Psalm 144

Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.  He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge,  who subdues peoples under me.

O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?  Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.  Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies; shoot your arrows and rout them.  Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.

I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you, to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David from the deadly sword.  Deliver me and rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.   Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields;  our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets.   Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.

In uncertain times it’s good to know that while you can’t always trust what you hear from our leaders or the mainstream media, you can trust the promises of God.  And just like He delivered Israel from the hands of their enemies in David’s time, He’ll deliver us from the hands of our enemies in our time.  No matter what the future brings, we have His promise that these are only light and momentary things that will soon be replaced by an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor. 4:17).  “You’ll have trouble in this world,” Jesus said, “But take heart, for I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)  And because of that, so will we.

Paul’s advice to the Corinthians is even more relevant to us.  “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:18)

We have to remember that this world is the temporary one.  It’s the next one that’s permanent, and our presence there is already guaranteed (Ephes. 1:13-14).  We shouldn’t be so concerned about what’s happening in the here and now.  First, we don’t have any control over it.  And second, in the grand scheme of things it really doesn’t matter.  The Lord has promised to rescue us from the wrath to come (1 Thes. 1:10) and to meet all our needs in the mean time (Matt. 6:31-33).  And when He takes us to be with Him, we’ll never again have even one sad moment (Rev. 21:4).  What more could we ask?