“My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.” (Psalm 31:15)
When David penned these words, he was either currently in, or reflecting back, on his time on the run from Saul, being persecuted for righteousness’ sake because of Saul’s sin and jealousy. David summarized this perilous period of his life that every day “there is but a step between me and death.” (1 Sam. 20:3) In this passage, David was resting in the truth that all his “times” – the mountain top of slaying Goliath and even hiding in caves with just a step between him and death – were safely held in the hand of God. He knew he could die at any moment, but that fear was eased because he knew his life was held in the hand of God. All our lives are held in God’s hand and sustained and protected by the Lord. It’s in Christ that we “live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17.28)
All our times are in the hand of God. The good times and the bad times. Whatever time touches me in my life, even the bad times, comes through the hand of God and is held in the hand of God. While God does not cause suffering – that is the result of sin and living in a sin cursed earth – when we go through times of suffering, those times are in the hand of God, just as much as the mountain tops are, because God could have prevented the suffering, if it was his will to do so. God always gives grace sufficient in the times of suffering because all those times are in his hand.
We see from the story of Job that Satan and this world cannot touch any of God’s children unless the Lord suffers them to do so by removing his providential hedge to certain degrees. The language in Job is purposefully very precise. Satan tells the Lord to put forth his own hand to touch Job (1:11), but the Lord says that the devil can put forth his hand to touch Job, (1:12); the calamity would not come from God’s hand because he does not create or approve of sin. Even though Satan’s hand afflicted Job’s business, possessions, and children in chapter 1, he still could not touch Job because the Lord restricted that. That is a beautiful way to think about God’s providential hedge – that it’s the hand of God protecting us from Satan and this world.
Satan again, in chapter two, seeks to impugn God’s integrity saying that God would put forth his own hand and touch his bone and flesh with disease (2:5). The Lord again rebuffs this slander and then tells Satan that he is “in thine hand but save his life” (2:6). Job was only in Satan’s hand in a specific context, to afflict him with illness. Satan’s hand is limited and can go no farther than God suffers him to go. Satan’s hand and power ends where God’s hand begins. God does not cause sickness, illness, or these grievous boils that Job endured. That is the result of sin cursed bodies living in a sin cursed earth. Illness is inevitable in our lives. God can prevent our sickness, but it’s not always in his will to do so. It’s also worth noting that not every illness comes from Satan, but many times is just the result of our frail, earthly, sinful bodies. Even if it is God’s will for us to go through the valley of sickness, we know the hand of God is protecting our life just like Job, until it’s the Lord’s will to take us home to heaven.
Even in the midst of his suffering, Job understood his times were held in the hand of God. He knew the former days of prosperity came from the hand of God – “the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (1:21) He knew the good times came from the hand of God and these hard times were held in the hand of God as well. When his wife told him to curse God and die, “he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” (Job 2:10). Job understood the good in his life had come from the hand of God, and the “evil” (the calamitous events that occurred) were held in the hand of God as well. In the Old Testament, the word evil primarily means “calamity”. God does not cause sin (James 1:13-15) and cannot look on iniquity with approval (Hab. 1:13). God did not cause the calamitous events of destruction of business holdings, death of children, boils, and his wife turning on him, but God did suffer them according to his will. Those calamitous events came in Job’s life from the devil’s hand and God’s hand protected him from further peril. However, from Job’s perspective, even in the midst of these calamitous events, he understood those suffering times came from the hand of God as well, just as the good days of prosperity had previously come from the hand of God.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon gives for us a summary of the peaks and valleys of life under the sun, with the good times being immediately offset and coupled with hard times. Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: [2] A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; [3] A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; [4] A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; [5] A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; [6] A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; [7] A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; [8] A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. [11] He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”
During times of death, times of plucking up, times of breaking down, times of weeping and mourning, times of no loving embrace, times of loss and casting away and rending, all of those times have passed through the will of God to touch our lives and are held in God’s hand. The precious reminder for the Lord’s children is not just that the times are held in God’s hand, but we ourselves are held safely, closely, and securely in God’s hand as we pass through those times.
