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My Times Are In Your Hands
~Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16~
William S. Epps, Senior Pastor
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1In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. 2Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. 3Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. 4Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. 5Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.
15My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. 16Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
We are living in the continuing aura of Resurrection Sunday, I can’t help but remind you that Easter’s story is about God’s reversals (from sorrow to joy, from fear to faith, from loss to gains). Let me add that the Lord flips the script of life from nothingness to something, from barrenness to fruitfulness, from bondage to freedom, from captivity to liberation, from burden to blessing, from hurt to healing, from death to life, from abandonment and aloneness to comfort and companionship. The Lord fills the void in life with what is necessary to make life better, not bitter.
The psalms, as the prayer and song book of the Bible, recapitulates the variety of experiences of a people who discovered a powerful, pervasive Presence in particular ways that made a difference in their lives. Their experiences led them to have what was upside down, turned right side up, what was inside out, turned right side in, what was apparent failure became an opportunity for success.
Consider what it means to have your life turn around positively
from the negatives of life by an abiding presence which
sustains you through all that you face.
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The psalm read in your hearing is one written by David. He acknowledges his experiences of what the Lord has been to him. The Lord had been a refuge, a safe place and space, protection from pain, pathos, people, so he could trust that where he could go when circumstances and situations and people threatened his well-being.
God as refuge is a shelter. God as refuge is protection or a safe space to go when the world is too much with you, as the poet put it.
The poet using the language of his day cited how the preoccupation with materialism robs people of the joy of living and loving, reducing life to doing whatever you can to
get all you can, while you can, in anxious pursuit of possessing more and more,
leaving at the end with less and less of what is gratifying.
Listen to the way the poet expressed it:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.—Great God! I'd rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
(Sonnet by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In it he criticizes the world of the First Industrial Revolution being absorbed within materialism and distancing itself from nature).
Consider what it means to have the world to be too much with you late
and soon causing you more anxiety than assurance, more concern than
comfort, more distress than delight, and more stress than strength.
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As the poet described it in their time, let us describe it in ours. The world is too much with us late and soon, we spend our years in challenge, fighting and struggling day in and day out, doubts within and fears without. If it wasn’t for bad luck, we would not have any luck at all some say. If it is not one thing it is another; it’s always something to rob the joy, sap the strength, minimize the positive and accentuate the negative. That’s the world with which we live day in and day out. That’s the world we make with our choices that diminish the value of others while exalting ourselves. Life unwinds like basketball, dribbling opportunities, passing responsibilities while attempting to shoot for our goal only to have our efforts rim out, bounce off, fall short or roll out of bounds. Life competes like football, trying to advance as fast and as far as we can, blocking those who would stop us and tackling those who would advance faster and further than we. Sometimes life revolves like baseball; scampering around life’s bases only to find out that you seldom ever score.
When the world is too much with you late and soon, the psalmist reminds us that with the Lord as your refuge you will not be put to shame. Imagine you will not be put to shame by those who will mock you for what you decided to do to make the best of life’s messes. Imagine, shame comes really as a result of the one you want to please.
Do you want to have those who will ridicule you be the ones you want to please,
or the One who provides the place, a refuge, a shelter, and a space where you can gather your thoughts, settle your doubts and reinforce your resolve, and strengthen your faith?
2Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. 3Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. 4Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are
my refuge. 5Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.
15My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. 16Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.”
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
He concludes that all of his times are in the Lord’s hands. Imagine what it’s like to have the notion that all of your times are in the Lord’s hands. (Remember the old Negro Spiritual “He’s got the whole world in his hands’. This spiritual praises the dominion of God over all things, comforting our anxieties from things that are out of control. (He’s got the whole world in his hands. He’s got the wind and the rain in his hands. He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands. He’s got you and me brother (and sister) in his hands. He’s got everybody in his hands")
Consider what it means to have the faith that your times are in the Lord’s hands.
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Time is that ever elusive entity that we us
to measure what we cannot see,
As we chronicle the experiences that
describe what we eventually are to be.
The ever rolling movement, the constant flow of motion,
Causes all we know about existence to fit into this notion.
For everything that happens, we can fit into a space,
Putting each occurrence into its special place.
With labels we denote how we understand
This ever elusive reality that stays so close at hand.
So we say with bated breath, it was a good time
or a time not so good,
Trying as best we can to make some sense
of what cannot always be understood.
Each moment carries with it a flavor all its own,
Capturing our existence with everything that is shown.
Sometimes we live as though we have an unlimited supply,
Only to discover we have deceived ourselves with such a lie.
