Yesterday, I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I looked at a picture of children who were killed in my country, and I just didn’t have the words. On top of that, I saw a poster for a research project involving internal bodily biometrics. My mind was flooded, and I was carrying a heavy load of worries.
I listen to quite a lot of preachers. One day, David Jeremiah—who is a wonderful preacher—was attempting to help people see scriptures through the lens of the Psalms. Of course, if you belong to the house of David, you naturally see these things. In Revelation 3, scripture tells us exactly which churches are already arising in these last days. It occurred to me yesterday that God is always doing something powerful, even while the world is doing its own thing. Sometimes, when I am overwhelmed, I lose sight of that. While we cannot stop what is coming into the world, we must always fix our eyes on what is happening in the Kingdom of God.
Revelation 3 speaks of the churches: the church in Sardis, the Laodicean church, and the churches of Thyatira and Smyrna. It also speaks of the church in Philadelphia, which is holy and true, and holds the “key of David” (Revelation 3:7). If you don’t have the key of David, you cannot truly understand what the scriptures in the Psalms are saying; it will just seem like gibberish to you because you do not belong to the house of David. I have come to recognize fellow Christians by what comes out of their mouths. When people speak extensively on the Psalms, I know which church they belong to. Because of this, I am not really fazed by what is happening now—the church of the last days is already forming.
When I first encountered the Psalms, I always knew they were about praying for the church. Consider how God’s work with humanity evolved. From the time of Adam, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the relationship shifted. Adam didn’t get to fully walk out that journey because he fell into sin. The true, revealed walk of faith began with Abraham, the father of faith. God started with a single family, which later became a congregation, then a house, then a gathering when Jesus arrived, and finally metamorphosed into the church. That is why Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Jesus dealt with gatherings; we often saw Him on the mountainside with the multitudes. King David was the one who received the spiritual blueprint and picture of this house, but he passed that vision onto his son, Solomon, who ran with it to build the physical house of God.
Because you are of the house of David, you understand the things of David. Pastor David Jeremiah attempts to explain this to everyone, but not everyone in these last days will comprehend it—only those of the house of David. In his early years, King David possessed a profound heart for the poor and the sufferings of the weak. As a Christian, if you do not have that same heart, something is deeply wrong. I can recognize people who belong to the house of David because they mention it all the time and anchor themselves in these scriptures. I even know Christians whom I can recognize as belonging to the house of Simeon, because I can figure these things out. Where other people stand is not my concern.
Yesterday, amidst my overwhelming grief, I remembered the words of Psalm 74 and Psalm 75 before going to bed. This morning, I realized exactly what God was saying to me.
In Psalm 74:2, David writes: “Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.” David was asking God to lift up His fist against the perpetual desolation happening in the sanctuary. When I first saw this scripture, I thought it was simply a general prayer for the church. Now, I understand that it was a prayer of spiritual coverage for the church against the active works of the enemy.
The Psalm continues: “Thine enemies roar in the midst of your congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs. A man was famous according to as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees” (Psalm 74:4-5). In this context, the thickets represent the churches, and the famous, wealthy people of the world are lifting their hands against God’s congregation. David possessed such incredible resilience. The scripture laments how they “have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground” (Psalm 74:7). These powerful figures said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land” (Psalm 74:8). They wanted to eradicate everything associated with the house of God. David saw this in the spiritual realm, just as it physically manifested later during the times of the Apostle Paul and the Corinthian church.
David makes a powerful plea, asking why God withdraws His hand, even His right hand, pleading for Him to pluck it out of His bosom (Psalm 74:11). He reminds himself of God’s sovereignty: “For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth” (Psalm 74:12). He speaks of how God divides the sea by His strength and breaks the heads of the dragons in the waters, proving that God can shatter the head of even the most vicious spiritual beasts, like Leviathan. What can our God not do? He prepared the light, the sun, the day, and the night.
Listening to Pastor David Jeremiah talk about remembering the calling of God, I knew he had read these very Psalms. David is always saying “remember this” to those who walk faithfully.
The scripture notes: “Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name” (Psalm 74:18). In the Psalms, a fool is defined as one who says in their heart that there is no God (Psalm 14:1). David then cries out: “O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever” (Psalm 74:19).
A dove represents a pure, innocent person. The soul of a dove is like the soul of an innocent child. David had such a deep burden for the helpless and the poor within the house of God. As I meditated on this, I realized this was the exact scripture I needed to pray over our current reality. I used it to pray for the helpless people, the little doves, and the children who have been kidnapped: Lord, do not forget them.
Scripture says: “Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty” (Psalm 74:20). When you look at the world today, the darkness is filled with unspeakable cruelty inflicted upon the innocent. But David provides comfort: “O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily” (Psalm 74:21-22). When cruelty happens to the poor and vulnerable in the congregation of God, it is as if it is happening directly to us.
Psalm 75 brought me further comfort, showing that God does not just hear our suffering—He actively sees it. It begins with praise: “Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks… for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare” (Psalm 75:1). God promises, “When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it” (Psalm 75:2-3). God warns the fools not to deal foolishly, and tells the wicked not to lift up their horns.
We are reminded that “promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Psalm 75:6-7). God is in complete control. The Psalm describes a cup in the hand of the Lord, full of mixture, which He pours out, forcing the wicked of the earth to wring out the dregs and drink them (Psalm 75:8). Meanwhile, the horns of the righteous will be exalted.
Reading these Psalms washed a profound, supernatural peace over me. It wasn’t because the external circumstances or the tragic reality of those who were kidnapped had suddenly changed, but because I could finally pray about it through the Word. Knowing that God fully understood the weight on my mind gave me rest. That is the great peace we receive when we choose to look at what God is doing, in spite of all the chaos happening around us. I woke up this morning, stepped into prayer, and realized: even in a time like this, I still see God.
In the house of David, they suffer why will anyone want to come to a house of Philadelphia where there is suffering. I think King David made it so because he suffered most of his life and bared burden for his people and his criteria is the same as Jesus’ suffering for righteousness’s sake. You will know each house/church by their characteristics open your eyes.