By Brother Guy C. Ames
My Favorite Psalm 16: I SHALL NOT BE MOVED,
Looking forward to my retirement, my wife and I planned to travel, visit family, and see the country when significant health issues interrupted our plans. After several years with such, I must confess to some discouragement. Then God called to mind a better mindset.
Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you. (Psalm 16:1-2)
After killing Goliath, joining Saul’s court, being anointed as King, David is running for his life. The future he had imagined now up in smoke, raises questions. How does he respond? Standing strong in faith during disappointments and disaster, he turns his eyes towards God instead.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;…
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage…
I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. (Psalm 16:5-6, 8)
Instead of focusing on what he has lost, he recalls God’s provisions. I love the way the RSV translates verse 6: The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Thinking on this I remember the many times God has placed me in just the right place; I have been blessed with a wonderful heritage in Christ. These days might not be what I had planned but my life has always been in His hands. With that in mind I pray now to face the challenges with a heart that “shall not be moved”.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor let your faithful …see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand (Psalm 16:9-11).
In 1971 E. Stanley Jones’ preaching took him to Oklahoma, when tragedy struck. A massive stroke stole Jones’ ability to talk, write, walk, and move about. Bedfast, he lay with only his thoughts. Millions sent words of prayer and encouragement, but in his silence, he wondered what a peripatetic evangelist could do who could not speak, write, or walk. Remembering the sermons he preached reminding others that “Jesus Is Enough,” he began praying that God might still use him. In his last book, The Divine Yes, he tells the story of how after a season of deep prayer God’s Spirit so encompassed him and filled his hospital room, that those who came to bring comfort left with a deep sense that they had been in worship. Jesus didn’t need Jones’ voice to reach others but used his surrendered heart to give light through Jones’ life. Taking the title from Paul’s words, “The divine ‘yes’ has at last sounded in him, for in him is the ‘yes’ that affirms all the promises of God” (2 Corinthians 1:19-20, Moffatt), Jones calls us to “stand firm” on the truth that because Jesus is “Yes”, we trust him even in uncertain futures.
What are you facing? Disappointments, interruptions, heartache, loss? The hurt and frustrations are real when our lives are detoured in such ways. The good news is the same news we have heard and declare, that Jesus is still Lord. We can hold faith that in everything Jesus remains the same, “yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
