My Dear Friend,

In Psalm 12, David recorded his urgent visceral cry for rescue: "Help, Lord" (Psalm 12:1)! Then he prophesied the Lord's promise to rise and respond: "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise . . . [and] set him in safety" (Psalm 12:5). But there's more in this text.

In his record of God's response, David also described his spiritual condition at the time. He was "poor" and "needy," or wholly dependent on God's help. He was "sighing" from the effects of his prolonged sufferings. And David called these sufferings "oppression." Or to put is more clearly, David was being crushed!

The Hebrew word for "oppression" (sōd) is a very intense word describing violent action that devastates something completely. Weymouth translates, "The weak are being crushed" (Psalm 12:5); or, in modern English, pulverized! This expresses exactly what David was trying to say. Our English word "oppression" is derived from the Latin "oppressiō" which means "action of pressing on or overpowering." So, when David's sufferings were almost over, and his deliverance near, he said he felt pressed on, crushed, overpowered.

Indeed, "oppression" describes a pressing down of soul or spirit caused by long affliction, injustice, sickness, injury, pain, or delayed hope. During this period of oppression, David was being crushed by years of cruel injustice and unrelenting, deadly persecution at the hands of his own father-in-law, King Saul.

David was ever fleeing from Saul's ever-pursuing soldiers. Every few days David found himself hastily moving from one cave or spring to another. Scraping together just enough food for his 600 men to survive. Experiencing painful betrayals by people he had graciously rescued from harm. Suffering vile insults from the rich and powerful Nabal, whose large flocks David's men had protected free of charge. Even weathering a surprising revolt from his own men at Ziklag.

As these wearying years of heaviness passed, God gave not the slightest outward indication that He would release David - though daily David enjoyed sweet, sustaining fellowship with Him in prayer, uplifting times of praise and worship, and nourishing meditation in His Word, day and night, in the "secret place" (Psalm 91:1). But as time passed, David's soul-burden increased. Eventually, the "oppression" caused by the combination of his constant injustice and God's delayed help began to crush David. He was in a circumstantial "pulverizer." Literally, he was being "reduced to fine particles." Or, reduced to dust! Why dust?

God's wisdom was present and working in David's mad sufferings. God was preparing David to be raised up and used, but David first had to be in a condition in which God could safely and productively promote him. David described this condition in Psalm 113:7: "He raises up the poor out of the dust." Before David could be increased, he had to be reduced - his human pride reduced to fine particles of humble dust. For this, God sent His "crusher" - approximately a decade of defeat, injustice, affliction, and delayed help - into the son of Jesse's previously blessing- and success-charmed life.

"Couldn't God have done this an easier way?" you ask. Yes, but David would never have produced such a large amount of rich, kingdom fruit as Israel's greatest king, bravest warrior, and most inspired writer and musician. Without his reduction, he could have yielded God no production. In John the Baptist's words, David had to decrease, so God could increase in his life and through it (John 3:30). If David had been spared crushing, we would have been denied all the blessing that flowed from David's tender heart, exemplary acts, and life-giving words. What does all this mean to us?

Simply this: we, too, must experience our "crushers" if we aspire to bear God much fruit. We see this lesson in nature and in grace.

In this natural world, an assortment of crushers, pulverizers, and grinders reduce rock, coal, and feed so these substances may "bear fruit." Without crushed rock, there is no gravel for our concrete buildings, bridges and roadways, or paths and driveways. Without pulverized coal, there is no fuel to fire our massive electrical power plants. Without ground feed, our farm animals would starve - and we would, too! So, blessed be the crushers that bear all this natural fruit!

Spiritually, every born-again, Spirit-filled Christian is slated for his or her appointment with the "crusher": a Davidic season of adversity in which trouble, defeat, or injustice persists and, strangely, God delays His manifest deliverance. What does God do in us in our crushers?

Our season in God's pulverizers reduces us in both negative and positive areas. Some parts of us, those God cannot use, are totally crushed and destroyed forever. Other parts of us, those which are implanted through salvation, are only partially crushed to make them perfectly suited for God's use.

We will refer to these as negative and positive crushings. Negatively, all sin and self must undergo pitiless smashing, until rendered as dead as dust.

