“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” — Psalm 121:5-6 ESV
Today we are still focusing on Psalm 121. These verses are very interesting because you might be thinking, if God is really my keeper, why does He allow bad things to happen to me?
It is a good, complicated and hard question because we can’t fully know and understand the mind of God.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)
We are in a fallen world, meaning, we will experience bad and unpleasant things—death, sickness, financial failure, heartbreak, and so on. But God promised He will safely see us through it all. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Psalm 34:19 (ESV)
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:4 (ESV). With everything that King David went through, he was sure of God’s goodness, because he said: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…” Psalm 23:6 (ESV)
All the characters we read about in the Bible went through unpleasant and hard times. Those that placed their trust in God, experienced His great hand and presence in their situations.
Let’s look at Joseph’s life, his brothers sold him into slavery, Potiphar’s wife lied against him and got him thrown into prison. He definitely had a reason to be angry with God, but he wasn’t. In it all he trusted God and God fulfilled His promise in Joseph’s life, he understood that God cared and had a plan. He trusted in God’s bigger picture that was shown to him in dreams from a young age.
Moses is another example. Even from birth, before he could recollect or remember anything, his life was turned upside down. Instead of allowing him to be killed, his parents were forced to put him in a river and there, God provided a wealthy and unlikely carer to protect him. God looked after him until he was ready to do God’s work of getting the Israelites out of slavery. And even when he was on that mission, it wasn’t easy but God saw him through. “Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever.” Deuteronomy 34:7 (NLT)
I’m not sure any of our situations can be compared to David’s, Joseph’s or Moses’. Just as God cared for them and saw them through, He will also care for you and see you through your temporal challenges.
Stay blessed,
LaraLex
Hills and Valleys 