Series:
Psalms
Title: My
Times are in Thy Hands
Text:
Psalm 31: 9-15
Date:
November 16, 2017
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
In Psalm
31: 5 we hear Christ speak his last words from the cross. He said to God his
Father, “Into thine hand I commit my
spirit.”
This time
we hear our Substitute’s perfect faith in verses 14 & 15, “But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou
art my God. My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the
hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.”
Subject:
My Times Are in Thy Hand
Proposition:
As Christ’s times were in the LORD God’s hand, so the times of all God’s people
are in the hand of God our Father and his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
When
believers suffer, nothing comforts us except that Friend who knows what we
suffer because he has suffered what we suffer and more: that Friend who can be
trusted, that Friend in whose hand we are secure at all times, that Friend of
the believer is Christ Jesus.
What
times did Christ mean when he said to the Father, “My times are in thy hand?” Now, we know that all Christ’s times were
in the hand of his Father. And, believer, we know, that all our times are in
Christ’s hand.
Ecclesiastes 3: 1:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under the heaven: 2: A time to
be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that
which is planted; 3: A time
to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4: A time to weep, and a time to
laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5: A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones
together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6: A time to get, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 A time to rend, and a
time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8: A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace.
Believers can say as Christ did concerning all our
times, “My times are in thy hand.”
Still, in
the context of this Psalm what times, specifically, was our Substitute speaking
of? Believer, by answering this
question, we will see that when we face the same times, our times are in
Christ’s hand.
TIMES OF TROUBLE
Psalm 31: 9: Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble:…10: For my
life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing:
Believer,
do you experience times of trouble? Is there ever a day when a believer does
not experience times of trouble? Christ
experienced times of trouble far more than we ever shall.
When the
Son of God came down and partook of flesh and blood like unto his brethren, his
life, all his years, were times of trouble—“my
life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing:”
Isaiah 53:3: He is despised and rejected of men; a man of
sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him;
he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4: Surely he hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted.
I am
certain we do not enter into the depths of how our Savior was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief or how fully he bore our griefs and carried our
sorrows all his days on this earth. He
says, “my life is spent with grief, and
my years with sighing.”
Our
Savior was only 33 years old when he was crucified. But the griefs and sorrows
he carried took such a toll on his flesh the Jews thought he looked nearly
fifty years old.
John 8:57: Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet
fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Yet, in all
our Redeemer’s times of trouble—all his days, all his years—all his times were
in God the Father’s hands.
For God’s
elect, all our days, all our years, in this sin-cursed earth are times of
trouble.
Job 5: 7: man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Yet, while dead in sins, before we even knew our
life was a time of trouble—all our times were in the hand of Christ and have
been from eternity. It is because before
our times, in eternity when there was no time, by God’s free grace, God the Father
trusted his people into Christ’s hand and predestinated us unto the adoption of
children.
Therefore, while dead in sin, all our times we were
in the hand of Christ. He protected us, kept
us and guided us unto that day when he revealed himself in our hearts through
the gospel.
Ephesians 1: 11: In whom also
we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose
of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12: That we
should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Since the day he called us to faith in Christ—we
have many times of trouble—but all our times of trouble are in Christ’s hand.
Believer, in every time of trouble, trust Christ, crying, “My times are thy hand.”
TIMES
OF WEAKNESS
Psalm
31: 9:…mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. 10:…my strength faileth because of mine iniquity,
and my bones are consumed.
Believer, do you ever experience weakness in your
flesh due to your sin? While serving as
our Substitute, Christ, who knew no sin, experienced the weakness of our flesh
when he was touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
We are reminded of our Substitutes time in the
garden of Gethsemane and to the end of the cross when we hear Christ say, “Mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my
soul and my belly.” We see our Savior’s humanity. He took flesh like unto his
brethren. We see it in that his flesh became consumed in grief. His
eye represents all his faculties in the flesh. His soul
represents his life as Man. His belly represents his reins,
his inner most being, his strength in the flesh. This was the time when our Substitute
experienced the weakness of our flesh.
