Psalm 37; 2 Chronicles 6:1-21; John 18:1-11
As the temple is dedicated in our Old Testament reading we see that it was God’s plan, it was a plan put in David’s heart by God. Just as we are reading in our Psalm today that He will give us the desires of our hearts when our hearts are aligned with His. So the desire of David’s heart – to build the temple – was fulfilled, through his son. Solomon, in turn, stood before the temple, arms outstretched in a sign of surrender, as he praised God for His greatness and thanked God for keeping His promises.
Do we thank God enough? I know in South Sudan you are much better at praying when people travel and thanking God when they arrive safely but I wonder if we really thank him enough – each day – for all the things he does for us, for the guidance he provides, for the provision he makes.
Coming to our Psalm “do not fret” – do not be anxious, do not worry – on account of the wicked – “do not be envious” of evildoers. It is easy to look around and see people gaining from doing wrong. We sometimes look at those who have much and wish we were “more like them”, that we had sufficient to pay the school fees for our children to go to school without sacrificing a meal; that we could drive a big car rather than walk everywhere in the heat; the list goes on…. But David is saying here don’t do it! It will make you ill; it is against the commandments that God gave Moses – when He said, “do not covet”. God sees the hearts, God sees the acts, God will deal with everyone in His time. So while those who continue with corrupt practices because “it’s what we’ve always done”, those who steal, those who abuse others, may look to have it all, their downfall will come. They will be cut down like the grass – their prosperity is only temporary. The worldly riches will pass, they will be of no use to any of us when our earthly bodies have died, we are better to spend time seeking God than seeking riches or being envious of those who are rich.
When we trust God and do good, the things that Jesus told us to do – care for the widows and orphans, pray for the sick, visit those in prison – then we will dwell in the land and be safe. When we seek God He changes us, the desires of our hearts change – from worldly desires to His desires as our hearts are aligned with His, He will give us our hearts desire – because our hearts desire is His.
Commit your way to the Lord, trust Him and He will help you. He will guide each one of us and He will give us what we need to get from where we are to where He is leading us. We only need to be patient. To wait for Him to guide us. To leave worrying to those who don’t know Him. If we stumble He is there to steady us, we will not fall flat.
It is easy to worry. In fact the devil puts worries in our heads to hinder us in our walk with God. I had been out of Juba for nearly 6 months – the longest time away for over 6 years. As I was packing to come I started to worry – would my cases arrive on the same plane as me, would my local SIMs still be working – I tried to contact MTN and they just said you’ll have to come to the office, but I wanted a working phone in the airport, to call for a lift, I rang my number and it rang – it doesn’t work in the UK – so I worried more that MTN had reallocated my number and that the number everyone has for me would no longer work for me. It was worry that cost me time, it delayed me organising myself, it stopped me sleeping, yet when I landed in Nairobi everything worked as it should!! The devil was rubbing his hands at disrupting my preparation; I had not followed the Lord’s instructions. As I said, thank you Lord, I was also saying “sorry” to Him.
As Christians we can take rest, because when we are trusting God, when our hearts are aligned with his, when we are fully surrendered to him, then nothing can separate us from him, nothing can stop us from spending eternity with him. We will have the victory.
Time and again in the bible there are examples of God using the “small” people, the people with “nothing”. He has promised those of us who have surrendered our lives to him that he will take care of us, that he will provide “what we need”.
In John we see the soldiers arrive to take Jesus. He knew this was coming. His disciples wanted to protect him – Simon Peter even cut someone’s ear off – but Jesus, knowing this was coming, knowing this was the purpose the Father had sent him to earth, gave himself up freely – protecting his disciples, just as God shows us in the Psalm that the righteous, the Christians, those who put their trust in the Lord, will be protected by him.
The Christian life isn’t easy – even Jesus had difficult days – too many times we are told “come to Jesus and all will be well”- yes it will in the end, but between now and the end… There will be trouble, there will be wars, those who are not of God will dislike, even hate, us. But in the end God will honour us and we will receive the land – the life of eternity with him.
May we all be people who put our hope in the Lord and obey his commands. May our ways be guided by the Lord as He protects us. Amen