One of people’s favorite characteristics of the Psalms is the raw honesty. In it you can find the highs and lows of human emotions to match however you are feeling. What I love about these writings is how the Psalmist allows his feeling to draw him to God and never away.
Psalm 13 was the place this first stood out to me. When you read the first 4 verses, you see David bemoaning his situation. How long, LORD? Did you hide from me? Have you forgotten me? Don’t you care that my enemy is beating me? You quickly feel David’s honest approach to God. He had no problem getting in touch with his feelings.
Then in my Bible, I have to turn the page to get to the next two verses. But I trust you. My heart is happy with you. I will sing for you are good to me.
The first time I read this, I had to check to make sure I did not skip a page. What happened? Where did this sudden change come from? Did God answer? Was everything better?
It seems that nothing changed, except David chose to trust God instead of his situation. Sure I feel crappy, but I know that God is good.
So often this is what we need to do. We need to choose that God is good over all our circumstances, so we can rejoice in His goodness even when things seem bad. There is a line in the song Love Comes Down by Brian Johnson, which says, “I sing out to remind my soul. I am Yours.” The world is trying to steal our attention from God, and we need to remind ourselves that God is trustworthy, that He is good, that He is exactly what we need. Review the goodness of God in your life. Don’t forget. God is good.
You are right….We must remind ourselves everyday that God is good….Why?…because our society (including believers) can think that if God is a good God, why did he “allow this” or why did a tornado or hurricane destroy people’s lives, murder or rape happen?….all the evil in the world is around us….and yet God is good because he did not “cause” these things to happen….We live in a fallen world where there is free will….Everyone has been given free will by God to choose right and wrong….therefore pain and suffering will always be with us, but Jesus provides a way out, through his sacrifice….Who would do that for someone??…He loves you so much he died for you and me…The Devil wants only destruction, pain, and suffering in our lives….we need to remember who is truly good and who is not….
Dear Pamela,
Thank you for this encouragement. It really is so easy to forget that God is good by looking at the circumstances of this world.
Thanks,
Kevin