1 Peter 5:10 And the God of all grace (chairō), who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. NIV

Peter in this text wanted to let us know that God desires to restore our Hearts Mind & Bodies.   Just before this declaration, Peter warns us to be humble because God opposes the proud; he also warns us that the devil seeks to devour those who will allow it.  It is as if he knew that we would fall short, we’d be fooled by the devil and we would have to go through a challenging time.  Then reminds us that after suffering for a little while, God would RESTORE US. 

As we receive God’s love, His grace (this Greek word chairō means to be joyful and to rejoice.  His Joy is our strength; Nehemiah 8:10) will saturate us; we will heal and recover from the suffering over the last few years.  We’ll recover from Spiritual isolation, Emotional hurts, and Physical pain.   

As God is restoring us, He will also be building spiritual strength within us, by confirming our purpose, giving us succinct direction, and grounding us in His firm foundation of love/peace:

• make you strong: a Greek word (stērizō) meaning “turn resolutely in a certain direction.”
• firm: a Greek word (sthenoō) meaning “confirm in spiritual knowledge and power.”
• steadfast: Greek word (themelioō) meaning “lay the foundation/remain grounded.”

God’s going to restore us from the suffering we’ve briefly experienced and as He restores us He will also build us up spiritually allowing us to be able to stand against the devil’s attempt to devour us.  Trust God to accomplish His word!!!!

Trust in the Salvation of the Lord; To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

PSALM 13: How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.  But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

 Have you ever felt like God has forgotten about you?  Like the very person that told you, “You are special; you are my prized possession; you’re my child; I will never leave you or forsake you;” has completely turned His back on you.  So maybe it’s just me, well me and David at least.   If you have ever felt this way, then David and I are here to tell you that it is time to Trust God Again.  

You see David was lamenting; this was a psalm of lament, which means that the style of the psalm was to express deep sorry for the individual and for the nation; it is a plea to God to intervene.  David wrote this psalm to express his deep sorrow of the pain he was in and the attacks he was under; while at the same time begging for God to step in and do something.  After all, He was God; the God that David had faithfully served and who had been on his side so many times in the past.  David felt God had to step in because he did not deserve the situation that he was in and this just wasn’t what God told him would happen.  

I think that you can hear this clearly when reading in the Passion Translation of this Psalm: vs 1 I’m hurting, Lord—will you forget me forever? How much longer, Lord? Will you look the other way when I’m in need? 2 How much longer must I cling to this constant grief? I’ve endured this shaking of my soul. So how much longer will my enemy have the upper hand?

David acknowledges that he’s in pain and that he feels betrayed by God.  I can attest, to feeling this way a few times.  It always seemed to me that just when God started to use me in ministry our church, my family, and I would be uprooted and moved to my next duty station (I’m retired military).  Just when it looked like His promise for me was about to move toward fruition, the rug would be pulled from under my feet.  We would move, spend months trying to find a church, attempt to get plugged in, and right when things started moving in the direction that I thought it was supposed to happen, boom!!  It was time to move on. 

I did not realize how much that bothered me; you know I was a Christian so I could not possibly accost God about His injustice for my situation.  That would be disrespectful and not Godly.  Right??  Wrong, David cried out to God, “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?”  What an indignant accusation!!  Who was David to do such a thing?  And who was I to feel that way and say it to Him?  I have a son and I am a Son; I recall the times when my parents would scold me or tell me to do something I did not like or make a decision that impacted me in what I felt was negative.  My son will also get mad with me but will not say anything directly, he will walk around the house upset, not talking (not that he talks a great deal when he’s not upset), showing frustrations in his actions but all while never saying a word to me or anyone about it.  I’ve done that!!! I’ve done it with God, with my wife, with my parents even with my kids.  This is what I’ve found, they all seem to go on with their lives and I’m the only one upset.  If you’re deciding to be upset and you’re the only one mad then there is a flaw in, your decision-making.  

David was upset so he expressed it to God, he did not humbly come before the throne of Grace, body bowed and on his knees.  No, he came with an attitude, with disgust, and with aggression.  If you ask me it was with great disrespect, and yet God did not smite him.  As a matter of fact, God had him write this down and allowed it to become a part of the Bible that many hundreds of millions of people would one day read.  

God is not like us; if my Son had come to me that way, rest assured it would not be very positive from my end (aren’t you glad God is not like me).  God already knows what we are going thru and how we are feeling (Ps 139:1-3); so we cannot hide it from him.  We only hurt ourselves by being angry with Him.  Even when we don’t realize it’s him, we are angry with him.     

Just like David, we can turn it around.  God hears our hurts and pains then we remember who God is, what He has done, and how much He loves us.  David did that and then He trusted in the Lord and in His Grace.  But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. When we trust in the Lord, He gives us direction (Pro 3:5-6); and He keeps us in perfect peace (Isa 26:3).  

Psalm 91:1
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High.  Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

We live in a day where one thing after another is coming against us.  COVID and its many variants; School Shootings; Hate crimes; Police shootings; and random acts of violence or it could be identity theft; predatory lending so many things are constantly targeting our mental and physical health our financial and family’s security.  The first step should any of these things happen around us is to immediately Dial 9-1-1 (the emergency services number).  With all this chaos around us, don’t you just want to go and find a place to hide?  Well, it turns out that we do, a secret place.  We have our own 9-1-1 call that we can make when we’re in trouble: Psalm 9-1-1.

Now while the authorship of this psalm has been under a certain level of debate as to who wrote it.  We’ve been talking about diving into David, who is a Man After God’s Own Heart, and while some say that it was David that wrote this psalm while others say that this is one that Moses wrote.  Regardless of who wrote it, we know one thing, they tapped into the heart of God.  Honestly, this entire psalm is one that everyone needs to keep close by because it is so rich.  But even in verse 1; there are some significant truths that can benefit us significantly.

1. God Wants Us to Dwell:  He who dwells in.  The word dwell means to sit down, settle down, abide, or live in something; some might recognize it to mean “to set up shop.”  He is not looking for us to be drive-thru Christians, where we are in and out of Church.  Sometimes we read and study and sometimes we don’t.  Depending on the crowd that is around us, dictates just how saved we are.  We need to sit, settle down be still, get quiet.  Can I be honest, from the time I get up in the morning till the time I finally close my eyes I can find something, anything, and many things to do.  I could do them and think nothing of the Lord whatsoever.  It’s a very clever technique that the Devil enjoys using on us.  Let’s face it the busier we are, the more important we feel, the more in control we feel that we are.  God wants us to dwell with Him, we are His favorites, and we should want to dwell, spend time, and just sit with God.     

2. God Wants Us to Know His Secret: the secret place of the Most High:  The very fact that the place is secret means that not everyone knows about it or have access to it.  This a secret place of Ēl ʻElyōn the Most High God.  One can only imagine what that place is like, if God has made a hiding place for us it has to be super special.  Here’s the thing, I’m a bit nostalgic, and just about anything that happens in my life, if I think hard enough, I can relate it back to a song I used to sing growing up. There was a song by New Edition called “My Secret.”  The song was about a young teenaged boy teasing a girl about his secret, the secret was he had a crush on her.  I cannot help but think of the same thing here, God has a crush on us, each one of us.  He loves us so much that He gave up His only Son (Jn 3:16) so that we could be with Him forever.  Yet he does not keep that a secret and just like this secret place He’s told us all about it in this psalm and now we have a place to get away from all the craziness this world has thrown at us.  It’s a secret no more, we just need access to this hidden fortress.

3. God Wants Us Covered: Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  Living under the shadow; or in the shade, the defense of the Almighty.  “El Shaddai” is the Hebrew term for the Almighty God or God Almighty; the all-sufficient one; Can you imagine just how large that shadow is?  He is our defense, a shadow we can all hide behind. Living under His shadow means we have access to God’s protection (Ps 91:4), power (Ps 91:15), and peace (Ps 91:16).  Abiding or living under the Almighty’s shadow gives us cover from the storms of life.  Literally, like an umbrella protects us from the rain.  Another aspect of the Almighty’s covering that is vital for us is the posture of being under authority.  Whenever we buck authority, we find ourselves vulnerable to our own heart (Jeremiah 17:9), desires (Jam 1:14), thoughts & ways (Isa 55:8).  This is because our hearts are desperately wicked, we’re tempted and drawn away by our desires and our thoughts and ways are nothing like Gods.  We open ourselves up to unnecessary attacks and the consequences of any of these decisions.  My wife and I have set boundaries for our children and when they submit and trust that we are not just being mean and controlling but we’re protecting their best interest; they are kept from hurt, harm, and danger.  In the same way, submitting to God provides protection for us and gives us access to His Secret Place.  Submission requires complete trust; this is trust that overcomes our fear of the danger we face.  It is normal to have concerns about what we are going thru but Trust in the Lord will allow Him to become our Secret Fortress, Psalm 91:2 God I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”  This trust in Ēl ʻElyōn/El Shaddai changes our attitude about the situation and we then speak well of God; He then becomes our place of refuge, the place we go when we need protection, restoration, or just need to be refreshed.  The key to really taking advantage of this special place our Father has made available to us; is in what we say of the Lord, “My God, in Him I will trust.”