Citadel

5 min read

29 But as for me, afflicted and in pain—may your salvation, God, protect me.
30 I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.
31 This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hooves.

Psalm 69:29-31

Some people might object and complain: If God is so good, then why am I afflicted and in pain in the first place?

And that is actually a good question. Because God never meant for His loved ones to be afflicted and in pain in the first place.

After God had created everything and then seeded the earth with His image-bearers, He saw that everything that He made was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). And that state of being “very good” is described in part in Revelation:

4 “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Revelation 21:4

There will be no more affliction or pain or even death because there will be no more sin. The curse of sin will be no more.

But for now, we experience pain and affliction because the curse of sin has not yet run its course. And so is it right to question and blame God for something we started and continue to perpetuate?

Yet even so, it pleases God to rescue us from our pain and affliction. And it pleases God even more so to save us from the curse of sin.

It pleases God when we understand these things and recognize His hand of mercy and grace upon us, and it pleases God when we confess His holiness and “continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess His name” (Hebrews 13:15).

In Christ Jesus, the people of God are Zion. Generation to generation, our children receive an inheritance of salvation, “and those who love his name will dwell there” (verse 36b).

Father, despite whatever pain and affliction this world throws at me, Your salvation has protected me. You have given me an inheritance in Your kingdom, and so I will build a citadel of praise. In Jesus’s name. Amen.