It's good to think more deeply about the mercies of God in times of crisis. To help guide us in this effort, we'll consider Paul David Tripp's collection of meditations from Psalm 27 called "A Shelter in the Time of Storm." You can get your own copy on Amazon here.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13

This meditation considers how frequently we use the word "someday" to hide a lack of faith that something will happen. "We say it," Tripp says, "because it makes us momentarily feel better about the things in the here and now that we have trouble accepting."

What we have in verse 13 is something completely different - it's the contrast between the world's and the Bible's definitions of "hope." In Scripture, hope is a statement of confidence. It's a factual acknowledgment (with joy) about something that will come to be.

Importantly, this means that while we can have "earthly hope" for many things we can only have "Biblical hope" for things which God has promised. At first that sounds like a negative, because it casts doubt on many things that we would like to have. But if we read the promises of God for ourselves we discover that this is great news! We have been promised more and better than we could ever have asked for. 

David doesn't yet have Romans 8:28 (a bit after his time) but he has the same promise that God will do what is good for him and for his people. This gives David hope (assurance) that no matter what he sees in this moment and no matter what he will see in the days ahead - he will see the goodness of God.

Questions to Consider

The questions are Tripp's. I included my answers in case they're helpful to read.

1. Where do you tend to forget your identity as a child of God?

2. Where in your life do anxiety and worry reveal that, in the press of life in this broken world, you tend to forget the "goodness of God," which you guaranteed as his child.

- These kinds of thoughts are rare and fleeting for me. My struggles are elsewhere ;-)