And the title of our message
is, He's Lord in the Seasons of Life, in the Seasons of Life. For God's child, at the very
best we can do, we sometimes find ourselves in situations
and circumstances we would never have dreamed we'd ever be in. Many is the time I've heard through
the years from different people, from parents, not me, not my
child, not my grandchild, not my family, or from some young person I've
tried to talk to and warn, not me, preacher, I'll never do that,
only to see Sometime later, hearts are crushed with the reality that it was
me, it was my child, it was my grandchild. So we just don't
know from one day to the next. We have no promise of tomorrow
or what tomorrow holds. But we do have a God who holds
tomorrow, and He's Lord in the seasons of life. We're looking
at something here in Psalm 31 this morning that's strange to
lots of religious folks. A lot of folks are all prepared
to tell you what things God is not in. But I want us to just try and
slip into David's shoes and learn a little more about our God than
what the average opinion of him is. He's Lord in the seasons
of life. Psalm 31. I am convinced with
many, and yet contrary to others, that this psalm was written by
David in his latter years. He says some things which indicate
that he is reflecting back over the years. And of course, the
older we get, the more prone we are to do that. And the older
we get, the more years we have to look back on. And so that's
what David's doing here. So we'll pick up reading in verse
9, Psalm 31 and verse 9. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Have you
ever had to pray that? And David is not referring to
any specific circumstance at that moment, but rather to trouble
of soul. He is really saying, I have not
lived so perfect as to be able to tell God at this point in
life how indebted He is to me. I know a lot of folks that would
have you to believe they have so run the race that God is greatly
indebted to him by now. But David knows the inward corruption
of his own heart, his own flesh. He knows it in a way that many
people never learn. He understands fully that God's
mercy is his hope. And that's what he prays here.
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I'm in trouble. David, I
suppose, would be voted by us all as the greatest of the Old
Testament kings, but his greatness is not in the fact that he lived
so well He didn't need God so much. His greatness is in the
fact that he did know he needed God so much. So his plea is not
for justice or for vindication of any way. It's for mercy. He goes on to say, my eye is
consumed with grief. Yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing. Looking back over the years,
there's been much grief. My life is spent with grief,
my years with sighing. My strength faileth because of
mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among
all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear
to mine acquaintance, they that did see me without fled from
me. They'd see me coming and cross
the street so they wouldn't have to speak to me. I am forgotten as a dead man
out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. It's like I'm no good anymore.
for anybody or for anything 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. Many have wanted
to kill me. From the time I was a lad, even
to the present moment, Such has been the experience of my life.
Any ordinary person would have lost their mind, but here is
David's secret. But I trusted in Thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my God. My times are in Thy hand. And we'll stop reading with that
statement at the beginning of verse 15. My times are in thy
hand. David says to the Lord, I know
this, nobody is running my life but you. My times are in thy
hand. And note that word times is plural. It means seasons. Seasons. We all understand what seasons
are. It's more than one day. It can
be a number of days or weeks. We have seasons of the year,
spring, summer, fall, and winter. We have holiday seasons. People talk about the Christmas
season, the Easter season. And then we hear of planting
season. harvest season, a rainy season,
or a dry season. Not talking about just one day,
but talking about a season. Well, our lives are made up of
seasons changing. And they're not changes we ask
for all the time. They're certainly not changes
we would vote for all the time. But just like the weather, These
seasons of our lives are in the Lord's hand. David knew this
and he said, my times are in thy hand. As David reminisces
in the psalm and looks back over his life, he says several things
here about himself and about his experience. Looking into
the past, he said in verse 11, I was a reproach. He said in
verse 12, I am forgotten. People delight in forgetting
that I have existed. I am like a broken vessel. I
have heard the slander of many, but I trusted in Thee, O Lord.
