God Will Not Forsake You
Do you ever wonder why your life has turned out the way it has? Maybe you thought that since you followed God things would only go well for you? That things would be easy? I know I can think that way.
Or perhaps you look at others and see parts of their life flourishing where yours is dry and crumbling. Their career, their marriage, their children, their life… seems to be going well while yours is anything but. What are we to do when these thoughts bubble up within us? Frustrations with the reality of our life compared to others.
David knows about frustrations
Psalm 37 says:
Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.
It can be easy for us to get envious of those who make no attempt to follow God and yet their life goes well. Especially when attempt to be faithful to God and our life seems to go poorly. Surely David, who wrote this psalm, knows something about that. During his early years his life is marked by being kind and gracious to others while his counterpart, Saul, is ruthless and sinful. All the while, Saul remains King with all the power and David remains on the run, homeless and fearing for his life.
David knows a thing or two about unmet expectations and confusion when surveying your life. “God, you told me I’d be King… but I’m here hiding for my life in a cave. What are you up to?” I imagine him praying. Here he tells us though, do not be envious of those who do not follow God, or follow Him wrongly. The things of this earth won’t last, there is another world we live for.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Trust. When we are in a difficult season of life, how hard trusting God is. It seems so counterintuitive because we look out and see those getting their way who do not honor God, so why should we trust Him? But remember, the Lord works in un-earthly ways. When life is hard do not give up trusting God and doing good.
David, on the run for his life, writes: “Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.” I love that word befriend. What does this mean? One implication is that faithfulness is like learning to play an instrument. It is not learned overnight. It requires different things at different times. Faithfulness when everything is going well is a different skill to master than faithfulness when everything is going poorly.
The point is, befriend faithfulness. Learn. Cultivate. Grow. Mature in faithfulness. Do not give up being faithful to God in the dark seasons. To befriend means to spend large quantities of hours with, learning. Faithfulness is something you learn over years, it is not a light switch you flip overnight.
Not only must we learn faithfulness to God, perhaps more importantly, we must learn that God is faithful to us. In fact, I do not think there is any greater comfort when life is hard that the reality that God is faithful.
What does it mean that God is faithful to us? One way we could put it is that His desire to give us grace at salvation will continue until the end. His hearts disposition towards us remains positively for us. It means He doesn’t rise and fall based on our performance, because faithfulness means staying steady and firmly rooted in your promises despite what is happening.
Hope for us
Have you sinned and your life is dark? God is faithful to you. Have you been diagnosed with an illness? God is faithful. Is family hard? God is faithful.
Our picture of faithfulness to God is an imperfect and .0000% image of His faithfulness to us. Again, years of learning this will deepen your faith. God is perfectly faithful. He remembers everything. He will never forget you. Even when the difficulty you are in feels like you are forgotten.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
I’ve always wrestled with what this text means. Do you find it interesting though that David is writing this in a time of his life when the desires of his heart seem confused. In some sense, David feels the injustice Saul is doing to Him. He probably feels confused about what God is doing. What is the desire of Davids heart? Does delighting ourselves in the Lord change the desires of our heart? Could the desires of our heart change (in a negative way) our delight of the Lord? Or perhaps David is hinting at the danger of only delighting ourself in the Lord to get what our heart wants? Using God as a stepping stone?
I’ll simply leave you with these questions. The are very important for us to ponder when life is hard.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
There’s that word again… trust. How hard it is when we are waiting and it appears that God is not at work. Can we not all look at points of our life though, and say, God has been faithful? I can. God has always come through for me, even in seasons where I could not affirm that. Down the road of time I can affirm, God has never left me. Though some seasons of waiting seem long, God will act eventually. He will come through.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
Again, wait patiently! For who? God. David had many chances where he could take matters into his own hand and kill Saul, giving himself the kingship and stopping his on-the-run lifestyle. But he sensed that it was not right, that God would come through in His own time. This is not teaching us to be idle or to not take responsibility. Look back at verse 5, “Commit your way to the Lord.” This involves planning, action, taking responsibility in this life. David did work and take responsibility while waiting on God. At the same time, He was still. Trusting that if he continued living in God’s design things would work out.
Can we open our hands while before God, trusting Him to work in our situation, while moving forward in our life? These are not easy practices, but do you know what they remind me of?
Consider the parallels
Who comes to mind that lived a faithful life, but did not get what seemed to be rightfully theirs? Who had to submit their life to God’s plan and wait on Him? Who delighted themselves so deeply in God that the desires of their heart were simply to be with Him and be obedient to Him? Who pleaded with God that if an easier path of life could be had, that he wanted it, but if not, he submitted to God’s plan? Who did not envy the wicked whose life seemed easier than his? Even though he was walking faithfully before God?
Jesus.
He is both our model for living in seasons of life that are hard and he is present with us in those very seasons. Why? Because He understands them. Jesus is gracious and patient as we stumble the path. When life seems confusing and hard, God is faithful. When you have followed God and it seems like all it has gotten you is difficulty, I know how easy it can be to get resentful. I don’t claim to have all the answers or to have an easy solution. But I can say, from my own experience of wrestling with this, God will never abandon us and He will always come through in a way that matters. God is faithful. He will not forget you.
Trusting that God will come through for you and meet you in the struggle,
Josh.
