Trusting God 2-1-26
Scripture Psalm 37:1–18
Video: https://youtu.be/NiJZ7ydZBZM?si=J_4yNxgEEhtxgtAk
If you live long enough, you will discover that trusting God is not a one-time decision. It is a daily practice.
There are moments when trust comes easily. When prayers are answered quickly. When life seems to line up. But Psalm 37 is not written for those moments. It is written for seasons when the wicked appear to prosper, when faithfulness feels unrewarded, and when the future looks uncertain.
Psalm 37 is wisdom literature. It reads less like a cry of desperation and more like a seasoned voice saying, “I’ve seen this before. Stay steady. Trust God.” The psalmist is not denying injustice; he is teaching us how to live faithfully in the middle of it.
The main point of Psalm 37 is this: Instead of envying the wicked or fearing the future, we rest in God’s faithfulness and find peace in patient trust.
Psalm 37 is traditionally attributed to David, written later in life. This is not the voice of a young shepherd dreaming of victory. This is the voice of someone who has watched tyrants rise and fall, who has suffered betrayal, exile, and injustice, and who has learned, through hard experience, that God’s faithfulness outlasts every season of human power.
The psalm reflects an ancient Near Eastern worldview where prosperity was often assumed to be proof of divine favor. Psalm 37 pushes back against that assumption. It insists that appearances are temporary, but God’s purposes endure.
I. Do Not Be Consumed by the Success of the Wicked
Psalm 37, verse 1 says, “Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers.” The psalmist names a very human temptation: comparison. We look around and see people who cut corners, bend the truth, exploit others, and yet, they seem to get ahead. Meanwhile, those who try to live faithfully often struggle. The psalm does not say the wicked are imaginary. It does not say injustice is harmless. It says: do not let it consume you.
Envy corrodes trust. Fretfulness drains joy. When we fixate on the apparent success of others, we lose sight of God’s long view. The psalmist reminds us that what looks permanent is actually fleeting. We read in verse two, “For they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb.” (Psalm 37:2). This is not denial. It is perspective.
II. Practice Patient Trust in the Midst of Uncertainty
The psalm goes on to say, “Trust in the Lord, and do good… Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” (Psalm 37:3, 5). Here the psalm shifts from warning to instruction. Trust, in Psalm 37, is not passive. It is active, practiced, and lived out. The verbs matter: trust, do good, dwell, commit, wait.
Patient trust does not mean inactivity. It means faithfulness without panic. It means doing what is right even when outcomes are unclear.
The apostle Paul echoes this wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1:18 when he writes, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
The world rewards speed, dominance, and self-protection. God’s wisdom often looks slower, quieter, and weaker, but it carries eternal weight.
The cross itself is the ultimate act of patient trust. No immediate victory. No public vindication; at least not at first. And yet, God was at work in ways the world could not see.
Another scripture that ties deeply into this message is Isaiah 40:31, “But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” Waiting is not wasting. Waiting is trusting.
III. Rest in the Faithfulness of God, Who Holds Your Future
Psalm 37:16 says, “Better is a little that the righteous person has than the abundance of many wicked” (Psalm 37:16).
Psalm 37 ultimately calls us not just to patience, but to peace. The psalmist insists that God knows the days of the blameless, that their inheritance endures, and that God does not abandon those who trust Him.
Trusting God means resting. Not resting in circumstances, nor in outcomes, nor in control, but resting in God’s character.
This is where the psalm’s wisdom reaches its deepest truth: God’s faithfulness is not fragile. It does not depend on the market, the empire, or the moment.
Psalm 37 does not promise a trouble-free life. It promises a faithful God. So here is the call: Stop envying what will not last.
Keep doing good when it feels unnoticed. Wait without fear.
Trust without panic. Rest without resignation.
If you are anxious about the future, commit your way to the Lord. If you are weary from injustice, trust that God sees.
If you are tempted to give up. remember that God’s purposes are already at work.
This week, choose one act of trust: Speak truth without fear.
Serve without recognition. Give generously. Pray expectantly. And let your life proclaim this truth:
God is faithful. God is trustworthy. God is enough.
Works Cited
The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition. National Council of Churches, 1989.
Cowper, William. “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” 1774. Public domain.
Isaiah 40:31. The Holy Bible, NRSVA.
1 Corinthians 1:18–25. The Holy Bible, NRSVA.
Psalm 37:1–18. The Holy Bible, NRSVA.
