:5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
Psa 25:6 Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
Psa 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.
Psa 25:8 Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
Psa 25:9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
Psa 25:10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

God has sworn unto David ‘in thy truth’ of this lovingkindness which was a type and shadow of His love for the church, for the little flock whose good pleasure it is for Him to give the kingdom (Luk 12:32).

Psa 89:50 Remember, Lord, the reproach^H2781 of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;

We are surrounded by the bulls of Bashan as Christ was both within and without (Psa 22:12, Luk 23:36), and so we are outnumbered, we are sore pressed on every side (2Co 4:8), but to what end? Of course it is to demonstrate that these reproaches which God allows to come upon his servant is for our growth as we are able to endure them through Christ (Php 4:13, Php 2:13).

Through Christ we bear in our bosom all the mighty people, all the world who is against us, because they cannot receive the words of life that we know are going to destroy our first man Adam little by little within, until we narrowly escape through Christ and go unto perfection on the third day.

Joh 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mat 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

God remembers our reproaches^H2781 (Mat 10:29), and He is the one who is causing them and allowing us to be a hit target of the adversary from time to time to help us mature and learn to not lean unto our own understanding but only on Him, to eventually and over time quench all the fiery darts of the adversary.

Mat 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
Mat 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

2Co 1:9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

H2781 cherpâh kher-paw
– Definition:
1. reproach, scorn
a. taunt, scorn (upon enemy)
b. reproach (resting upon condition of shame, disgrace)
c. a reproach (an object)
– Strong’s: From H2778; contumely disgrace the pudenda: – rebuke reproach (-fully) shame.
Total KJV Occurrences: 73
•rebuke, 2
Isa_25:8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
Jer_15:15 O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.

•reproach, 65
Gen_30:23; Gen_34:14; Jos_5:9; 1Sa_11:2; 1Sa_17:26; 1Sa_25:39; Neh_1:3; Neh_2:17; Neh_4:4; Neh_5:9; Job_19:5; Psa_15:3; Psa_22:6; Psa_31:11; Psa_39:8; Psa_44:13; Psa_69:7; Psa_69:10; Psa_69:19; Psa_69:20; Psa_71:13; Psa_78:66; Psa_79:4; Psa_79:12; Psa_89:41; Psa_89:50; Psa_109:25; Psa_119:22; Psa_119:39; Pro_6:33; Pro_18:3; Isa_4:1; Isa_30:5; Isa_51:7; Isa_54:4; Jer_6:10; Jer_20:8; Jer_23:40; Jer_24:9; Jer_29:18; Jer_31:19; Jer_42:18; Jer_44:8; Jer_44:12; Jer_49:13; Jer_51:51; Lam_3:30; Lam_3:61; Lam_5:1; Eze_5:14; Eze_5:15; Eze_16:57; Eze_21:28; Eze_22:4; Eze_36:15; Eze_36:30; Dan_9:16; Dan_11:18(2); Hos_12:14; Joe_2:17; Joe_2:19; Mic_6:16; Zep_2:8; Zep_3:18

•reproaches, 1
Psa_69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

•reproacheth, 1
Psa_74:22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.

•reproachfully, 1
Job_16:10

•shame, 3
2Sa_13:13; Isa_47:3; Dan_12:2

Psa 89:51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

There’s no denying it, even as we are the apple of God’s eye (Zec 2:8), we are also continually in spiritual battle against a roaring lion which God created to be the very good adversary that he is (Eph 6:12, 1Pe 5:8).

The enemy reproaches “the footsteps^H6119 of thine anointed” to remind us that it is our walk, our conversation, our way of life in the Lord that is constantly under attack, and it reminds us why we must be watchmen and shepherds to one another who look well to the flock as overseers.

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel^H6119.

Eze 33:2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
Eze 33:3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Eze 33:4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Eze 33:5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

1Pe 5:2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

Psa 89:52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

We are so blessed to have eyes and ears that see and hear and know that the the time is at hand (Mat 13:16), and so we bless the Lord and will bless Him throughout that transition period when the saints shall rule all nations under Christ and be able to share in gathering in the later harvest as God’s kind of first fruit, saviours, who will have praise and thanksgiving on their lips and say “Amen, and Amen” “for the time is at hand”.