Trusting God in the Midst of Suffering: Outside of Time

 

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  Psalm 13:5

 When do you celebrate God’s deliverance? Do you wait until you see and experience it, or can you celebrate now, in the midst of the suffering, knowing that God has it all under control and He will make it all right? This morning I was confronted with two different versions of Psalm 13, which spoke two different sides of this approach to me.

 First, I read the NET version. The last two verses are, “But I trust in your faithfulness. May I rejoice because of your deliverance! I will sing praises to the LORD when he vindicates me.” In this version, it sounds like the psalmist, David, is hoping to rejoice in God’s possible deliverance, as if he is promising to praise God IF He delivers him. But the NIV was totally different.

 “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.” I trust. My heart rejoices. I will sing. For He HAS been good to me. In the NIV, it reads as though David is already rejoicing in God’s salvation because it has already been accomplished, whether David was currently experiencing it or not. The reality is, my salvation was provided for over 2,000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross for me and no circumstance or situation today can change that! But David’s salvation, that was coming in the future. Or was it?

 You see, I firmly believe that God exists outside of time, that He is not bound by it as we are. We have a past, present and future, but God just is. He always was, He always will be, unchanging and forever. He knew the end of our earth since before He even created it, and everything that would happen in between. I believe that, from God’s perspective, David’s ultimate salvation through Jesus’ provision in His life, death and resurrection was already accomplished, even though from David’s view it hadn’t happened yet. It’s a bit of a mind bender, but stay with me. God knows what will happen, He has already sorted it all out, and because of that, the future is just as sure and finished as the past. Because of that, we can rejoice in God’s salvation, in His provision, before we even see it!

 David opened up this psalm with, “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,” [Psa 13:1-3 NIV]. And he ended it saying, “I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.” [Psa 13:6 NIV]. I’m pretty sure that David’s circumstances didn’t change 100% between those three verses. His circumstances didn’t change; he did. David shifted from focusing on his problems, to focusing on the God who had worked them all out before he was even born. He turned his gaze to the One who knew what was coming, because He had planned it and set it all in motion.  

Here’s the Thing: I can praise God right now for how He is going to work out all the situations that I currently face that don’t have any clear solution. I don’t have to wait until I see and experience God’s deliverance from my problems, because I can trust that, in His eyes, it has already happened. It’s a sure thing!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Hate Begets Hate

Image
 Well, this is a post I never thought I'd be writing! I'm going to start with the backstory, which I didn't get until we were pretty far into this but which I think will help it be clearer for you to understand.  Evidently my nephew who lives in Tennessee has been up to no good. For quite some time he's been driving around baiting people of other races (he's white) with terrible racial slurs and trying to get them to fight him, presumably so he'll feel justified in shooting them. Yeah, that's pretty awful! He's been posting his shenanigans on social media, and while Facebook took his videos down, X has left them up for everyone to see.  As you can imagine, this has caused quite the backlash. People who are offended by his behavior and those that support it, have grouped together and continued the hurt and violence. The group in opposition to him decided that it would benefit them to post his family's names, phone numbers, and addresses on the interne...
Read more

Am I Pretty?

Image
How I look has changed a lot over the last year. Just under a year ago my head was shaved for brain surgery and over the last year my hair has been growing out. I’ve had to do a lot more resting and less exercise and activity so I’ve put on weight. I had arm surgery a couple of months ago which left me with a splint for most of that time and now an arm with 13 scars on it. I look so different. A big part of me has worried so much about how my husband sees me. Does he still find me attractive? You see, he’s not one to voice things like that. Words of affirmation were not used in his home growing up and they are not a part of his standard vocabulary. It’s funny though, as I read today’s verses I realized that he has, in fact, been telling me I’m pretty, just in a different way. Let your beauty not be external - the braiding of hair and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes - but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit, which is precious in Go...
Read more

Praying God's Wisdom: When Forgiveness is for Your Healing

Image
  As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12  Last month I wrote a post that will likely never see the light of day. You see, someone did great harm to one of my close loved ones, and to me by extension, and I was writing about the impact it had on me, the collateral damage I had become. But, of course, that initial hurt was done to someone other than me, and it is not my story to tell. The thing is, within that, I still have a story. I still have an injury. The trauma is real, but it is not mine to share, so how do I deal with it?   I guess I defaulted to my old ways of dealing with it initially and just stuffed it down. That does no one any good. Our verse today shares the incomprehensible blessing of God’s forgiveness for us and reminds me that He has called me to forgive as well. Forgiveness is crucial in relationships because whenever two or more humans get together, someone will mess up. But what role does...
Read more