Trust

Psalm 55

English Standard Version (ESV)

To the choirmaster: with ^(A)stringed instruments. A Maskil^[a] of David.

55 ^(B)Give ear to my prayer, O God,
    and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
² Attend to me, and answer me;
    I am restless ^(C)in my complaint and I ^(D)moan,
³ because of the noise of the enemy,
    because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they ^(E)drop trouble upon me,
    and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

⁴ My heart is in anguish within me;
    ^(F)the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
⁵ Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and ^(G)horror ^(H)overwhelms me.
⁶ And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest;
^7 (I)yes, I would wander far away;
    I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
⁸ I would hurry to find a shelter
    from ^(J)the raging wind and tempest.”

⁹ Destroy, O Lord, ^(K)divide their tongues;
    for I see ^(L)violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰ Day and night they go around it
    on its walls,
and ^(M)iniquity and trouble are within it;
¹¹     ruin is in its midst;
^(N)oppression and fraud
    do not depart from its marketplace.

¹² For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
    then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who ^(O)deals insolently with me—
    then I could hide from him.
^13 (P)But it is you, a man, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend.
¹⁴ We used to take sweet counsel together;
    within God's house we walked in ^(Q)the throng.
¹⁵ Let death steal over them;
    let them go down to Sheol ^(R)alive;
    for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.

¹⁶ But I call to God,
    and the Lord will save me.
^17 (S)Evening and ^(T)morning and at ^(U)noon
    I ^(V)utter my complaint and moan,
    and he hears my voice.
¹⁸ He redeems my soul in safety
    from the battle that I wage,
    for ^(W)many are arrayed against me.
¹⁹ God will give ear and humble them,
    he who is ^(X)enthroned from of old, Selah
because they do not ^(Y)change
    and do not fear God.

²⁰ My companion^[b] (Z)stretched out his hand against his friends;
    he violated his covenant.
²¹ His ^(AA)speech was ^(AB)smooth as butter,
    yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
    yet they were ^(AC)drawn swords.

^22 (AD)Cast your burden on the Lord,
    and he will sustain you;
^(AE)he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.

²³ But you, O God, ^(AF)will cast them down
    into ^(AG)the pit of destruction;
men of ^(AH)blood and treachery
    shall not ^(AI)live out half their days.
But I will ^(AJ)trust in you.

(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2055&version=ESV)  

Have you ever felt betrayed by a friend?  If so, you know how much it hurts.  An enemy can say things that infuriate us but when a friend turns their backs on us, it cuts to the bone, hurting more than words can describe.  This passage reflects the inner most hurt of the betrayal of a friend.

I have recently felt that hurt in a couple of different settings and it is quite painful.  In fact the entire reason this blog was started came from the rejection of longtime friends.  I went running to God to get help in trying to understand what was going on in my life.  I decided it was time to seek Him more than to seek approval from man. 

There is only one friend that will not break promises and that is God.  We see throughout scripture that many promises have been broken and it was not because God decided He didn’t want to keep His promise.  The result of broken promises comes from the actions of man.  We say we are going to read our Bible more this year, even read through it and after the first two weeks of January have past, all of a sudden we find ourselves busy with other things and so the reading get puts down until next year when we make the same promise to get to know God better.

As a child I was afraid that if I died I would not know who anyone from the Bible.  Moses, Joseph, Elijah, Elisha and the list goes on.   The stories would get confusing and there seemed to be an emphasis on these important people.  The only way to get to know them is through the reading and studying the Word of God.  But, do we really even know God?  Not in the sense of knowing Jesus as our personal Savior but do we really know God?   Again, the only way to get to know Him is to spend time with Him. 

Who is the one friend that we disappoint the most?  In my opinion we most likely disappoint our Lord the most. 

He has probably had more people than imaginable break promises that were made to Him yet He remains faithful to us. When we let so called friends get us down we become vengeful.  Then we start blaming God for our situation.  We wonder why He lets them get away with it.  We think that He is not hearing our cries and that He is not taking care of the matter the way that we think He should.  But this scripture today reminds us that He is the only One that we can put our trust in.  Others will let us down and most likely we will let others down, we even let the God of the Universe down when we don’t trust Him.  I have to think of the suffering of Christ.  There were few that stood beside Him throughout His arrest and crucifixion.  Yet, He remained faithful.

To pull this all together, we need to remember when we pray that we are speaking through Jesus Christ, the One who sacrificed His life for us, to the God who created us and the universe that surrounds us.  He is not hiding from us but how often are we hiding from Him?  He is the One friend who won’t let us down.  When I get to Heaven the only One I want to be sure to recognize and know is our God, the Trinity, the three in One.  Recognizing Him will not be a problem, even those who disclaimed Him will recognize Him but I want to truly know Him.  The only way to do that is to seek Him with all my heart.  When I do that, nothing that man does to me will matter because knowing the Father gives us strength, endurance, trust, and a passion to serve Him.

Seeking His with all my heart,

Sheila