It’s easy to trust the Lord in the good times. It’s hard in the bad times. It’s worse (almost impossible) when the bad times are your own making. I mean it’s one thing when someone else shoots you in the foot, but when you do it yourself? Right now, I feel like I should be wearing a shirt that says, “I’m with stupid,” but without the arrow pointing anywhere.
Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. (Psalms 62:8)
I’m not making light of my circumstances. I’m really hurting right now. Your prayers are coveted. I just don’t know where to go from here…yet. I will say this, though, your true friends are the ones who are honest with you yet manage not to pass judgement on you when you fail. I want to publicly thank all the true friends God has blessed me with. I have many more than I realized.
You see, I came across Psalm 62:8 while I was looking for this verse:
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).
I’m learning yet again that God often shows His love through the people He sends your way, and I am thankful for that.
God reminded me of Proverbs 17:17 for encouragement. He let me find Psalm 62:8 for counsel.
“Trust in Him [the Lord] at all times.” This is a psalm of David and he was speaking of times of adversity that come at the hands of others. But I like how under, the leading of God’s Spirit, he penned it without qualifiers: “Trust Him at all times.” Then he puts all the emphasis on God: “pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us.” And he caps it with the word: “Selah.” That’s not a cast-off word or some casual flavoring word. It means “think or meditate on this.”
You can feel David’s emotions in these words. Looking at the context it’s clear that people he thought he could trust had let him down. So, he counsels himself and the readers of his psalm about where their trust really needs to be:
“Trust not in oppression.” Don’t become a bully, thinking that will save you.
“[Don’t] become vain in robbery.” In other words, greedy, or of the mindset that amassing wealth is somehow a hedge of protection.
“If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.” In other words, if blessings come, don’t put your trust in those either.
Then in giant letters colored with bright yellow highlighter he tells us:
“God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God” (Psalms 62:11).
Ultimately, our trust must rest in God. That’s not to say that good friends are not a blessing. They certainly are, but our friends are like us: even the best of their best intentions are subject to human frailty. No one can make immovable promises except God.
David closes his psalm with these words:
“Also unto thee, O Lord, [belongs] mercy: for [you render] to every man according to his work” (Psalms 62:12).
When I first read that I found it heartening and troubling. I am glad to know that God has mercy, but troubled to know that he renders to us according to our works. My works aren’t so great. I think when David wrote those words about God rendering “to every man according to his work” that he meant that for his enemies. Still, God is judge of my actions, too. So, I am thankful that…
(13) Like as a father [pities] his children, so the LORD [pities] them that fear him.
(14) For He [knows] our frame; He [remembers] that we are dust.
Psalms 103:13-14
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