Just Real Quick: "Nah God. You gon' let them do that to You?"

Just Real Quick!!

                This entry is taken from my journal entry dated 1/15/16. At the time, I was happily learning more and more about faith and trusting God in the midst of hard times. I myself was believing God for some things at that time, and meditating on scripture, specifically the confessions of King David in Psalms, helped me not to make the situation I was facing greater than my trust in God. I learned so much from David’s mindset towards trusting God, especially in Psalm 10. The following are my notes on it at that time, edited and revised for this post.

                I notice how David, even when the Lord has yet to speak on an issue, still holds fast to the Lord’s proven character. He does not say, “Lord, You don’t hear me.” Or “Lord, You can’t see this,” or even, “You’re not even going to help me – You never do.” NO.

Not like some of us do.

                But he of course wonders why the Lord – who he knows and trusts can do all things, who he knows abhors evil, who he knows to defend His people, the poor and the needy, who he knows is not limited in His abilities – is not necessarily acting as of yet.

“O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble? 2 The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor. Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others.” (vs. 1-2)

 

And then, it is not that David rushes the Lord, he just asks the Lord that when He moves, that He really moves against the wicked. And at the same time he cheers the Lord on because He knows and trusts how powerful God is already and that God sees what is going on!

“Arise, O Lord! Punish the wicked, O God! Do not ignore the helpless! 13 Why do the wicked get away with despising God? They think, “God will never call us to account.” 14 But you see the trouble and grief they cause. You take note of it and punish them. The helpless put their trust in you. You defend the orphans. 15 Break the arms of these wicked, evil people! Go after them until the last one is destroyed. 16 The Lord is king forever and ever! The godless nations will vanish from the land.” (vs. 12-16)

And then he confirms the Lord’s character to himself (and to anyone else listening), declaring who God is and what He hates along with what He is bound to do based on His consistent character.

“The Lord is king forever and ever! The godless nations will vanish from the land. 17 Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. 18 You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them.” (vs. 16-18)

If we take on this attitude, where David is basically trusting and hoping in God the whole time throughout our hard times, we will fare far better. David basically glorifies God and defends God the entire time all the while trusting in God’s unshakeable character. So his questioning in the beginning is not even doubt – it’s more like a challenge to God because he knows what God can do. For instance, it is similar to us saying to a friend whom we just witnessed being disrespected,

“Yo, you gon’ let them do that to you?”

We know what our friend is capable of and at this point there is no doubt in our mind how badly things can go for the opponent; we’re just waiting for the retaliation.

So this entire chapter, I think David's mindset is more like:

“Nah God. You can’t let them do this to You – clearly they don’t know who you are!”

This is what you call trusting in the Almighty God and what He can do, despite what the situation looks like. David’s confidence is clearly so beyond what he can presently see. Did you notice how the chapter ends still with no response from God? But what is David’s mindset in spite of this? What is your level of confidence in God in times of trouble? It’s time for a self-check.

Just wanted to say that real quick.