It’s easy to see the good, mountain top moments in God’s hand. Times of birth, times of planting, times of healing, times of building up, times of laughing and dancing, times of gathering together and a warm embrace, times of getting and keeping, times of loving verbal encouragement, times of love and peace. We ought to praise God that these good times were in accordance with his will, and he was gracious to allow these blessings to come in our life by his hand. However, we must also see that the hard times are in the hand of God as well, and God is just as worthy of praise in the valley as he is on the mountain top. We are as safely held in God’s hand in the valley as we are on the mountain top.
Why does the Lord suffer the good times and the hard times, when all our life and all our times are held in the hand of God? I think Solomon gives us a little more insight into that a few chapters later as well. Ecclesiastes 7:14 “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.” During the times of prosperity, it is good and proper to be joyful and praise the hand of God for those blessings. During the times of adversity, it should cause us to “consider”, to reflect and meditate. God is in control of all the times of our life. All our times are in his hand. It’s God that “sets” the day of prosperity over against the day of adversity. Why? To the end that man should find nothing after him.
Our joy should not be primarily dictated by circumstances around us. There is a place for above average excitement during the days of prosperity. There is also a place to acknowledge the adversity, process sadness, grief, loss, or whatever is appropriate in the immediate aftermath of the days of adversity. However, we cannot plunge into perpetual depression when the days of adversity come. No, we process it, we acknowledge it, and then we need to consider that our true joy is found in the person of Jesus Christ, not in the roller coaster of events that come in our life, either good and bad.
One benefit of suffering in the days of adversity (if we respond the right way; we can always choose to be bitter and ruin any lesson that could be learned during suffering) is that we experience the fellowship with Jesus so much more intimately when we suffer for righteousness sake the same way Jesus did. Jesus said “life eternal” was to “know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ”. (John 17:3) Paul was willing to give up all his worldly accolades and count them but dung and loss “for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord…10) That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings” (Phil. 3:8-10) I am so thankful for blessed moments in our life. The things that we might see as pinnacle days of prosperity, Jesus did not experience any of those in his life. Jesus was not married, didn’t have a child, didn’t graduate from high school or college, didn’t receive a promotion at work, didn’t buy his dream house or new bass boat or whatever fits your case. Jesus’ life as the Son of man was rather characterized by sorrow – a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). He was despised (Isaiah 53:3) and reviled (1 Pet. 2:23). He was acquainted with “temptation” being tempted in all points as we are yet without sin (Heb. 4:15), and thus is uniquely qualified as our faithful high priest to make intercession for us in our temptation. If we are dealing with sorrow, grief, temptation, or even being despised and reviled, Jesus knows those days of adversity intimately and will give you strength for those days.
Jesus’ days on earth as the Son of man were primarily days of adversity. Thus, when you are enduring suffering, you can have a more intimate knowledge of Jesus that you just can’t have in the days of prosperity on the mountain top. And a more intimate knowledge of Jesus is the pinnacle of life eternal. We want to know more about Jesus and have closer, deeper, more intimate fellowship with Jesus here in our lives. But the pinnacle of that perfect knowledge is when we see Jesus face to face and will know Him as we are known. The pain of the days of adversity makes us long for that day when we see Jesus and know Him fully. The knowledge of Jesus this side of heaven is so refreshing to our soul, and if that’s just the earnest of our inheritance, oh what the fullness of that knowledge of Jesus must be!
God has set the days and times of adversity in our lives that we should find nothing after him. That we are reminded that we are poor wayfaring strangers, that we are citizens of heaven on a pilgrimage to the homeland, just briefly passing through this world of adversity. Then, one day, when God’s hand takes us home to heaven, we will have an eternal day of prosperity that will never end! But until then, let’s “consider” the days of adversity and allow the Holy Spirit to point us to Christ, to find nothing after Christ, to grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ, and long for heaven when we shall know Him perfectly! All our times, both of prosperity and adversity, are in the Lord’s hand, and that is a safe and secure place for all of God’s children to be!