My Times Are In Your Hands

"But I have trusted, relied on, and was confident in You, O Lord,
I said, You are my God.

My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my foes
and those who pursue me and persecute me."
(Psalm 31: 14-15)

King David Playing The Harp

17th Century French School 

Image courtesy/ Mutual Art

David was sad: his life was spent with grief, and his years with sighing.
His sorrow had wasted his strength, and even his bones were consumed
within him.  Cruel enemies pursued him with malicious craft, even seeking
his life.  At such a time he used the best resource of grief,  for he says in
 verse 14, "But I trusted in Thee, O Lord."

He had no other refuge but that which he found in faith in the Lord his God.
If enemies slandered him, he did not render railing for railing; if they devised
to take away his life, he did not meet violence with violence, but he calmly
trusted in the Lord.  They ran hither and thither, using all kinds of nets and
traps to make the man of God their victim; but he met all their inventions
with one simple defense of trust in God.

Many are the fiery darts of the wicked one; but our shield is one.  The shield of
faith not only quenches the fiery darts, but it breaks arrows of steel. Though the
javelins of the foe were dipped in the venom of hell, yet our one shield of faith
would hold us harmless, casting them off from us. Thus David had the grand
resource of faith in the hour of danger.  Note well that he uttered a glorious
 claim, the greatest claim that man has ever made. "I said, Thou art my God."

He that can say, "The kingdom is mine," makes a royal claim; he that can say,
"This mountain of silver is mine," makes a wealthy claim; but he that can say
to the Lord, "Thou art my God," hath said more than all the monarchs and
 millionaires can reach.  If this God is your God by His gift of Himself to you,
what can you have more?

If Jehovah has been made your own by an act of appropriating faith,
what more can be conceived of?  You have not the world, but you have
the Maker of the world, and that is far more. There is no measuring the
greatness of his treasure who hath God to be his all and all.

Having thus taken to the best resource by trusting in Jehovah, and made
the grandest claim possible by saying, "Thou art my God" the psalmist now
stays himself upon a grand old doctrine, the most wonderful that was ever
revealed to men.  He sings, "My times are in Thy hands." This to him
was a most cheering fact: he had no fear in his circumstances,
 since all things were in the divine hand.

He was not shut up unto the hand of the enemy, but his feet stood in a
large room, for he was in a space large enough for the ocean, seeing the
Lord had placed him in the hollow of His hand.  To be entirely at the
disposal of God is life and to be entirely at the disposal of God
is life and liberty for us.

Moreover, beloved brethren, our times are in the Lord's hands,
because we are one with Christ Jesus.  "We are members of His body,
of His flesh, and of His bones."  Everything that concerns Christ
touches the great Father's heart.  He thinks more of Jesus than
all the world.  Hence it follows that when we become one with
Jesus, we become conspicuous objects of the Father's care.

He takes us in hand for the sake of His dear Son.  He that loves
the Head loves all the members of the mystical body. We cannot
conceive of the dear Redeemer as ever being out of the 
 Father's mind; neither can any of us who are in Christ
be away from the Father's active, loving care;
our times are ever in His hand.

All His eternal purposes work towards the glorifying of the Son,
and quite as surely they work together for the good who are in His Son.
The purposes which concern our Lord and ourselves are so
intertwisted as never to be separated.

"We are assured and know that God being a partner in their labor,
all things work together and are fitting into a plan for good to
and for those who love God and are called according
to His design and purpose. "
(Romans 8:28)

"For I am persuaded beyond doubt that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending
and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,

Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation
will be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 8: 38-39)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Image courtesy/Learn Religions

"My Times Are In Thy Hands"
From an 1891 sermon by
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
(1834-1892)
English pastor and author

Known as the "Prince of Preachers" by many believers
from different denominations who attended his services
 by the thousands to hear him speak, Charles Spurgeon
was highly influential in his defense of the faith,
and was strongly opposed to the liberal and pragmatic 
theologies which had infiltrated the Church in his day.

Excerpt of "My Times Are In Thy Hands" was taken from:
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2205.cfm