Known & Loved 1-25-26
Scripture: Psalm 139:1-12
Video: https://youtu.be/2NUjJ3Xb_JI?si=7PGlsnNy9xHuQToS
Scripture does not explain what “help” means. Healing from cancer, or a recent accident? We decide what healing and deliverance looks like. What God decides healing and deliverance looks like, may be very different.
God might help you lose your car. Jesus had to go through some things, why not us? “Gods help is rarely what we think we need. Sometimes, healing is releasing the eternal spirit from the sick body
There is a deep human hunger to be known and an equally deep fear of being fully known. We want to be seen, understood, recognized. But we also worry: If someone really knew me; my thoughts, my doubts, my regrets. Would they still love me?
Psalm 139 speaks directly into that tension. It does not offer a distant God who observes us from afar with a clipboard and a frown. Instead, it reveals a God whose knowledge is intimate, personal, and tender. God’s knowing is not surveillance; it is relationship. Not exposure for shame, but embrace for healing.
The main point of Psalm 139:1–12 is this: God knows us completely and stays with us intentionally; not to condemn us, but to comfort us, guide us, and love us.
The Psalm moves us from awareness, to presence, to assurance. And as it does, it invites us to rest in a truth that can transform how we live, how we see ourselves, and how we treat one another.
Psalm 139 is attributed to David and belongs to the wisdom tradition of Israel. It is a personal prayer. It is poetic, reflective, and deeply theological. Unlike lament psalms that cry out from pain, or royal psalms that celebrate kingship, Psalm 139 meditates on God’s attributes: omniscience (God knows all), omnipresence (God is everywhere), and omnipotence (God’s power sustains life).
In the ancient Near Eastern world, gods were often understood as territorial and limited. A god belonged to a region, a shrine, or a people. Psalm 139 boldly proclaims something radically different: the God of Israel is present everywhere; above, below, near, far, light, and darkness alike.
This psalm was likely used in personal devotion and communal worship to reassure God’s people that no matter where life took them; exile, wilderness, failure, or fear, God had not abandoned them.
That context matters, because Psalm 139 is not abstract theology. It is lived faith. It is truth meant to steady anxious hearts.
1: God Knows Us Completely (vv. 1–4)
“O LORD, you have searched me and known me.” The psalm begins with a confession, not a complaint. David does not say, “God, I know you.” He says, “God, you know me.”
God knows when we sit down and when we rise up. God discerns our thoughts from far away. God knows our words before we speak them.
At first glance, this level of knowledge can sound unsettling. We live in a world of passwords, privacy settings, and carefully curated images. Being fully known feels risky. But the tone of the psalm is not fear, it is trust.
God’s knowledge is relational. The Hebrew word translated “known” (yada) is the same word used to describe deep covenantal intimacy. This is the knowing of love, not the knowing of accusation.
This matters when we connect Psalm 139 with Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 1. Paul addresses a divided church. They were a people forming factions, arguing over leaders, competing for spiritual status. Beneath that division is a desire to be seen as right, important, or superior.
Paul responds not by shaming them, but by redirecting them to Christ crucified; the place where God knows us at our worst and loves us at our deepest.
When we forget that we are already fully known and fully loved by God, we start striving for validation elsewhere. We divide, compete, and perform. But when we rest in God’s knowing, we are freed from the exhausting need to prove ourselves.
God knows you, your faith, your fear, your courage and your contradictions. And God has not walked away.
2: God Is With Us Everywhere (vv. 5–10)
“You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” The Psalm moves from God’s knowledge to God’s presence. This is not a God who knows us from a distance. This is a God who surrounds us.
David imagines every possible direction: Heaven and Sheol. East and west. Morning light and the farthest sea. There is no geography where God is absent.
For ancient Israel, this was a powerful claim. Exile raised terrifying questions: If we are taken from the land, is God still with us? Psalm 139 answers with a resounding yes.
And for us, the question still echoes: Is God with me in the hospital room? In the lonely house? In the anxious night? In the place where I feel lost or ashamed?
The answer of the psalm is steady and clear: Yes. God’s presence is not limited to sanctuaries or success stories. God is present in grief, confusion, failure, and fear.
This is where another scripture strengthens the message: Romans 8:38–39, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
God’s presence is not fragile. It does not withdraw when life falls apart. The hand that hems us in is not a fist. It is a guiding, steady hand. The kind you feel on your shoulder when words fail but love remains.
