Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Handling Hardship | The Writings | Psalm 31

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Maybe you've realized it by now: life is hard. Where do you turn during times of suffering? Do you have tools to help you through hard times? In today's episode, Keith finds truth in Psalm 31 for encouragement during hardship. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 31

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I probably don't need to convince you that life is hard. I mean, the evidence for that is all around us. I have a few sayings that I live by, and one of them I probably shouldn't share because it's a little too raw, but I'm going to go ahead and share it and hope you're not too offended. If you're upset, email Patrick.

But here's the saying, life sucks, and then you die, and after that, hopefully it gets a lot better. I don't mean every part of life is bad. Most of us have a lot of good things in our life, even if we typically take them for granted. God has been ridiculously kind to me, maybe because he knows I don't have the faith to handle really hard things. But even in my very blessed life, there have been hardships, and I know there are hardships in your life. Some of the things you're struggling with are really difficult. I have a friend with an aggressive form of cancer. I have friends who are unable to have children. I have a friend that got all the way through the adoption process, and they were holding their new baby in their arms only to have the birth mother

change her mind at the last possible second. They were heartbroken. I have friends who are addicts, friends whose kids hate them, friends with divorces they never wanted, friends with kids with challenging disabilities. I have friends whose relationships with their parents are toxic, and it still affects them even in middle age. I have friends who are falsely accused of crying, and and it took them years to clear their name, friends who lost jobs later in life and didn't know how to provide for their family. In some sense, it shouldn't surprise us that life is hard.

Genesis tells us that we live in a fallen world where we experience the effects of sin. All throughout the Bible we see people and go through the same kinds of trials we experience. Jesus told us that in this world, we will have trouble. But while pain and difficulties come as a surprise, it doesn't make it easier for us to deal with. Some people have harder lives than us, and some people have easier lives than us.

But comparison is almost always a bad idea. We shouldn't turn suffering into a competition. My point in mentioning so many specific examples is just to say that we all have to figure out how to handle personal hardship and suffering and not lose our mind and not lose our faith. Some people try to cope by turning to substances. Others deny and stuff their feelings. Some get medicated to dull the pain. Some walk around angry.

Some put their hope in counselors. Just like all problems aren't the same, neither are all solutions. Something like seeking counseling can be really helpful, and turning to substances is always a bad idea. Psalm 31 is one of the places I go to when I'm stressed, when I'm worried, when I'm afraid, or I'm just unsure how to handle life. I hope the truth in Psalm 31 helps you experience God's peace.

Here's how it starts. In you, Lord, I've taken refuge. let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in your righteousness. Turn your ear to me. Come quickly to my rescue. Be my rock and refuge, a strong fortress to save me. Since you are my rock and fortress, for the sake of your name, lead and guide me. Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit. Deliver me, Lord, my faithful God. This prayer is by David. And in it, he's declaring that God is his refuge, and he's asking God to rescue him from some dire situation.

Then the prayer takes an interesting turn. David asks God to be his rock because he's his rock. It kind of doesn't quite make sense until you think more about it. He asked God to be his fortress because he already is his fortress. He asked God to be his refuge because he already is his refuge. So why does David ask God to be something he already is? Well, David states that God is the rock and the refuge and the fortress, but then he claims those promises for himself. This is a great model for us as we pray scripture. When we read things that

are true about God, we should pray that we would know those attributes of God personally and experientially. God, you're not just the rock, but I need you to be my rock. You're not just the refuge. I need you to be my refuge. See, we need to pray with our hearts what we know in our minds. We know things about God from the Bible. He is good, merciful, gracious, wise, strong. But we need to pray and ask God to be our wisdom and our strength, that we would sense his mercy and grace to us. We know that God works out things for our good,

but we need to pray that God would give us the faith to believe that's what he's doing with our cancer. That's what he's doing with that car wreck. We know God provides, so pray that he would be our provider. Jesus modeled this for us. On the cross, he prayed Psalm 31, verse 5, the last verse I read. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. Jesus prayed what David had prayed before him. See, Jesus knew the Psalm so well that when he was in trouble, he just prays biblical truth. When we're in trouble, this should be our prayer. We should, by faith, put our life in God's hands.

Can you think of a better place for it to be? And then in the next section of the Psalm, David tells God the trials and hardships he faces. He's in distress and is weighed down by sorrow and grief. His neighbors and his friends don't want to be around him. Don't you find that it's hard to be around people who are suffering? Because we're not quite sure what to say. It feels like their sadness and their pain can be overwhelming. And then finally, David says some of his enemies are even trying to kill him. But in the middle of all that comes verse 14 and 15. These verses are amazing. David says, but I trust in you, Lord. I say, you are my God. My times are in your hands. Deliver me from the hands of my enemies from those who pursue me. These are my go-to verses when

things are hard. This is where I turn when I'm worried or afraid. In the middle of all the chaos, I trust in the Lord. He is my God. At least I want to trust in him. The one who spoke the world into creation is my God. The one who created me is my God. I worship the God who delivered Israel from Egypt. I worship the God who parted the Red Sea. He's the light that led Israel by night and the cloud by day. He is the one who tumbled the walls of Jericho. He was the one in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abindigo. He rescued Daniel from the lion's den. He is my God. He is the one who loved me and gave himself from me. He became a servant, endured. humiliation, died on a hard wooden cross, and rose from the dead, that God, the only God,

the true God is my God. And verse 15 says that my life is in his hands. Isn't that right where I want it to be? You see, when I'm not thinking clearly, I think I want my life in my hands, because I think I know what's best. I think I should decide if the cancer will come back, or if I will lose my job, or if there will be money to pay the bills. When I'm not thinking clearly, I think I will do a better job with my life than God will. But then by God's grace, I come to my senses and realize how foolish that kind of thinking is. Filled with faith and wisdom, I agree with David that God knows best. He is wise. He is good. He is merciful. As Paul says, if he lives, he's going to live for the Lord. And if he dies, he's going to die for the Lord. Just because you trust in the Lord doesn't mean that things will always work out the way you

want them to. You might live, Paul says, or you might die. You might have a baby or you might not. You might get a good doctor report or you might get a bad one. You might find a job, but it might not be the one you wanted. I mean, think of Jesus. He trusted the father perfectly, and yet he was falsely charged and crucified. So your trust isn't in the circumstances working out your way. There's no promise in the Bible that says that your life will work out the way you want it to. No, your trust isn't in the circumstances, your trust is in the God who controls the circumstances, and he is good. Your life is in his hands. Your life is not in fate's hands. Your life is not in your hands. Your life is not in the authority's hands or the government's hands or the doctor's hands or your

kids' hands. Your life is in his hands. Your tomorrow, your next year, your life between this moment and the time that your life comes to an end here on earth, your life is in his hands. It's true that although Jesus was crucified, it is also true that he was resurrected. His trust in the Father was justified because God didn't abandon him. And God won't abandon you either. Those who trust in the Lord will be resurrected. The Psalm ends by saying, be strong and take heart all you who hope in the Lord. That's my prayer for all of us this morning.

Because our life is in God's hands, because he is our rock and our fortress, because he is our shield and our protection and our provider because he is our grace and our mercy that all of us today would be strong and take heart because we hope in the Lord.