God’s Timing
(Ps.31:15)
One of the most comforting and reassuring statements in the Bible for the believer is Psalm 31:15, our text for the morning: My times are in your hand. Every now and then from some of the most unlikely sources, you will hear reference to that belief when Joe, who seldom darkens a church door says to his buddy Hank who just had a close scrap with death: “Well, I guess it just wasn’t your time yet,Hank.” Or perhaps the person was very elderly and ill and one friend says to another at the funeral home, I guess it was Mabel’s time. It is when a baby dies or a teenager is killed in an auto accident or a young mother of two perishes from leukemia, then many, including believers, are not
so sure about God’s timing- why must the person die so young? It’s like we base our
belief of God and His timing according to what seems right to us. If the person has lived a full life into her 90s, we have no trouble believing and saying God has called her
home and the time was right; but if the person is young and the passage from life has
been painful or violent, then we want to question God, why, or be angry with God,
saying she was needed to raise her family, or we may doubt God- wondering if He is even around or cares? What comfort then are the words: My times are in your hand, oh Lord.
The Bible states over and over again that God in His sovereignty, in His all-powerfulness, is in charge of time as He is of all of life. The entire Old Testament is a preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ- prophesy after prophesy tells of His coming. We read some of them each year at Advent, most familiar to us is that prophesy in Isaiah
“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given…and He will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace… “(Is.9:6).
And then when that child was born and grew to manhood and began His ministry, His initial message began with the words: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” It was Jesus’ way of saying my Heavenly Father is in charge of time (the time is fulfilled) and more than just of time.
If you go to Genesis 8:22 you read about Noah making a sacrifice to God after Noah had been in the Ark for 40 days and nights and the water had finally receded and now the danger had passed and life would begin anew. The first duty Noah performs is to recognize and worship Almighty God. And verse 22 states that God received Noah’s
sacrifice favorably and said:
“I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s
heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature
as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Here again, we see God in His sovereignty not just in control of time (the seasons, the hours of the day) but of all life. And just as clearly is it pointed out to us that this
divine control and power, this knowledge and domination of time is only God’s
prerogative to know and to control. Jesus makes this point to His disciples in
Acts 1:7
It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority.
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It was the same message Jesus had given much earlier to His followers when He talked about His second coming:
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son
but the Father only.” (Mt. 24:36)
And this sovereignty, this control that God has over time and history, does not just apply to a general understanding of life and how its works but becomes a belief based on faith in Almighty God that applies quite specifically to each believer’s own life. We hear Job saying (14:5): “Since (each man’s) his days are determined, and the number of his
months is with Thee, and thou (Lord) has appointed his bounds
that he cannot pass….”
And then again the Psalmist describes how God controls not just time in general but
my time and your time:
“Thy eyes (Lord) beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written
everyone of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there
were none of them.” (Ps. 139:16)
Before we were even born, God, had already allocated how many days we each would have. God is in charge just not of time, but of my time and your time:
My times are in your hand.
If you and I can believe that and trust God to be a loving God in His sovereignty then as I said at the beginning of this message there is a comfort and an assurance in knowing that
He is not only in control but is in control of each day, each hour I have to live on this
earth and for all eternity.
Occasionally we will sing that chorus together In His Time; the text Diane Ball used for the writing of the chorus is taken from Eccl. 3:11 He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. And so the chorus goes:
In His time, in His time; He makes all things beautiful in His time,
Lord, please show me every day, as You’re teaching me your way
that You do just what You say in your time.
It is not that God is in control of time but that in His wonderful love and mercy,
He is at the same time making you and I and all of life that would yield to His
will; He is making all things beautiful in His time. Can you not see and realize
the comfort and assurance in that promise: that the God of all the universes who
has come to us in Jesus Christ, whose steadfast love is from everlasting to
everlasting upon those who fear Him; He has made everything beautiful in its time.
My hope then for us is that we not only recognize and believe this eternal and blessed promise: My times are in your hand but that we more and more live our daily lives
wanting to be aware and in sync with our Master’s timing for our life. One way to build this awareness of divine timing in our life is to take notice of those small coincidences
that occur and then to expand your outlook and trust from there. For example, some time ago
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on a Saturday I had been working outside for a couple of hours when I decided to come in the house for a short break. Just as I came in the door the phone rang and a professional colleague of mine from out of state was on the line responding very
positively on a report I had made to him about a church problem in the district. I had been concerned about the problem and how I was handling it (one of those things you have in the back of your mind). After the call I thought to myself had he called 5 minutes earlier or later I would have missed him. Yes, he would have left a message and I would have called him back. But there was something about the timing that struck me. A small detail to be sure that most people would not give a second thought about but to me the fact that we connected in that time when I just happened to come in for a short break and to receive the affirmation and support on a lingering problem pushed into the back of my mind- the little incident was a reminder to me, if I am willing to be a person of faith and an instrument of a faithful God, there is a divine timing going on that can bring me comfort and assurance in the love and faithfulness of our Lord as we take note of His almighty sovereignty.
One more example, last month I had gone to the grocery store and one of the items I wanted to buy was tuna. When I reached the section that had the tuna I was amazed to find at least 10 different kinds of tuna of every brand and quality. I was going crazy trying to figure out should it be packed in water or oil, should it be Star Kist or Bumble Bee, or another brand, should it be Atlanta or Norwegian, should it be premium or regular. In the midst of my quandary up walks a lady with her husband trailing behind with the grocery cart. And she immediately begins to inform me at to which kind of tuna I should buy and why; she was a true tuna expert who ate it regularly and her husband
could second whatever she suggested with true feeling. In a jiffy I had my Bumble Bee
premium tuna packed in water can and was on my way with profuse thanks to this tuna
expert. But as I was driving home, again the timing issue came to my mind. Such a small detail that most people would not give it a second thought. But we are people
of faith under the lordship of a sovereign God. How is it that I just happen to be in the
tuna aisle the same time as this lady, who so helpfully rescued me from a decision that
was taking more and more time that made me feel like I was going in circles.
You would think that such small incidents are of no concern to God who is too busy with much more important matters far far greater than a phone call or a can of tuna. But then there was that time when Jesus needed some tax money and he told Peter to go to the sea and cast out a hook and the first fish that is caught, open its mouth, and you will find a shekel, and so it happened. (Mt. 17:27) Jesus said your Heavenly Father knows when a sparrow falls and even the hairs on your head are all numbered (Mt. 10:29). Yes, the timing of God reaches from before the beginning of time to all eternity measuring out the lives of nations and empires, making ready for the coming and then the second coming
of His Son, but included in the timing of this great salvation history is attention given
to the smallest details-the length of life of a hair on my head, the timing of a phone
call while I work outside.
My point is that we are Christian people of faith who worship a great and wonderful
God – our times are in His Hand – and how thankful we can be for that as we more
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and more watch and live according to His timing in our life from the moment
He calls us home to His glory to the moment He sends that rescuing angel saying
this is the tuna you should buy.