3: God’s Nearness Is for Our Comfort, Not Our Condemnation (vv. 11–12)
“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,’ even the darkness is not dark to you.” This is the heart of the psalm. This is the good news.
David names the fear we all carry: What if the darkness swallows me? What if shame, grief, doubt, or failure define the end of my story?
And the psalm answers: Darkness does not frighten God. Darkness does not hide us from God. Darkness is not the end.
God’s knowledge and presence are not tools of condemnation. They are sources of comfort. This truth finds its fullest expression in Jesus Christ. Paul reminds the Corinthians that the center of faith is not human wisdom or religious performance, but the cross; a place where God steps fully into human darkness to redeem it.
At the cross, God proves once and for all that being fully known does not lead to rejection. It leads to redemption.
Psalm 139 and 1 Corinthians 1 speak to the same human need from different angles. The psalm reassures us: You are known and never abandoned.
There is a term I came across in the Wesley Study Bible and that is “Spiritual Respiration.”
Our need for God can be compared to our need for air. We must breathe air in order to live physically, and we must breathe God in order to live spiritually. John Wesley uses this image of ‘spiritual respiration’ to help us to think about the closeness we ought to have with God-constant and intimate connection (see Sermon 45: “The New Birth,”… and Sermon 19: “The Great Privilege of Those Born of God.” When God fills our lives the way that air fills our lungs, we
are refreshed, alert, and energized for God’s work. The image also helps us to see what happens when we do not pay attention to that relationship. If we stop breathing God, we will lose the connection that is essential to our spiritual lives. Our relationship with God is not automatic the way our physical breathing is, so we have to concentrate on it through prayer, Bible study, worship, and other practices that help us cultivate our spiritual lives.
Paul challenges us: Because you are known and loved, live differently. When we trust that God’s knowledge is for our comfort, not our condemnation, it changes how we live. We stop hiding. We stop pretending. We stop dividing. We stop defining ourselves by labels other than “beloved.”
A church that truly believes it is known and loved becomes a place of unity, humility, and grace. So here is the invitation of this psalm; not just to believe it, but to live it.
If you are tired of hiding, stop running. God is already there. If you are burdened by shame, release it. God already knows. and still loves you. If you are anxious about the future, breathe deeply. You are surrounded by grace. And if you are part of the body of Christ, let this truth shape how you treat one another.
Because people who know they are deeply loved do not need to tear others down. People who trust God’s presence do not fear difference or disagreement.
People who are secure in grace become agents of grace. Go from this place knowing this: You are known. You are loved. You are never alone.
Live boldly. Love generously. Walk faithfully because the God who knows you goes with you. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Works Cited
The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition. National Council of Churches, 1989.
Brueggemann, Walter. The Message of the Psalms. Augsburg Publishing House, 1984.
Goldingay, John. Psalms, Volume 3: Psalms 90–150. Baker Academic, 2008.
Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians. Interpretation Commentary Series, Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.
Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems. Beacon Press, 1992.
Out of The Pit, Into Praise 1-18-26
Scripture: Psalm 40:1–10
Video: https://youtu.be/vtqHDEX0EII?si=vJma3l_y8rSe6E3u
Theme: God lifts us from despair to testimony; our deliverance becomes the song that draws others to hope.
There are moments in life when the ground beneath us gives way. Moments when waiting stretches longer than we thought we could endure. Moments when prayer feels less like poetry and more like a groan.
Most of us don’t need a definition of despair; we’ve lived it. A diagnosis that changes everything. A relationship that collapses. A season where joy feels like a distant memory and hope feels thin.
Psalm 40 is not written from a mountaintop. It is written from the pit. That’s what makes it so powerful. Psalm 40 is the testimony of someone who waited, cried out, was lifted up, and then refused to keep quiet about what God had done. It is a song born in suffering and carried into praise; not for private comfort, but for public witness.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” Psalm 40 reminds us that the pit is not the end of the story. It is often the place where hope first becomes visible; not because the darkness is good, but because God is present even there.
The main point of this psalm is simple and necessary for us to hear: When God lifts us out of despair, our deliverance becomes a testimony that leads others to hope.
To help share part of my story, I want to read for you the short devotional I wrote for a Lenten Devotional for a children’s school in Uganda.
God’s Comfort When Things Hurt
Sometimes life hurts. Pain and suffering can happen in many different ways, even to kids.
