Psalm 31:
7 I will rejoice and be glad in Your steadfast love,
because You have seen my affliction;
You have known the distress of my soul . . .
14 I trust in You, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
15a My times are in Your hand . . .
22b You heard the voice of my pleas for mercy
when I cried to You for help.
24b Be strong, & let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!
I love Psalm 31; the whole chapter is so encouraging, but for the sake of this post I’ve only highlighted the verses above.
In verse 7 David proclaims that he will rejoice, NOT because God has delivered him OUT OF his affliction or his distress (although He is certainly able to!) — but because God has seen his affliction and God knows his distress. No matter what you are walking through, the suffering you quietly carry everyday, the pain you cannot ignore, the hurt you haven’t moved on from, or the questions you silently bear — we can take take heart knowing that: God sees. God knows. “You have seen my affliction; You have known the distress of my soul.” Just because He hasn’t responded like you expected doesn’t mean He is unaware. You are not alone in your pain. We can still rejoice in the midst of great suffering and uncertainty because His steadfast love will never change.
Then, there’s a simple prayer of faith in verses 14 & 15:
“I trust in You, O Lord,” I say,
“You are my God.
My times are in Your hand . . .”
In a recent message at church we talked about the prayer that Jesus prayed to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane: “Father, let this cup pass from Me — nevertheless, not My will but THY will be done.“ In our prayers we are frequently focused on what we want to change or what we want to pass. But, if we never come to the “nevertheless” in our prayer, we will never share Christ’s heart. Until we come to the place where we can sincerely pray: “not my will, but THY will be done,” we’ll never reach the place of trust and surrender, like David says “My times are in Your hand.”
We may never have an answer to the “why” He didn’t allow the cup to pass, stop the affliction or end the distress — but we can trust His heart.
I’ll never forget hearing a dear sister in Christ share about her husband’s sudden passing. She shared a quote from Spurgeon that read: “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”
How many times have you walked though something & questioned: “God, do you see what is happening to me?!” “Why aren’t You answering or moving like I had asked?!” When the reality is, God has always been aware, He sees, and He knows — but He also doesn’t always respond how we expected. In the midst of the uncertainty we can trust His character — He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and when we can’t determine what His hands are doing, we can trust His heart.
Then, in verse 22, David says: “You heard the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cried to You for help.” When God’s response to our prayer is not as we expected, it’s not because He didn’t hear us, but because He has a greater purpose to fulfill that we are most likely unaware of. Sometimes all we can see is the loss, pain, hurt, and ache but this Psalm assures us that God hears our every cry. On this side of eternity we may never know how He is accomplishing a greater purpose through the pain, but He promises to give us the mercy we need to walk through the unexpected, and His mercies are new every morning.
Lastly, David declares: “Be strong, & let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!” I believe there will never be a point in our lives when we are not waiting for something. . . God knows the things we long and pray for but there have been times where the Lord has shown me that I am not waiting for HIM but for what HE can DO; there’s a big difference. At times it’s easy for the two to become blurred, especially when you’re waiting and praying for something this is good and something you believe He desires for you. But in this verse David encourages us to be strong and take courage. Why? Because waiting can cause us to grow weak and discouraged in our faith; but in the waiting we also learn that only God can fill the longing we have and only His living water can quench the thirst of our souls. I read this the other day & it was such an encouragement to my soul: “If we are so focused on what God isn’t doing — we will miss out on what He IS doing.” How true is that?! Don’t allow what God is not doing to make you miss out on all that He is doing!
As you wait, dear friend, don’t forget: God sees, He knows, He hears. Trust Him, surrender your future to Him, wait on Him today, and walk in the new mercies He has for you day-by-day. Be strong and take courage, He is near.
“Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
– Isaiah 40:28-31
“Perhaps maybe for a
reason you cannot see,
God wants you to wait”
