It’s a short psalm, but it is remarkable. This psalm begins by asking us to praise God. “Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord.” Pretty clear. “Blessed be the name of the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore, from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” In this regard, God is inviting us to praise Him because we enjoy Him and we all praise what we enjoy.
As we begin to think about who God is and what He does in the world, then more and more we will feel a fountain of praise coming out of us. That’s what these next verses go to: “The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth.” So here is the point: He is the transcendent, almighty God who is so big and so above everything that He has to look down upon the universe, look down upon our galaxy, look down upon the earth, look down upon the land and into this world.
Now we get to see, of all the things that God chooses to glorify Himself as a mighty God, what does He choose to set his affections on and do what will magnify His name in our eyes? The Psalm says that: “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people. He gives the barren woman a home and makes her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord.” So of all the things that God could use or do to magnify His greatness in our eyes that we might praise Him, chief among those things is to take the barren woman and make her a glad mother. Isn’t that quite remarkable?
The pain of infertility is great. Throughout history, especially in the ancient biblical world, the shame of infertility has been an incredible burden that women have had to bear. Granting mothers children then was a way of lifting up the downcast, those who are shunned and bringing them into the circle of society. So when God heard the prayers of the infertile woman, He was doing something great for her and he was exalting Himself. That’s what we do. We’re all involved in a ministry that’s helping the barren woman have children. We’re helping women have babies that would otherwise be aborted.
The number one cause of infertility in the world today is abortion. In other words, God made us fertile and gave us children, but we abandoned them and are rendered incapable of having children. In China right now they’re even beginning to promote pro-life work or the encouragement of having babies as infertility protection. In other words, to protect the fertility of women, they’re encouraging women to go ahead and have their babies rather than to abort. It’s just an interesting approach to pro-life work in China. I’ll be back in China this year for the 31st time to help promote life in China. We’re going to use this language of fertility protection, and we’re going to go with the sense of God’s blessing that among all the things that God chooses to be praised for, among them is that He wants to help the barren woman have a child.
I want to encourage you to join us in this great work in the hardest places. I’ve written a booklet called The Moral Crisis of Abortion and World Missions. What’s the connection? I encourage you to go to our website to download and read it. Just expand your mind and your heart to what God is doing in bringing life to the neediest places. Thank you.