When I was a child, some things felt harder for me than for others. Loud noises and big crowds made me feel overwhelmed. I was often quiet and kept to myself. Because I was different, some kids were unkind to me, and that made me feel lonely and sad.
There were also times when people I trusted made choices that hurt me. I didn’t understand why bad things were happening, and my heart felt heavy. But even when I was hurting, God never left me.
The Bible tells us, “God is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). That means when we are sad, scared, or hurting, God comes close to us. When I felt alone, God was with me. When my heart hurt, Jesus understood. When I didn’t know what to say, the Holy Spirit comforted me like a gentle hug that reminded me I was not alone.
During Lent, we remember that Jesus knows what suffering feels like. Jesus was hurt, too. He cried, He was lonely, and He suffered because He loves us. Jesus understands our pain, and He walks with us through hard times.
God comforts us so we can keep going and so one day, we can help comfort others. If you are hurting today, you can talk to God. You can tell Jesus exactly how you feel. And you can ask a safe adult to help you, too.
You are loved. You are not alone. God is with you, always.
Psalm 40 is traditionally attributed to the Shepherd/King, David. It may have been written due to a specific crisis like political danger, illness, or betrayal. He experienced all these things. This psalm does not just reflect the Psalmist’s heart. It reflects the lived experience of ancient Israel: a people who understood waiting, danger, and rescue.
In the ancient Near East, a “pit” was not merely symbolic. It could refer to a cistern, a prison, or a muddy well; places of confinement and death. To be pulled from a pit was to be saved from destruction, shame, and silence.
This psalm moves deliberately: From waiting, to rescue, to praise, and to public proclamation. David’s faith is not theoretical. It is embodied, testified, and shared.
I. God Meets Us in the Waiting
“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” (Psalm 40:1)
Waiting is rarely celebrated in Scripture, but it is everywhere. David does not rush past this part. He doesn’t say, “I waited briefly” or “I waited calmly.” The Hebrew suggests intense, stretched-out waiting. The kind that wears you down. The kind that tests trust.
Faith is not proven by how loudly we praise when things go well, but by how faithfully we wait when they don’t. Waiting does not mean God is absent. Waiting does not mean God is indifferent. Waiting means God is at work in ways we cannot yet see.
Paul echoes this truth in 1 Corinthians 1:9: “God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son. Waiting is where faith is refined. But waiting is not the end of the story.
II. God Lifts Us from the Pit
“He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock.” (Psalm 40:2)
The pit is not where David stays. God does not simply comfort David in despair. God rescues him.
Notice what God does. God draws him up. God does not leave him trapped in the place where he was waited down. God stabilizes his future on solid ground.
This is not self-help. This is not willpower. This is deliverance, straight from our all-powerful God.
Paul reminds the Corinthians that their faith did not begin with themselves. He writes in 1 Corinthians 1:8, “He will also strengthen you to the end.” The same God who calls us is the God who sustains us.
Another scripture that ties deeply into this message comes from Isaiah 61:3,“To give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning.”
God’s work is not only to rescue. God restores.
III. Our Deliverance Becomes the Song That Draws Others to Hope
Psalm 40:3, says, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” (Psalm 40:3)
God does not lift David out of the pit so that David can quietly move on with life. God gives him a song and that song has a purpose, “Many will see… and put their trust in the Lord.”
Your testimony is not meant to stay private. Your story is not meant to end with survival. Your praise becomes an invitation. David makes this explicit. He says, “I have told the glad news of deliverance…I have not hidden your saving help.” (Psalm 40:9–10).
The church does not thrive because people are perfect. It continues and thrives because people have been delivered.
Paul tells the Corinthians they are enriched in speech and knowledge; not for pride, but for witness (1 Corinthians 1:5–6).
God does not waste your suffering. God does not discard your story. God lifts you up so that others might look up.
Some of you are still waiting. Some of you are just climbing out. Some of you already have a song, but you’ve been keeping it to yourself.
This week, let your praise be heard. Speak hope where despair has lived. Tell the truth about what God has done. Offer your story as a bridge to God, not a badge of personal honor.
Because when God pulls us from the pit, our praise becomes the pathway for someone else’s hope. Out of the pit into praise for the sake of the world.
In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Works Cited
The Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition. National Council of Churches, 1989.
Herbert, George. The Temple. Cambridge University Press, 1633.
Brueggemann, Walter. The Message of the Psalms. Augsburg Publishing House, 1984.
Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians. Interpretation Commentary Series, Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.
Create Your Own Website With Webador