"Sin" is any thought, word, action, or omission contrary to God's known will. God will keep pounding away, blow after blow, with Spirit-induced conviction, the correction of pastors and elders, and, when necessary, love-inspired corrective punishments, until sin is pulverized - dead, dusty, unable to control us any more.

"Self" is all the many-faceted expressions of our essential fallen nature: self-serving, self-promotion, self-guidance, self-dependence, selfishness, and any other thing that puts self-interest before Christ's interests. These, too, must be systematically pounded until they are so crushed (mortified) they never rise again to disrupt what God wants to do in and through us.

Positively, the raw divine substances implanted in us in our New Birth and Baptism with the Holy Spirit - Christ's nature and the Spirit's fullness - must also be broken through sustained sufferings until fully useable for our King and His present "kingdom" - believers in Jesus Christ!

The pure "kernel" of the Christ life within must be broken in the mills of life until it is reduced to fine particles. Only then can God make our life examples, messages, and ministerial counsels nourishing bread to feed His desperately hungry people strengthening insights from His Word.

The pure "grapes" and "olives" of the Spirit given from heaven's vineyard and olive tree above must be crushed in situational winepresses and olive presses below - where God uses rough, ordinary people's feet to trample us and heavy troubles to steadily press us with repeated unfairness, cold indifference, unwarranted criticisms, shocking slander, and even hateful revilings, all divinely permitted to thoroughly humble us. Only then may our spiritual grapes and olives, Christ's nature and Spirit within, split and release the precious wine and oil of spiritual life - in loving the unlovable, forgiving and forbearing with offenders, inspiring testimonies, life-changing sermons, insightful Bible teachings, timely encouragements, gifts of the Spirit, charitable deeds, and acts of Christ's compassionate power.

Many Bible characters experienced God's crushers. Hannah's and Elisabeth's human pride, as well as their kernels of divine faith, were crushed during their long years of barrenness. Moses' self-led wisdom and initiatives were pulverized until, after 40 years, they fell, crushed to dust and forever lost in the sands of Midian. Job's prideful self-defense was pounded relentlessly by his hostile friends' unyielding false accusations - until he "repented in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Paul's unuseful Pharisaic religious ambition, and his useful godly desires to help the church, were thoroughly crushed during his decade of unexplained disuse and delay in Tarsus.

One day, however, these divinely chosen ones' season of crushing ended and their season of fruit came! Fabulous fruit! Famous fruit! Enduring fruit! Sweet wine and healing oil that flowed without ceasing!

Hannah birthed Samuel, who shepherded Israel and guided David. Elisabeth bore John the Baptist, Christ's forerunner and Israel's preparer. Moses gave Israel signs and wonders, led the great Exodus, wrote the Law, and built the tabernacle - and brought down God's glory to live among His people! Job gave us the greatest example of life in God's crusher, so we could ponder it, learn from his obedience and failures, and endure our crushers victoriously. And Paul gave us an amazing example of selfless ministry, much of our New Testament, groundbreaking mysteries, and a plethora of special prophecies about the rapture, Antichrist, the Tribulation, and Christ's triumphant return. Oh, my, blessed be their crushers! They have enriched us immeasurably with innumerable blessings obtainable in no other way!

And blessed be your crushers! Without their grinding, splitting, and pressing, you have nothing to minister. Why? However well educated, excellently mentored, and experienced in religious work we may be, there is no living bread, no sweet wine of the Spirit, no dynamic oil of the Spirit's mighty power in us. That is, until we endure God's crushers. Why? No decrease, no increase. No pressing, no fruit. No crusher, no ministry.

Have you suffered long in your crusher? Has God delayed your desperately needed help, despite your countless faith-filled prayers day and night? Then ponder these truths. Inhale them deeply into your soul. Believe them. And stand fast in this faith. Stay your course by continuing your uncompromising obedience and trust. Most importantly, draw near God in the middle of your crusher every morning, to draw out fresh, reviving life from His presence and Word sufficient to meet the challenges of every new day. And never forget that your deliverance, though delayed, is sure. And coming soon: "For the oppression of the poor, [and] the sighing . . . now will I arise [to rescue him]" (Psalm 12:5).

So, look up! Fruit is coming. Fabulous fruit. Enduring fruit. In your life. And, yes, this vision is sure. It will not fail!

Looking up,

Dr. Greg Hinnant

GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES