“My times are in your hand” (Psalm 31:15)
Written reflection below. And here is a video message:
Our pastoral interaction happens primarily by phone call at the moment We have a group who are calling our elder members. Ryan (one of our of newly elected Society Stewards) and I have also been calling parents who have children in the “Jam Club” (that’s our youngest Sunday School class) to see how folk are managing with young children in the house.
In most homes one or both parents are trying to juggle working from home with the demands of home schooling and so on. Some families have suffered a loss of income (taking significant pay cuts for example). A few who provide “essential services” find themselves busier.
Two interesting themes emerged in my chats. The first is that many families are able to spend more time in prayer together. They are finding creative ways to do that (e.g. making a paper prayer chain and adding names of those prayed for to it each day). The second is a heightened awareness of and empathy toward those for whom “lockdown” has resulted in great suffering. We all realise that when we are eventually allowed outside, we will enter a different world. We just don’t know, exactly, how things will change and what will be demanded of us as followers of Jesus.
Given this uncertainty Sunday’s psalm (Psalm 31) is especially helpful. The psalmist calls out to God for help with familiar expressions of trust; God is our “refuge”, “rock” and “fortress”. But two expressions of trust are unique to Psalm 31[1]”:
“Into your hand I commit my spirit” (vs. 5) and
“My times are in your hand”[2] (v. 15).
Jesus could pray at his death “Father into your hand I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46) because that is how he lived his whole life. Jesus invites you and I to live the same way. Our “times” really are in God’s hands. As difficult as things may get, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Ro 8:28).
May God’s grace so work during “lockdown” that we may know, more and more, what it means to follow the one who sets the captives free (Luke 4:18).
[1] Mays, James. Psalms: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching
[2] Mays explains that this “does not mean it depends on God how long I live, but my destiny (the occasions when things happen that determine my life) is in the hand of God.”
God Bless,
Sean
[1] Mays, James. Psalms: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching
[2] Mays explains that this “does not mean it depends on God how long I live, but my destiny (the occasions when things happen that determine my life) is in the hand of God.”