Faith in His Wisdom

 

1 Samuel 19; Psalm 35; Lamentations 4; 1 Corinthians 1

1 Samuel 19 and Psalm 35 should be read one after the other. The first one tells of Saul’s desire to kill David and how God intervened every time to prevent that from happening. When I finished reading it, I rejoiced in His sovereignty. No matter how this king tried to destroy the threat of David becoming the next king, the Lord would have His way.

Psalm 35 is David’s prayer concerning his adversaries. He does not name names, only speaks in a general way — as if he does not know for certain who they are, or as if he does not want to point fingers. He knows that God knows and that is enough for him.

That attitude in prayer impresses me. It also is convicting. It is much easier to point fingers at the guilty than it is to have concern for the sin they are committing against God. Finger-pointing is putting the perspective on people, comparing them to myself in an unfavorable light and in a way complaining about what they are doing to me. Pointing to the sin is putting the perspective on God and His righteousness and making the problem not mine but God’s.

David does speak of himself by telling the Lord how he feels about what is happening to him and what he would like the Lord to do about it. He points out that their animosity is without cause and wants them to be put to shame, but his end reason is that God might be glorified . . .

“Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me! Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.” (Psalm 35:26–28)

Saul’s attitude was more like: “Let David be put to shame. Let all rejoice in me, their king, and shout for joy at my rule over them.” I chuckled a bit because this sounds a bit like modern politicians, yet also rejoice that God is the ruler and will determine the fate of everyone, including these two Israelites. According to His purposes, He decides who to raise up and who to put down.

“He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.” (Daniel 2:21)

In our human reasoning, we tend to have criteria for leaders and wonder why God set up those in power and wonder why He does not remove seemingly evil leaders. The last part of Daniel could be part of the answer: God is able to give leaders whatever they need to accomplish His purposes. The reading in 1 Corinthians reminds of that reality:

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:25–29)

This principle has not changed. God can pick people whom the world considers foolish, weak, low and despised to do His will. Our problem is that we have strong ideas of what His will should be and have trouble accepting the things done by foolish, weak, lowly people, particularly if they are in leadership.

Further, these can be church, business, political leaders. I have more than one person in mind so no naming names, just trying to pray that God’s plans will succeed, regardless of my ideas of what should happen.

APPLY: All of this convinces me that the will of God is more important than what makes sense to me, and He is in charge of what is going on in our world. Some of it seems so senseless, just as the events of the Bible to the people living in those days. The bottom line is will I trust Him, no matter what is going on and no matter what happens? Can I praise Him as sovereign or will I ask Him to “fix it” and make life comfortable for me?