Again, Comfort (Psalm 71:21)

 


Wednesday, May 28, 2025


Psalm 71

Exodus 40:17-38

John 15:1-11


Again, Comfort (Psalm 71:21)


You will increase my greatness
    and comfort me again.


Once you start looking for Jesus in the Old Testament, you start seeing him everywhere. And this Psalm, which is a prayer of comfort in time of affliction, begins to sound awfully like Jesus during his Passion if you read it in his voice.


Since we are in Christ by faith, we can join our voice to his in such prayers and pray them through him for ourselves. And what assurance we have when we do so!


Whatever troubles we go through in this short life, we know that Jesus copped it worse, when he drank the cup of God’s wrath down to its dregs. We also know that Jesus’ tender heart towards his people means that, when we do go through our own troubles, he knows exactly how bad it is for us. His heart is filled with compassion for us, and he continually intercedes on our behalf – and we even get to pray his prayers for ourselves.


In the depths of his agony, Jesus boldly proclaimed that God would increase his greatness and comfort him again. When he rose from the tomb, his greatness was increased in the sight of all people, and God’s comfort not only returned, but now surrounds him, flows through him, and flows from him, as he now sits in heaven as the God-Man.


Just as all that is certain about Jesus, so too is it about us. God will increase our greatness, because Christ’s greatness was increased. God will comfort us again, and again, and again, because Christ is ascended and now sits at the right hand of the Father.


When was your greatness diminished? When was it increased? When did God’s comfort seem to leave you? How did it return?


Great God who comforts us: return to us again and again, as the storms of this life rage and sway us, so that we may keep our eyes on our Lord Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

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