I said, Thou art my God. My times are in Thy hand. David could have thought of many
seasons or times in his life, times of trouble and trial. The thing he sees now is that
always God was there and always God made the difference. Can you recall any times in life,
at least when you were back there, you didn't think God was anywhere
around? But now David sees God made the
difference. God determined the outcome. He
didn't always see it. back there and didn't always
sense God's presence in everything. But he knows now it was certainly
the case. There were too many times when
he could have been killed, too many times when he couldn't possibly
have survived. Sometimes he deserved it, but
God preserved him. Now let me remind us of some
of those times or seasons in David's life. I just want to
quickly mention about 10 things and we'll move along. Number
one, David might have thought back to his early years when
we're introduced to him in the book of 1 Samuel as just a shepherd
boy when he's keeping his father's sheep. He mentioned two separate
occasions. One time a lion came out of the
woods. to attack the flock. And instead
of running, David got between the lion and the flock and fought
the lion. Well, you say, well, now that's
a beautiful little story. We've all read that. We all know
about that. Yeah, we do. But let's think
about that. I don't want to fight a lion. Do you? And yet in many ways I have. and
am doing so right now, and so are you." Another time, he said,
a bear, hungry and ferocious, was determined to take one of
the flock. Come rushing out of the bushes,
and David stepped in and fought the bear. It's in 1 Samuel 17,
and it said that David smote both the lion and the bear. That's something a young fellow's
not likely to forget all of his days. And now as an old man,
he might have thought about that looking back. Shucks, I couldn't
have never whipped an old lion or bear. God did that. God was
with me in that. He's seeing this. A second thing
David might have thought about when still just a teenage boy
now, he faced Goliath. the Philistine giant. You know
that story, 1 Samuel 17. David, with his sling, just a
shepherd boy, faced this giant over nine feet tall, Goliath,
with one smooth stone, and he smoked Goliath in the forehead. And down he went. And he took
Goliath's own sword, and cut his head off. Wow, what a time. That sounds like something a
boy might dream about. No, it happened. It really happened. Those are times, those are seasons
in David's life that were all in God's hands. Number three,
David could think back to a period of more than 20 years on the
run from Saul. hiding out in the mountains,
living in caves. And Saul would take his army,
the king now, would take his army and go out and hunt for
David, wanting to kill him. But God never let it happen.
Twenty years of it. Number four, during those same
years, the Lord sent 400 men to join themselves to David. You can read about this in 1
Samuel 22. And they joined themselves to
David, made him their leader, their king. And David would lead
them out by night to fight Philistines and protect his Israelite brethren. Oh, the king hadn't commissioned
him to do it. The king wanted to kill him. But yet, what a
noble work it was that David would secretly protect the farms
and the flocks against Philistines and would slay them by night.
What a noble work it was, what a secret work, protecting the
very people who could not afford to identify with him for fear
of King Saul. See, God protected him all those
years. A fifth thing David might have
thought about During those years, early in those years, Saul had
given his daughter, Michal, M-I-C-H-A-L, to David for a wife. Now, the scripture don't say
that David loved her. Scripture don't say David wanted
her. But it would have been an insult to the king for David
to refuse. So he is given a wife, Saul's
daughter. But she hated David's God. She mocked and made fun, was
full of envy, was full of jealousy. It was a season of David's life
that he could have done without, he thought. Well, hadn't we all
had seasons in life that we could have done without, we think.
But God sends it anyway. It came anyway. It was a season
in his life. And he says now that even that
season was in God's hand. Number six, the time in David's
life he could never forget and could never get over was when
in the weakness of his own flesh he sinned against God in taking
Bathsheba, Uriah's wife. And then he had Uriah killed
in order to try and cover up his sin so he could take her
for his own wife. Well, I don't know if in the
Old Testament there was no sacrifice for that. Death was the sentence. But yet David never died. The
Lord said, I have put thy sin away. And it was from that relationship
of David and Bathsheba, that Solomon came. And David says,
that season of my life, awful as it was, painful as it was,
was surely in God's hand. It was beyond my control. And then number seven would be
the trouble in David's own home with his children. You think
You talk about having trouble with children. One of David's
sons raped his own sister. What an awful crime against nature. And another one of his sons was
determined and finally did kill that brother. So David as a parent,
as a father, oh what troubled times those were. Absalom, David's eldest son,
secretly plotted against his father and convinced the men
of Israel that he should be king. His father should be replaced.
And so he organized against his own father. How this must have
torn David's heart. It was a season of his life that
he didn't ask for, he didn't want, didn't feel he needed.
