Seeking God's wisdom in hard times

 

We saw that Step One was to examine our hearts and confess any sins that the Holy Spirit shows to us. Step Two of seeking the Lord during our hard times is to meditate and praise Him for Who He is.

We touched on this yesterday when we looked at the verses in Exodus. In that passage, God talks about Himself. He tells Moses (and us) about Himself.

In Psalm 25, David tells us more. He lays out his prayer in the first seven verses, and then many of the remaining verses are a review of Who the Lord is. I believe that David's primer here is instructing us to seek refreshment and encouragement by thinking about the goodness of God. 

Let's look at all the goodness of God that is revealed in this psalm: David says in verse three that no one who waits on the Lord will be ashamed - just as we mentioned yesterday, God is faithful; we can trust in Him. Verse five calls Him our Savior, and the next verse points out that He is a compassionate and loving God. He is called good and also upright in verse eight, and verse ten points out that He is truth. He is fair (v. 9) and forgiving (v. 11), and comforts the lonely (v. 16). His power is revealed in several verses, and in verse twenty-two David says God will redeem His people from all their troubles.

Wow! I would say that the attributes of God are "awesome," but that is such an overworked and overused word today that I feel I need to say something different! I guess my point here is that as we think about and meditate on God's goodness, and all of His attributes, we will be refreshed and encouraged as we face our hard times. Whether we are looking about us at horrific circumstances, or if we are face-to-face with the realization that we've cause this mess ourselves, thinking about our wondrous Redeemer will encourage us as we seek His wisdom.

Another thing that kinda jumps out at me as we study this psalm is that David also emphasizes asking God to teach us His ways, to instruct us in His paths. This is mentioned in five different verses! I figure that must be important! 

One commentary that I looked into said that the Hebrew word for "paths" refers to a well-worn, or beaten path. That it implied a path or road made by wagon wheels passing over the same ground, over and over again. Made me think of the "ruts" made by animals and wagons pulling loads over the same ground. Today in the western states of the US, one can still see the ruts made by wagons moving westward in the mid-1800's. In some places the iron-rimmed wagon wheels, pulled along usually by plodding oxen (not by horses, as some television shows would have us believe.....horses would not have as much strength nor the endurance needed for the weeks of pulling loaded wagons across the prairie) and some of the ruts can be easily seen today. Settlers were encouraged to follow behind the wagon in front of them, and not to stray from the trail into uncharted (and possibly much rougher) ground. 

David says in verse eight that God instructs sinners in His way -- wonderful! We qualify there! We also see in the psalm that we need to be willing to walk in His ways once He shows us the path. Willing to walk in His way? Well, of course I am! 

Good! Then the proofs of that will be that I am constant in prayer, and that I wait on the Lord, since His timing is not always mine. I must also be teachable - my desire should be to grow in understanding God's truths. The psalm also says I will be humble (v. 9) and that I will obey Him (v. 10).  The next verses say that I should fear Him and look to Him continually, and that I will walk in uprightness.  

Running through this entire psalm, like an undercurrent, is the idea of trust in the Lord.

My God, in You I trust,
Do not let me be ashamed;
Do not let my enemies rejoice over me.(v.2)

But is David that antsy about being ashamed? Is that something that worries him? In my old age, there's not much anymore that will truly embarrass me . . . unless it's appearing to be unreliable, or dishonest, or hypocritical, or delusional, or, or,  . . . hmmmm, even though those things would make me more sad than embarrassed, I guess I see David's point. He's "going public" in affirming his trust in the Lord. He's saying that if the Lord doesn't come through for him, and David's enemies are triumphant, it will be a blow to not just David's honor, but the Lord's honor, too. His enemies will look on, "Here is a man who trusted in the Lord. This is how things turned out."  So, as he prays, David says to the Lord that he's totally trusting in Him. "Don't let me be ashamed, because then Your Name would be dishonored."

Here's the summary for Step Two: meditate and be encouraged by all of the wondrous attributes of our Lord, and then trust in Him to work so that His Name will not be dishonored -- instead His Name will be glorified!