This was a time when Christ experienced being “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”
(Heb 4: 15) He was touch with the
feelings of infirmities which our sin causes in the flesh. He said, “My strength faileth because of mine iniquity,
and my bones are consumed.”
Notice,
Christ says, “mine iniquity.” God is so
just that before God would pour out justice on Christ, the LORD laid on him the iniquity of us all—all his people. (Is
53: 6) Our iniquity was made to be Christ’s and Christ owned it to be his—“mine iniquity.” This was necessary
before God would pour out justice on Christ because God is just and Christ came
to manifest God’s righteousness. This
was necessary for the last Adam to justify his people from the sin that the
first Adam plunged us into. And it is finished!
Believer, when you feel the weight of your sin,
remember—when Christ owned our sin to be his sin—the time of our justification was in Christ’s hand and he
accomplished it for his people!
Also, when
the LORD laid on him the iniquity of us
all, though Christ knew no sin himself, it was a time when Christ experienced
being touched with feeling of our infirmities which our sin
causes. And being touched, he experienced the weakness of our flesh. He said, “My strength faileth because of mine
iniquity; my bones are consumed.”
In the
garden of Gethsemane, he was so grieved in the flesh, at being made sin for his
people and at being forsaken of the Father in justice, that in his flesh he
sweat as it were great drops of blood. His
strength began to fail and his bones began to be consumed. But whose hand did
he trust? He fell on his face and prayed
saying,
Matthew 26:39:…O my Father, if it be possible, let this
cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
What was he saying? He was saying what the same
thing he says in our Psalm in verse 14, “But
I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand.” So believer in all our times weakness due to sin,
cast all your care on Christ, crying, “My
times are in thy hand.”
TIMES OF REPORACH
Psalm 31: 11: I was a reproach among all mine
enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance:
they that did see me without fled from me. 12: I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken
vessel. 13: For I have heard the
slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel
together against me, they devised to take away my life.
Believer, have you ever suffered reproach from those
around you for the cause of Christ? Our
Redeemer suffered times of reproach throughout his life. But even more so when
the time came for him to lay down his life the room and stead of his people.
He said, “I
was a reproach among all mine enemies.”
Christ knows what it is when you who are his are reproached by your enemies
for his sake. But even worse, Christ know what it is to be
reproached by friends, “but
especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did
see me without fled from me.”
Nothing
hurts worse than a friend betraying you or a loved one denying you. Have you
experience such a time as that, believer? Thy times are in Christ’s hand. He
experienced it more.
Judas Iscariot—his own friend
betrayed him.
Psalm 55: 12:
For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have
borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify
himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: 13: But it was thou, a man mine
equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. 14:
We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in
company.
The apostle Peter, his own beloved apostle, denied him three times and fled
from him.
Have you
ever suffered times of being forgotten? Christ said, “I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me,
they devised to take away my life.”
Brethren, when you experience times of reproach,
flee to Christ as Christ did to the Father, crying, “But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in
thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that
persecute me.”
So believer all our times are in Christ’s hand. Our
times of justification were in his hands when he suffered in our place in
perfect faith trusting the Father and justified us from all our sins and
brought in a perfect righteousness for us. So the
times of our justification and reconciliation are in his hands.
Hebrews 2: 17:
Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Also, our times are in his hands now when we suffer.
Remember, in the garden of Gethsemane, having
experienced the weakness of our flesh, when he came and found his apostles
asleep, Christ understood the weakness of our flesh. So he had compassion on
them, saying “The spirit is willing but
the flesh is weak.” When we are weak he knows, our times are in
his hands.
Hebrews 2: 18: For in that he himself hath suffered being
tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
Hebrews 4: 14: Seeing then that we have a great high
priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. 15: For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. 16: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in TIME of need.
Our times are in
Christ’s hand!
Amen!