But it was a season. Number eight, a man named Ahithophel,
David's friend, right-hand man, chief advisor. The one David
told all his secrets to. A man he trusted and believed
in and leaned on. Ahithophel went and sided with
Absalom. He told everything David had
ever confided in him with. This broke David's heart. This
nearly killed David. The grief was so great. David said in Psalm 41.9, Yea,
my own familiar friend, whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, had
lifted up his heel against me." But now an old man, he looks
back on all this and says, God was there. God was in it. Number, I forget which number
that was. One more. 2 Samuel 15. Absalom's support was so great, David had to leave the throne. He had to flee the palace for his life. Men did not feel toward David
the way he had felt toward Saul. 1st Chronicles 16.22, Touch not
mine anointed, do my prophets no harm. David would not lay
a finger on King Saul. You know that story. David had honored God's Word,
but men never honored him by God's Word. In all these things,
David looks back over his life. And he says, but I trusted in
Thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my God. My times are in Thy hand. God rules over all and in all. Proverbs 19.21, There are many
devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, The counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. Let men do what they will. God
has the last word. Proverbs 16, 13. The lot is cast
into the lap. That is the dice. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. He says the last
word. Men can do what they will. But
mark this down, it's going God's way. It's going God's way. Whatever in life, it's going
God's way. In this hour in which we live,
there is no doctrine, no Bible truth so precious and so comforting
to God's little children as that of the absolute sovereignty of
God. I could not survive one day if
I did not know in my heart that God knows all about all. And He will do right in all things. God is sovereign. God is sovereign. You say, well, you talk about
that a lot. It's very precious to me that my God is not a beggar. It's very precious to me that
my God is not in the dark about anything. It's very precious
to me that my God is able to change any situation, any time,
in any way He wills. It's precious to me. I heard
a man make this statement. I wouldn't care if I never heard
the word sovereign again the rest of my life. You see, it is so distasteful to fallen man. God's sovereignty,
God's Godhead, God's supremacy, God's election, God's predestination. So many despise the mention of
a God who is not at our mercy. And I told that individual, if
you stay around here, you're going to hear it. But people want a God who's supposed
to need us rather than us needing Him. Well, not David and not
me. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I'm in trouble. who is sovereign over all, is
running this world. No matter what anybody says,
no matter what anybody does, our times are in God's hand. We're in the season of life.
It might not be your favorite season, or it might be, but it's
in God's hands and seasons change. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. Why? Because my times are in
thy hand." When the Lord does open our understanding,
and thank God He does, and gives us just a glimpse sometimes of
how things really are, it's amazing how very little
we find ourselves believing that God really is God. But folks, our dependence must
be totally upon Him. It's not you that can preserve
your reputation among men. It's God. Look at Job, the awful so-called
sinner. Look at Elijah, the so-called
troubler of Israel. That's what the king called him. Look at Moses, the so-called
blasphemer of God. His own people called him that. It's the Lord who brought his
people through all these things, who brought his servants through
all these things. So you and I this morning have no defense
against the notions, the accusations, the misunderstandings, the conclusions
of men. How many of you have ever been
lied on, falsely accused, or wrongly condemned? Well, I could
say probably all of you. But I remind you, it could not
happen except our God let it happen. And it didn't happen just so
they could have somebody to pick on. It happened so God could
work in my heart, in your heart, during these seasons of our lives. And we understand that we can't
fix anything. We can't convince people of anything. We lose the battle. David said,
Thou art my God. Thy time, my times, my seasons
are in Thy hand. David is saying here, I'm not
giving the devil credit. You, Lord, are the one that controls
all things. He is sovereign in the seasons
of life. God is greater than all. And I've got a lot of scriptures
we could look at. I'm just going to turn to the
one about wild beasts. When we think about the greatness
of our God, He is able to cause wild beasts to forget their natural
instinct. That's how sovereign our God
is. The one whose name we're met
in this morning to worship. This is how much in control He
is. Do you remember that story in
Daniel chapter 6? When they had told Daniel, you're
going to have to stop this praying business for 30 days. Just don't
do it to your God. Daniel said, no, I can't do that.
