LORD, WHO IS LIKE YOU? ~ Psalm 35

How does the Lord bring our hearts filled with pain and suffering to a place of trust? How do we get from the immediate reactions of our flesh to an abiding hope-filled place of praise in our spirits? Biblical lament takes us on this journey where we move from our complaints to confidence in God. At the very beginning of my prison trial, the Lord directed my heart to Psalm 62. At once, I knew He was calling me to wait and trust. A monumental feat in the flesh, and strange to its reasoning as well, one would tend to think that the sooner the Lord would respond to our pleas for help, the greater our trust. Over time, I realized the faulty logic in that statement because my relationship with Him has been developed over time as I have learned and am learning to trust Him. My relationship with Him is based on a history of His steadfast faithfulness to me. It is good to wait upon the Lord for all the blessings we gain along the way. Psalm 62—My soul waits in silence for God only. From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will you assail a man, that you may murder him, all of you, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? They have counseled only to thrust him down from his high position. They delight in falsehood. They bless with their mouth but inwardly they curse. Selah. My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. Selah. Men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie; in the balances they go up. They are together lighter than breath. Do not trust in oppression and do not vainly hope in robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart upon them. Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God; and lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, for You recompense a man according to his work. In Mark Vroegop’s book, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, he says that “lament helps us to practice active patience even as the trial continues. Lament is how we endure. It is how we trust. It is how we wait.”¹

Something that I had a difficult time explaining in my book—but knew with all my heart was sure and certain truth—Rebekah Eklund has put into words. In his book, Mark Vroegop quotes Ms. Eklund, “The prayer of lament rejoices in God’s saving actions in the now and hopes urgently for God’s saving actions in the future, the ‘not yet’ of the eschatological timeline…Those who lament stand on the boundary between the old age and the new and hope for things unseen.”² I can know that I have been vindicated and delivered as I wait for future vindication and deliverance. My waiting is not passive, but active. As I do so, I am still trusting; and my faith continues to grow.

Psalm 35:9-10—And my soul shall rejoice in the LORD; it shall exult in His salvation. All my bones will say, “LORD, who is like You, Who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, and the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?” Here, we see it. As David recalled to mind God’s faithfulness to Israel, he repeats a phrase sung by Moses and the children of Israel after the LORD had cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the Red Sea. Along with his army, the choicest of his officers were also drowned. In reverent awe, the Israelites cried out, “Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed.” Micah 7:7-8—But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I dwell in darkness, the LORD is a light for me. Then, in verse 18—Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. David was still in the midst of his painful trial in Psalm 35 but still trusting. I was still in prison when I was lamenting through what I knew to be true even though the facts of my circumstances might have called my whole belief system into question. Lament is the pathway between a painful reality and our hopeful longings of faith. Faith is the confident conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1-2—Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. We do, too. We walk by faith even in long trials…ESPECIALLY in long trials! The very firm foundation upon which believers stand is the revelation of Jesus Christ. He is steadfast and faithful, and He will do what He has promised.

In Psalm 35:9, the psalmist is giving thanks for expected deliverance and vindication. Notice he says that his soul shall rejoice in the Lord and exult in His salvation. He does not say his soul will rejoice at the fall of his enemies. The joy is in his deliverance which is coming. We are never to rejoice in the ruination of our enemies. Proverbs 24:17-18—Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; or the LORD will see it and be displeased and turn His anger away from him. While this is always sinful, it is never wrong to give thanks for our deliverance. I don’t know this to be a fact, but I would suggest that perhaps one of the reasons the Lord does not deliver us from our enemies quickly is not only an act of patience and kindness in which the Lord extends His mercy to them, but so that He can lead us to where our hearts need to be. Our flesh reacts to injustice and oppression in a way that would rejoice if the enemy were to fall too quickly resulting in our vindication and deliverance. As we move through this process of lament, we begin to weigh God’s choice blessings to us throughout the trial. Embracing the trial from His hands in humble submission to His sovereign plan for us, He draws us to Himself and we experience His love in a deeper, richer way than ever before. Nothing else can compare to that love. As His love overflows from our hearts to those who have made themselves enemies over us, it is then we are able to pray for their souls honestly from the heart. 

The language of verse 10 takes us back to Psalm 34:19-21—Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. (Condemned is held guilty, as we looked at earlier). Bones seem to represent the indestructible life. It is said that bones represent resurrection in Jewish tradition. Whatever harm befalls the righteous in this life, it cannot harm his or her soul. Jude 24 says: Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Eternity is forever; thus, our soul is of utmost importance. These passages are saying that while the LORD does not keep the righteous from trials, He keeps them in trials by preserving and guarding them. The righteous are always under God’s own protection. The wicked who believe they are protected by their wealth, power, or status, have no such ultimate protection. If all our bones are crushed physically, death of the physical body most likely will occur. Crushed by the burdens of our troubles and danger, the Lord is able to lift them from us and walk away stronger than we were before as He heals and restores our very souls. As I watched my son walk out of prison, that hard-pressed reality was never more known in my soul. The trouble I thought had weakened me and crippled me caused my faith to grow legs of steel. Nothing crushes a mother like the suffering of her child.

Who is like You, Lord? Who can bring deliverance like God? Isaiah 40:27-31—Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

Psalm 35:10—All my bones will say, “LORD, who is like You Who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, and the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?” How often did I pray this prayer from 2 Chronicles 20:12—O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” Who can bring deliverance like God? No one can. The afflicted are those crushed by a trial. The ones who are too strong for the afflicted and the needy are the stout, severe, mighty, hard, impudent, loud, and stiff-hearted. Him who robs him means to tear away, seize, plunder, take away by force, violence, to catch, to flay or strip. As I write each of things, the details that come to my mind specifically relating to my situation are not important because He knows it all. He knows that I now know Him more than I did before. Psalm 18:17—He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. Isaiah 61:10—I will rejoice greatly in the LORD. My soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

¹ Vroegop, Mark. Dark Clouds Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019.

² Eklund, Rebekah. “Lord, Teach Us How to Grieve: Jesus’ Laments and Christian Hope,” (ThD diss., Duke Divinity School, 2012)