Our Future Is In God’s Hands

Psalm 31:14-18

14But I am trusting you, O LORD,

saying, “You are my God!”

15My future is in your hands.

Rescue me from those who hunt me down relentlessly.

16Let your favor shine on your servant.

In your unfailing love, save me.

17Don’t let me be disgraced, O LORD,

for I call out to you for help.

Let the wicked be disgraced;

let them lie silent in the grave.

18May their lying lips be silenced—

those proud and arrogant lips that accuse the godly.

Dan Crawford was only nineteen years old in 1889 when he ventured into central Africa for the first time. He served as a missionary for more than three decades and translated the Bible into Luba-Sanga. When Crawford died in 1926, the Old Testament had just been printed, and the national Christians put a copy of the translation under his head when they buried him.

Psalm 31:15 had been a particularly difficult challenge for Crawford to translate. Finally it was decided that the best way to put it into the language of the people would be like this: “All my life’s whys and whens and wheres and wherefores are in God’s hands.” They were releasing all the questions of life to God’s control.

We place the past in God’s hands when we turn to him in faith and accept his gift of salvation. We receive his forgiveness, and our sin is placed on the one who died for us. Our present is placed in the hands of the Shepherd of Psalm 23. But our future should be committed to him as well. God knows the future far better than we do. Often we worry about the next week, the next month, or the next year. But we don’t need to. If we are in God’s hands, we need not fear anything, for ultimately he will take care of us.

Let good or ill befall;

It must be good for me,

Secure of having Thee in all

And having all in Thee.

HENRY F. LYTE

Notable Quotable

“Mighty strength of faith, when a man conscious of his own sinfulness, and with the world in arms against him, yes, even forsaken by his own friends, can still turn to God and say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

J. J. STEWART PEROWNE

Thought to Ponder

Think about the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, and consider when in their lives they could have identified with these verses, especially verse 15.