My Times are in Your Hand (Psalm 31:15)

 My Times are in Your Hand (Psalm 31:15)

Our times are assigned to us. We don’t pick them. We certainly have little to say about when and where we were born. We understand that life is a gift from God. Even those who don’t believe in God must believe that it is some kind of “happy accident,” and thus we cannot take credit for it ourselves. But for believers, since we believe life is a fleeting gift from God, we also don’t know how long this earthly life will last.

Therefore, “my times” are not really mine. They are lent to me, to be given back when I die. “My times” are really God’s times, or the times that God has assigned to me. And therefore, “my times” are not in my hand, though we make many decisions about how “our” life will be lived. Nonetheless, my times are in God’s hand.

The verse goes on to request, then, that God would “deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.” There is something about this life of ours, as managed by us, that leaves us with scant resources to fight dangerous enemies, whether physical or spiritual. And it is the spiritual enemies that are the most cunning. We ask God for help against this vast array of enemies because we cannot handle the job ourselves. But also, we ask, because since “our times” are actually God’s times, He has a deep interest in our success against these enemies, and for our living with His ownership in mind.

Psalm 1:3 says that the one who separates himself from sinners so that he might be devoted to God and His Word “will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither;  And in whatever he does, he prospers.” That is, he is seeking God’s help in charting a course for living apart from enemies and persecutors, and in return, God brings “success” or “prospering” into his life. Certainly, this success must be defined Biblically. God’s prospering can include things like health and wealth, but it more importantly includes fellowship with God and usefulness in His service. It includes things like peace and joy and love that flow out of us from within.

These things happen, according to Psalm 1, “in its time.” That is, in God’s timing that He has ordained for us. Some of these things may happen in our youth or they may happen in old age. Some pick up the lessons quickly. For others, it comes through a variety of struggles and defeats, until we submit to God’s will and way - when we finally realize that what we have regarded as “my times,” my life, my goals, my values and agenda and passion, my, my, my - when we finally realize that all these things actually begin, not with “my” or “me,” but with what is rightfully God’s, for His glory.