My Times

February 26

READ Psalm 31:9–18.

9 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors and an object of dread to my closest friends—those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.
13 For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!” They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, LORD; I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
17 Let me not be put to shame, LORD, for I have cried out to you; but let the wicked be put to shame and be silent in the realm of the dead.
18 Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous.

MY TIMES. David lives with “terror on every side” (verse 13). Life seems precarious and even capricious. Terrible things happen that make no sense to us. But, David knows, world history and our personal histories are not, ultimately, operating on chance. “My times are in your hands,” he reminds himself and us (verse 15). The Bible’s teaching on this is balanced. Many events are evil and grievous, yet God overrules them and works them all together, in the long run, for good (Romans 8:28). So in the end our lives cannot be derailed permanently. Learn how to say to God: “My times are in your hands.”

Prayer: Lord, so many of the circumstances of my life make no sense to me, but they make sense to you. Help me, like David, to rest in that. My times are truly in your hands, and that is absolutely, infinitely better than if they were in my hands. Amen.

Keller, Timothy. The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms (p. 57). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.