Free Grace Women

My Perspective:

Staying as still as I could in the darkness, I strained my ears for sounds of a dog approaching.  Our family was on a road trip, and our dog did not appreciate sleeping in the kitchen, separated from all her people.  My first drift into slumber had been sharply checked by her managing to push down the gate and coming to visit us, wagging her tail until her whole body shook with excitement at rejoining us and pride that she had overcome the obstacles.  She had been resettled in her quarters, but my tired brain couldn’t consider sleep until I listened for a while without hearing noises of her approach.

Well, I could at least use the quiet time to practice Scripture memory.  Since a friend and I had been working on Psalm 27, I started there, mentally reciting the first three verses—verses telling of David’s trust in God’s protection.  Suddenly, my mind skipped to the last verse of the psalm: “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD.” (Psalm 27:14 NASB) Waiting on me was what was difficult for my dog.  While I knew that all of us were safe, and thus my goal was us getting rest, her perspective was that she didn’t know where we were, and all her attention was focused on the issue of separation.  How often do I act like that toward the Lord?  When a problem or heartache presents itself in my life, God has promised me strength to get through it (1 Corinthians 10:13), and even promises benefits when I endure suffering faithfully (James 1:12; 1 Peter 1:6-7).  If I am consistent with what I believe, my response should be, “Lord, this is in Your hands.  Please help me serve You well through this time/trial.”  Instead, I focus on the problem before me, readily deal out blame, and direct my energies toward finding whatever solution I can.  And rather than experiencing peace, I am more stressed than ever as I essentially say, “I’m doing my best to follow You, Lord—just wait a minute as I get past this issue.”

David’s Perspective:

What I want—what my soul longs for—is to live in these first three verses of Psalm 27:

A Psalm of David:

The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host (or “army”) encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In this I am confident. Psalm 27: 1-3 (NASB1995, using the NASB’s notes for the literal translation of verse 3)

When I read these verses, I picture looking out over an enemy army camp and just standing there carefree.  However, that’s not the picture the rest of the psalm paints.  David knew hardship.  He knew abandonment.  He had “enemies” (verses 2 & 6), “adversaries” (verses 2 & 12), “evildoers who came upon [him] to devour [his] flesh” (EEEEWWWW!—verse 2), “foes” (verse 11), “false witnesses” who rose against him (verse 12), and “such as breathe out violence” trying to harm him (verse 12).  The book of 1 Samuel tells us of Israel’s leader attempting to kill David (1 Samuel 18:11, 25, 29; 19:1, 10, 11-16; 20:31-33).  Even though God had chosen Saul as Israel’s first king, King Saul had disobeyed God (1 Samuel 15:1-19) and because of that disobedience, God had told Saul that he was rejected as king (1 Samuel 15:23, 26, 28).  In contrast, David was a godly man who behaved wisely and to whom the Lord gave success (1 Samuel 18:14, 30).  Saul knew that the man he was trying to kill was chosen by the Lord to be the next king (1 Samuel 24:20), and Saul was clearly behaving evilly (1 Samuel 22:16-19). One night the Lord miraculously allowed David and his nephew to walk right up to the sleeping King Saul in the middle of thousands of Saul’s soldiers.  Logically, David was urged to kill King Saul.  But David realized something else—killing the Lord’s anointed was a sin (1 Samuel 26:9).  The Lord was David’s refuge.  The Lord had made promises to David, and He was powerful enough and trustworthy enough to fulfill them; He didn’t need David to sin to bring about the victory the Lord had promised.  Though David was weary of running from King Saul, David waited on the Lord.  God had been David’s refuge and defense to this point (1 Samuel 17:34-51; 18:28; 19:18-24; 23:27-28), and would continue to be so.  Amazingly, David kept his eyes on the Lord, not on the immediate problems facing him.

Conclusion:

The Lord was faithful to David—He did not ignore either King Saul’s sin or king-to-be David’s decision to wait for the Lord.  Not only did David rule over all Israel, but God made promises to King David that He never made to King Saul (1 Samuel 7:9b, 11-16).  The Lord remained David’s refuge from his enemies, even when He had to punish David for sin (2 Samuel 11 & 12), and despite David causing problems for himself by not dealing with sin in his own family (2 Samuel 13:1-22, 14:24, which resulted in Absalom’s rebellion in 2 Samuel 15).  And in the Bible we have a psalm David wrote that starts with telling of the Lord’s faithfulness and ends with an exhortation to wait for the Lord.

Once again, I paused for a moment to listen for my dog.  Thankfully, she had settled down for the night, which made my night that much easier.  Will I “settle down” in my spiritual life when new problems arise, or will I keep focusing on the immediate problem, acting as if God’s promises and power can only function in an ideal situation?

Wait for the LORD;

Be strong, and let your heart take courage;

Yes, wait for the LORD.

Psalm 27:14 NASB1995

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