Our Participation in God's Divine Timing.

“Are we there yet?” Children have no concept of time. How much greater is the gap between our understanding of time and God's. Our lives are as brief as a vapor compared to God’s eternality (James 4:14). What should we do with the time we are given?

It is an arduous task for us to understand God's timing. We look to the Bible for understanding.

Psalm 90

Psalm 90 is probably the oldest psalm, dated after the time of Job and before the Pentateuch. It was written by Moses while the Israelites were wandering in the desert for refusing to obey the Lord and enter the Promised Land. When Moses tired, he turned to God and reflected on His sovereignty for strength.

Moses calls the Lord "Adonai," the sovereign God over all circumstances. He is our den of safety in the midst of turmoil. God is sovereign even over our self-imposed consequences. He gives grace and safety even when we are suffering the results of our own sinfulness.

God is sovereign over death and time, two of many tyrants we face in our earthly life. Yet God watches over frail humanity with sovereign compassion. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul reflects that suffering seems long except when we can view it with an eternal perspective. This is possible when we meditate on the Scripture.

2 Peter 3

2 Peter 3 was written to another group of God's people who were growing anxious because of affliction. False teachers in their midst were questioning God's justice and goodness and Christ's return. They targeted new believers whose faith was not stable.

Peter reminds these people of truth from the Old and New Testaments. God worked in the past, and He will work again. Judgement is coming, but God is not anxious about it. He is patient in His timing on the behalf of unbelieving mockers and believers who may be anxious. He provides a refuge and the perspective that brings a burden for lost souls in the meantime. God's salvific desire is for all to come to Him.

Application Points

• Have you become weary or worried? Trust in God's sovereignty! Rehearse what He's done in the past and trust that He will continue to work in the future.
• Scared and fretting people aren't respected or listened to. In affliction, only God's people know how to get a grip. "The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding," (Philippians 4:7) will give you a platform to speak the truth of the Gospel in trying circumstances.

Tools for Further Study

Quote to Ponder

"To God a thousand years is but an evening gone, a mere watch in the night — the third part of a single night."

A Hymn to Encourage: "O God, Our Help in Ages Past"

O God, our Help in ages past,
Our Hope for years to come,
Our Shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal Home!

Before the hills in order stood
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Our God, our Help in ages past,
Our Hope for years to come,
Be Thou our Guard while troubles last
And our eternal Home!