All of us have felt let down by people. And all of us have let people down. Often the feeling of being let down can cause us to withdraw from people and even become bitter against them.
King David experienced that many times. In one of the Psalms he wrote, Psalm 62, he describes those feelings, and lays them all bare before God. David found out that that’s the best way to find freedom from burdens that weigh you down.
Look at how David expresses his trust in God when he found out that you need to be careful with trusting in people (Psalm 62:5-8):
Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My victory and honor come from God alone.
He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
O my people, trust in him at all times.
Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.
In times of trouble, affliction or opposition by our enemies, we need to turn to God who is our ultimate refuge and deliverer. In the Psalm, David gives us three keys if we want to live a life that is marked by trusting in God:
1) Don’t allow trouble to shake your confidence in God
“He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken” (Psalm 62:2 cf. v.6). It is so easy to lose trust in people and even in God when things don’t go the way we hoped them to go. If we want to live a life that is marked by a consistent trust in God, we need to make a decision to not allow trouble, crisis or suffering to shake our confidence in God.
Not only does our salvation come from God (v.1), but He himself is our rock, our salvation and our refuge!
2) Pour out your heart to God when you are going through trouble
“O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:8) The last thing you want to do sometimes when you have lost all hope is to pour out your heart to God. You just want to keep it to yourself and have a little pity party. Still, the best thing you can do in times of distress or threat is to commit ourselves to Him, stop pretending that all is well, and by earnest prayer tell him all that is in our hearts. Draw as close to Him as you can. The more you know Him, the more you can trust Him!
3) Wait for the Lord to act on your behalf
“I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him” (Psalm 62:1 cf. v.5). A third decision we need to make if we consistently want to trust in God is that we choose to wait for the Lord to act on our behalf, knowing and trusting that He will respond in love and compassion for our difficulties. This is not a passive waiting, but more a type of expecting. You know that God is going to come through. It may be earlier or later, but He will do it!
Moses had to learn this lesson himself and teach it to the Israelites. When they were pursued by the Egyptians and everybody lost hope they would survive when they were standing in front of the Red Sea, he told them to hold their peace and allow the Lord to fight their battles (Ex.14:14)!
Trust in God because He will never let you down!
This post is an excerpt from last Sunday’s message at Thousand Hills Hilversum. Here you can check out the video:
Trusting in the One who never lets you down (“The Pretenders” series) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.