“Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbours, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. For I hear the whispering of many—terror on every side!—as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand…” – Psalm 31:11-15.

WHAT A POSITION for David to be in – forgotten, forsaken, despised, all comfort stripped from him. David had hit rock-bottom; all hope seemed to be extinguished. Indeed, “terror was on every side”, but despite all this, David still declared, “But I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand.”

You, who are called by name, by the Sovereign Lord, can still dare to trust though every last strand of hope is ‘cut off’, just as with Paul who endured “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned” (Acts 27:20).

“Trust Him at all times” (Psalm 62:8). That accounts for every occasion that befalls you. Even when mistakes are made, God is still to be trusted. Even through our foolishness God is still to be trusted. Is it all of grace or just some parts? This is not to excuse sin or justify it. The same goodness and mercy that followed David is the kind that will pursue us all the days of our life. “Trust Him at all times”, even when those sinking moments of anxiety and panic overwhelm you and those feelings of having blown it take the wind out of you – yes, even in those times of feeling an absolute wretch and failure and that the worst instead of the best is yet to be. Those dreaded moments when even your close Christian friends act more like Job’s ‘comforters’ and insinuate that something must be wrong because deliverance has not come only adds further weight to adversity. All hope stripped and the strong sense of a firm foundation beneath you is swept away, where you only have but one option to cast yourself upon the mercy of God and commit your spirit into His hands, especially at a time when trying to understand only grieves instead of reassuring; condemns instead of consoling – “O afflicted one, stormed tossed and not comforted…” God knows. God knows. God knows –

GOD KNOWS –

He is so fully and perfectly aware of what grieves you, the weight(s) of certain burdens that reach crushing point, where you sometimes feel you can barely breathe because of immense conflict. He is with you in it; He is bringing you through it. Of course you cannot fathom how God will wondrously (miraculously) bring you into a ‘broad place’ of once again rejoicing with a joy that sets our spirit soaring in adoration and worship, “I shall yet praise Him again” and you most certainly shall.

Has God so impressed upon your heart that you would never take another step forward unless He had determined to preserve you by His grace? Peter’s faith failed not only because Christ had prayed for it to overcome. We do not persevere because of our persevering. Do we honestly get that? This is beyond mere intellectual comprehension. Oh! The security we have in God and yet what a shame that we only have glimpses of this phenomenon only to forget them so quickly.

“Surely this ‘meaningless’ situation, the nothingness of these extended circumstances, these moments of almost being driven to insanity cannot be such times in the hand of God”, someone may say, but they are. Either the Apostle Paul was a lunatic when he stated, “ALL things work together…” or he was a level-headed man, filled with the Holy Spirit who knew that even the worst kind of circumstances imaginable are orchestrated according to God’s perfect plan that entails our best.

Nothing should ever disqualify us from saying with David, “But I trust You, O Lord; I say ‘You are my God” – and that “But” was in light of the debilitating depression he encountered. Everything in David’s wasteland must have felt like death, but when all seemed dead, he still declared, “You are my God.” David hadn’t the foggiest idea of when such adversity would end, but by the grace of God, He was given strength to trust all that with God.

Surely David must have questioned on occasion whether he truly belonged to the Shepherd and that can be the severest point in our trials, because where that is lacking there can be no peace or stability. Where assurance dissipates means a double conflict, that when one reaches out to trust in the living God, comes the lie, “Who are you to presume on the grace and mercy of God?” Those moments are the Gethsemane’s of feeling that we do not belong to God; nothing can be enjoyed without such knowledge and light. Take heart that because you are miserable without the Father’s smile entails you are His child.

You can trust Him, you can say, “My Father” because He has called you, having set His love on you that will not let you go. You may wander and grow cold, but just as the Church has been kept alive, so you too shall be kept by the same power even through the years that seem so void and pointless because it is ALL in God’s hand. He is Master over it all. Just as He determined the number of stars so He has precisely fixed the length of your seasons as well as your days, that through them no good thing shall be withheld from you to be of greater service unto Him and a blessing unto others.