He said, I can't. They said, well, if you don't,
we're going to throw you into a den of lions. Now some of the
modernists said it was a lion's den, but there wasn't any lions
in it. No, the scripture says it was a, don't say it was a
lion's den, it says it was a den of lions. They're in there, see,
they're in there. And according to history, when
this time came, when they were going to do something like this,
they would starve those lions for days to make sure they were
hungry enough to do the job. And not only that, but the fellow
they were going to throw in, they would cut him so the lions
could smell the blood and be ready to devour him. But you know the story. The Lord
delivered Daniel out of the lion's den. Not from going into it,
but out of it. He went into it. and spent the
night in there with the lions. And God shut the lions' mouth. You say, well, they just didn't
have any appetite. Oh, they had the appetite, but
Daniel had a God. Oh, they probably just didn't
smell the blood. Oh, but Daniel had a God. That's the difference. And I have a God this morning.
You have a God this morning who is bigger than anything we can
face in this life. Our seasons are in his hand. What about Jonah? Everybody here
knows the story of Jonah. It's so simple, we've heard it
so much, we just don't even think about it. But let's just try
to think about this. How on earth, in the middle of the ocean, a
fellow is thrown overboard Thrown overboard in the middle
of the ocean. You think people are standing around talking,
well now wonder if that fellow will survive. Uh-uh. He ain't
gonna survive. Nobody's gonna survive being
thrown overboard in the middle of the ocean. He can't swim that
far. And there's no other boats around
here. There's no way. He's history. He's done. He's
gone. But God But God had prepared
a great fish to swallow up Jonah and deliver
him to the land. And that's what he did. That
was a season of Jonah's life and it was in God's hand. There's a story about the prophet
Elisha who followed Elijah. This is in 2 Kings 2, if you've
never read it. Elisha had seen Elijah carried
up in a chariot of fire into heaven. And he was preaching
this message of what he'd seen. How the Lord had taken up Elijah. And he had seen Elijah go up. And there were some children
in that day, mocking the prophet, mocking the preacher, mocking
Elisha. Elisha was bald-headed, by the
way. And his message was that he saw Elijah go up. And so those
mocking children were saying, Go up, thou bald head! Go up! You say you saw the other prophet
go up. Why don't you go up, you old bald-headed buzzard? Go up,
thou bald head! Go up! You know what happened? The Bible
says that the Lord sent two she-bears out of the woods and smoked 42 of them children
and killed them. You say, you mean God killed
children? God can do anything He wants to do. Even the animal kingdom that
we have no control over, God controls. He does. Matthew chapter 17 at Capernaum,
Simon Peter had somebody said to him, said,
don't your master pay his taxes? Peter said, yes. Well, the Lord wasn't even present.
Peter was in another place. But when Peter went back to the
house where the Lord was, Peter never said anything. But Christ knew what had happened
over there. That fellow had said to him,
don't your master pay taxes? Peter never told him. The Lord
knew it. And the Lord said to him, Peter, because he walked
in, he said, I want you to go fishing. Cast a hook into the
sea. And the first fish you catch,
not the second one, the first fish you catch, open its mouth
and you'll find a piece of money. A coin. All their money was coins
back then. Take that and pay the taxes. Have you ever thought about the fact that Peter had to go
fishing He had to catch a fish, and of all the fish in the sea,
the very first one he was to catch would have this piece of
money in it. Now how God, how the Lord worked that, how it
got there, I don't know. Maybe some other crazy fisherman
dropped the money and the fish picked it up. That fish! Or maybe
the Lord created it. I don't know. But it happened. And I'm simply saying to us,
with a God like that, should you and I fear man? Should we fear anything? David wasn't always innocent.