And since it comes so quickly and leaves equally as fast,
We are forced to face the fact that nothing seems to last.
Given the nature of things, the least that we can do
Is treasure as precious the allotment of time available to you.
Once is all you get to live without regret,
So make the most of the time you have and your life will be better yet.
(WSE)
15My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. 16Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
Good times bring happiness, best times give memories.
Firstly, the good times are in the Lord’s hands.
It never ceases to amaze me how relevant the Bible is for the situations we experience in the world in which we live.
Remember the good times that you have had that made you happy. Even if they were few and far between, there were those times that you would call good. (I’m not talking about the television series that aired for six seasons about a black family that made themselves happy although the situations of their lives never changed. I am talking about good times of appreciation, enjoyment, and joy when the Lord provided a safe space for you to come to the Lord seeking refuge. I guess it is a matter of perspective. We are told that gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps to gain a balanced perspective, harmony and resilience in life.
Consider a few things for which you are grateful. Elders of another day would say:
Lord we thank you for another day we have never seen before. Thank you for being alive. Thank you for another opportunity to make the most of my life. Thank you that every way in life is as well with me as it is.
We can be thankful for the fellowship of kindred persons that reinforce loving, meaning and purpose, beyond limits, messes and predicaments. Imagine the fellowship of the faithful which maintains friendships.
Maybe that is why the psalmist reminds us continually that the Lord is good,
His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations. Just reflect on the goodness of the Lord in your life, the mercy you have experienced and the truth the Lord has brought you to see.
Consider what it means that the good times, which bring
happiness and memories, are in the Lord’s hands.
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Secondly, the bad times are in the Lord’s hands.
Life happens bringing with it an assortment of experiences some of which are just bad. The thing is, as long as you live in this world, you are subjected to the same chaos, the ups and downs, the good and bad, the positives and the negatives of life that are part of living. Bad just happens. You are not the only person facing bad which challenges us and stretches us in a variety of ways. What can set you apart from others though, is how you choose to deal with bad when it happens. Take refuge in the Lord who will rescue you from being defeated, frustrated, ruined and shamed by bad. Bad times give experiences and worst times teach lessons. Imagine the less than desirable experiences that teach you unforgettable lessons about managing, overcoming and surviving.
1In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. 2Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. 3Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. 4Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. 5Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.
Reflect on the experiences and lessons learned from life’s not so good times. Remember when the Lord was a refuge for you in the time of trouble. Remember how you got over, got around, and got through some of the most trying moments of life. We have a long history individually and collectively of managing the messes that come with bad, troubling times. There are those who want to deny the reality of the challenges and struggles of life and pretend like everything was hunky dory, but we know the truth. Langston Hughes put it this way in a poem entitled, Mother to Son:
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
We come up the rough side of the mountain and we are still climbing - facing cracks
and crevices and fractures and fissures that seemingly eclipsing our progress and
threaten our survival. But we know better. If the Lord had not been our protection, our refuge, and our shelter, where would we be?
Consider what it means to have the Lord as your refuge and shelter when atrocities assail and the not-so-good times seemingly prevail.
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Thirdly, the in between times are in the Lord’s hands.
These are the times between the highs and lows of life, between the good and the bad. These are the times when you may be standing still, stuck in a rut, trying to get traction to be projected forward against the pull and tug that drags you back. There are times when mediocracy, those just get by times occur.
Those are the times when you are between the good and the bad, the best and the worst, caught in the middle. How often do you hear some say, “I am waiting on my break through"? Sometimes we wait for the shifting to occur from one stage to the next, from one frame of mind to another frame of mind. We move from a sense of being stuck, to the realization that we are sequestered safely, sheltered until the storm passes, until the threat is diminished and made manageable, until we can move forward confidently with the blessed assurance of a presence that will be available to guide, help and strengthen us to keep on going.
“I waited patiently on the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. And he put a new song in my mouth”. (Psalm 40:1-3)
Consider what it means to have the Lord as your refuge and
shelter when your life seems to be standing still.
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Conclusion
He concludes that all of his times are in the Lord’s hands. Imagine what it’s like to have the notion that all of your time and times are in the Lord’s hands. Just like in the old Negro spiritual, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands." This spiritual praises the dominion of God over all things, comforting our anxieties from things that are out of
control.
He’s got the whole world in his hands
He’s got the wind and the rain in his hands
He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands
He’s got you and me brother (and sister) in his hands
He’s got the whole world in his hands.
Consider what it means to believe that the Lord has the
whole world in His hands which includes your time, too.
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