By: Jeffrey Jo
Reflection passage: Psalm 37
God works in mysterious ways. This has been an enduring truth in the lives of His people from the old testament all the way to the new testament times.
He even declared in Isaiah 55:8-9 :
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
This may have been in the thoughts of David when he penned Psalm 37. The chapter context deals about the temptation to question God’s sovereignty in the light of his observations that the wicked had “successful lives” while the righteous seems to always live under fear and anxiety. He wrote this Psalm in his older years, and he remembered his own share of anxiety and fear during his younger years, and for reasons known only to God, God allowed the most powerful man in their land to relentlessly pursue him to end his life all because of envious insecurity. David hid from Saul’s anger for 17 years, hiding from one town to another, from one cave to another cave… and yet, he put his confidence to The Rock that is higher than his challenging circumstances. He penned these:
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him” (verses 23-24).
And true enough that when Saul died, David became the next king of Israel. It was not David’s ambition to be the next king of Israel, but it was surely God’s ordained program for his life and for His glory.
Human as we are, we are prone to fear and worries. How can we not worry when …
• … we have been diagnosed with cancer while our children are still in their junior years.
• … our income falls short of our house payment, home utility bills and the like.
• … our parent’s job got terminated while we are in our 4th year college and is about to graduate next semester.
How can David not worry when he was being pursued by his king along with his elite army? That’s where David converted his fear into faith, his worry into worship, surrendering his circumstances to the One who made heavens and earth, and the one Who will establish and uphold his life. AW Tozer once wrote: “To the child of God, there is no such thing as an accident. He travels an appointed way… accidents may indeed appear to befall him and misfortune stalk his way; but these evils will be so in appearance only and will seem evils only because we cannot read the secret script of God’s hidden providence” (We Travel An appointed Way, 1988, page 3).
Beloved, let us not nail our eyes on the problem before you but rather look beyond it and trust that God has established your future and will surely uphold you today… and forever. Romans 8:32 declares, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
Let us all put our confidence to Him Who can do what we cannot, for He is God and we are not… yet we are loved.