Neither am I. Neither are you. But our God is always God. And
the devil is always the devil. But Hebrews 1 and 3 says that
our Lord upholds all things by the word of His power. Our God
is a powerful God. I'm just going to give us some
scripture now. And we'll be through in just
a few minutes. Scripture. I want to say this. If you read that in Ephesians
6, latter part of Ephesians 6, put on the whole armor of God. Scripture, God's word, is the
only offensive weapon in that armor. Paul describes it as mostly
defensive. He said, having your loins girt
about, that's defensive. Breastplate, that's defensive. Feet shod. Shield, that's defensive. Helmet, that's defensive. There's
just one offensive part of that armor. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. What God has to say is our only
weapon. T.J. and I were talking to some
Jehovah's Witnesses this week, and the fellow flat out, I went
to lay in some scriptures on me, do you believe this, do you
believe, and no, no, no. I want to say when the Bible
is not the final authority, We've nothing to talk about. We've
nothing to talk about. If this is not right, if this
book is not right, I have no weapon. But it is right. It is
right. God is sovereign in the seasons
of our lives and He has much to say about it. Those seasons
when all is going well and those seasons when all is not going
well. Acts 17.26 He hath made of one blood all nations of men
for to dwell on all the face of the earth, white men, black
men, religious men, ungodly men, one blood, and hath determined the times
before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. God's already
determined that. Amos 3.6, shall a trumpet be
blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be
evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Is there anything you can rule
God out of? Job 7.1, is there not an appointed
time to man upon earth? Psalm 66, 8 and 9, O bless our
God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard,
which holdeth our soul in life. You want to know who holds your
soul in life? It's God. And suffereth not our feet to
be moved. You say, yeah, but so and so
said this, or said that. So and so and the Lord have two
different stories. Acts 17, 28, for in Him we live
and move and have our being. David outlived most of his enemies.
I may not. You may not. But it will be God, not men. that deals with his children.
Daniel 4.35, And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth his will in the
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? Who has a right to call God's hand and say, no,
can't go that way, can't do that. Matthew 10, 29, "...are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall
to the ground without your heavenly Father knows about it. The red
hairs of your head are numbered." You don't know how many there
are, but He does. Fear ye not therefore, ye are
of more value than many sparrows. Talk about our God, sovereign God, Lord in the seasons
of life. Daniel 2.20, blessed be the name
of God forever and ever for wisdom and might are His and He changeth
the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and setteth
up kings. He's God. He don't bow to us. We bow to Him. But He's promised these things
to His children. Isaiah 54, 17, No weapon that
is formed against thee shall prosper. It's not in man's power
to destroy you or destroy me. God rules this world. So what about the church? Zechariah
2.5, for I sayeth the Lord will be under her a wall of fire round
about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. You say, oh, we want the glory
of excitement, of a huge crowd, of balloons and bells and bright
lights. No. The Lord said, I'll be the
glory in the midst of her, in the quietness, in the holiness
of His person. He's our God. Matthew 16, 18,
the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church. Oh, they'll
come against it, but they'll not prevail. Psalm 34, 17, the righteous cry,
and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. I'm giving to you the sword of
the Spirit, the Word of God. Psalm 91, 5, Thou shalt not be
afraid for the terror by night. Don't be afraid of the dark.
Nor for the arrow that flyeth by day. nor for the pestilence
that walketh in the darkness, nor for the destruction that
wasteth at noonday. Don't be afraid of any of it.
This is Psalm 91. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand. Why? Because you're
so strong? No, because your God is. A thousand shall fall at thy side,
and ten thousand at thy right hand. But it shall not come nigh
thee. I'm telling you, God is running
this thing. Distrust Him. He is Lord in the
seasons of our lives. Back to David in closing. After
all he went through in life, and boy, he went through some
stuff. Some of it was his fault, some
of it wasn't. Of some things he was guilty, of some he wasn't.
But after it's all done and said, David concluded this in talking
to the Lord, my times are in thy hand. All the seasons of
my life have been in thy hand. There were times I thought I
was in control. There were times I thought my
enemies Hadn't he? But now I know, Lord, you were
in the driver's seat all the time and still are. Do you know how David finally
died? I'll read it to you. 1 Chronicles 29, 27. And he died in a good old age,
full of days. riches and honor. Honor? Yes. A good old age full
of days, riches and honor. Was that David's doing? No, that
was God's doing. So it is true this morning, we
find ourselves in a lot of bad situations in life. sometimes
due to our own lack of wisdom or carefulness or diligence. But here's the blessed truth
of our text. The devil cannot kill us. This cruel humanity
can't destroy us. Oh, I would embrace the motto
of David, but I trusted in thee, O Lord. There's no help anywhere
else. I said, thou art my God, my times
are in thy hand. He's Lord in the seasons of life. So in that hard place, in that
painful place, in that hurting place, in that disappointed place,
in that discouraging place, in that helpless place, Don't despair. The season will change. Spring, summer, fall, winter.
Sunshine and rain, cold and hot. Planting time and harvest time.
Seasons. My seasons are in thy hand. He's Lord in it.