.... unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD (Psalm 27:13, 14)! Following on from last day's post, if David was want to worry, he had much to worry about, armies camping about him (verse 3); father and mother forsaking him (verse 10); “false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence (verse 12). David had put all that aside and his sole focus, his “one thing” so to speak, was to seek the Lord (verse 4). His faith that things will turn out well in the end, that He would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living was, no doubt, reenforced by his experience.
Each time we respond in faith to life's difficulties, and then experience God bringing us through, it builds, as it were, another brick in our wall of faith. He did it before, He will do it again, and this will be yet another brick. It is in this way that our faith grows. Note that David's hope is not just in heaven when he dies, but in the here and now, in the land of the living. When father and mother forsake him the Lord will take care of him. He has promised “I will never leave you, nor forsake you. I believe on that day, when we see things as they really are we will be able to say that He has been good to me!
David goes on to instruct himself and us, reenforcing what we likely already know we need to do, and that is to take courage and wait in hope on the Lord. Taking courage is about strengthen ourselves in the Lord. David did this when even his friends wanted to stone him (1 Samuel 30:6). I do this by reminding myself of His exceedingly great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4), in particular those that over the years He has brought to my attention in His Word. But is it not all up to us, for when we do our part, the Lord does his. In particular, when we take courage, the Lord “shall strengthen your heart” (verse 14). Deliverance is not always, perhaps not usually, instantaneous, and that is why we need to heed the twice repeated instruction to wait in hope (the force of the Hebrew), confident that we will indeed, in His time, see the goodness of the Lord in the here and now!
Father, it's not easy Lord, but You never promised that it would be. Please teach us how to do our part in strengthening ourselves in You. And Lord help us to let patience have its perfect work as we choose day by day, sometimes minute by minute to wait on You. I do believe on that day we will be able to truly say You have done all things well. We praise You again this morning in advance Lord in Jesus Name Amen
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