In Psalms, chapter thirty-eight, verse twenty-one, the one terrible consequence of wilful sin is the loss of God’s fellowship and the sense of His presence, as in Psalms twenty-two, verse nineteen, Psalms thirty-five, verse twenty-two, and Psalms seventy-one, verse twelve, respectively. It is a grievous and bitter experience to commit wilful sin after knowing the mercy of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The theme under “The Burden of Suffering” examines how the righteous continue to live for God under the circumstances of the ungodly surrounding them. Verse twenty before the subject matter declares, “They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.” The trap the devil regularly uses through the ungodly to set against the saints of God in an attempt for the godly to commit wilful sin. Society today is challenging enough to deal with because no one can tell what the day may bring except for the Almighty God. However, the trials and tribulations in everyday life and the additional temptations and enticing force of the evil one and his agents are more than enough for a believer to handle.
“Be not far from me” is the hope of the believer when they stay in contact with God, asking, “Forsake me not, Oh Lord.” The theme’s importance declares the believer’s consistency of being connected to the Holy One in prayer inside the heart because the enemy’s motive is to steal, kill, and destroy. Why? To avoid the opening statement of this theme, “the terrible consequence of wilful sin is the loss of God’s fellowship and the sense of His presence.” The devil knows about all this because he was once there before being kicked out of heaven due to his motive of desiring to be above God.