God Gets it Right

As I was reading our verse for today (Psalm 119:52), I felt God reminding me that He always gets it right.

I’ve been reading the story of Abraham. When it came to having a son and descendants to inherit God’s promises to him, he and Sarah struggled to believe that they could have a child in their old age. So they decided to take things into their own hands. It was a disaster! But, after Isaac was born, they could look back and say, “Yes, Lord, we got it wrong, but You got it right!“

When he went to Egypt, out of fear he got Sarah to say that she was his sister, not his wife. Once again, disaster! Why had he forgotten that in God’s hands, he’d always be safe if he remained obedient?

The Hebrew word for ‘laws’ in today’s verse, means, judgments, decisions, choices. David is looking back at God’s choices for his life and is comforted by what he remembers. He also looks back at what was already written in the first five books of our bibles and has to acknowledge that his God is a God who always gets it right. Follow his laws and it’ll work out in the end. ‘Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails’ (Proverbs 19:21). Whatever’s happening – whatever’s disturbing or upsetting him, David knows that, if he follows God’s way, he’ll get it right. And that’s a huge comfort. (He would also remember times when he got it horribly wrong and what happened when he returned to obedience.)

I’m sure I’m not alone in sometimes deciding to ‘do it my way’. But I have to ask this question. Can I really expect God’s blessing and protection when I’ve chosen a path which may be the easy option but which, in my heart of hearts, I know is not the way He wants me to go? Once I’m on that path, God’s ‘ancient laws’ will not be a comfort, they’ll be poking away at my conscience. ‘Remembering’ God’s laws is more than just thinking about them. It’s living by them.

These are days when it is getting more and more difficult to live and speak consistently according to God’s revealed will. There will be big challenges. But when our hearts remain focussed on God’s standards and purposes, we will find a deep inner security. That’s real comfort.