It’s hard, sometimes, to figure out what God’s doing in the midst of tragedy, or difficulty, or despair. If the year 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that Job’s friend was right on when he said that “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7).

There are things that happen in life for which we struggle to find an explanation. The reason it’s a struggle is because they seem to contradict things we know to be true. Theological things…about God, and about his interactions with us, about what he’s promised, and about what we expect. When all is well, these expectations swim below the surface. But when difficulty comes, they rise and make themselves known. They force us to deal with our expectations, to ask difficult questions, and to interact with God at an entirely different level…a level that makes us uncomfortable at times.

That’s why I love the psalms. The psalms give us permission to have hard, uncomfortable conversations with God. They show us how other people…people in different times and places, but nonetheless people just like us…experienced their own versions of hurt and pain and confusion and distress, and how they went to God with those things.

Psalm 89 is an example of that. It’s a prayer of a man who knows exactly what God has promised, but who’s struggling because the circumstances surrounding him seem to suggest that God hasn’t kept his promises. His psalm is a prayer for clarity, and a prayer for help, and a prayer that God would do what he’s promised to do.

In particular, the last stanza of this psalm carries some lessons for us that we can apply in our own lives when we’re faced with circumstances that confuse us about what God’s doing, and how he can still be faithful despite what’s going on. Psalm 89:49-51 reads:

⁴⁹  Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
⁵⁰  Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,
and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations,
⁵¹  with which your enemies mock, O Lord,
with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.

The assertion of the Bible is simply this: God is faithful to his promises, even when circumstances suggest otherwise. But if that’s the case, then how should we respond when we face trials that make us begin to question his faithfulness? The answer lies in this final stanza of Psalm 89. Our psalmist gives us three responses we can have that will maintain our trust in God so that you can wait on his faithfulness.

1. Remember what God has promised

The first thing we need to do is remember the promises God has given. This seems so simple, but when difficulties come, our perplexity and confusion can begin to overshadow the promises we once held so dear.

Note how the psalmist does this in verse 49. He remembers that God had “sworn” to David, and that what he had sworn were “lovingkindnesses,” and he did this “in [his] faithfulness.” This is all very strong language, and that’s the point. The psalmist remembers full well the promises God had made.

Of course, what the psalmist is remembering is the Davidic Covenant, a theologically rich and significant set of promises which God gave to David in 2 Samuel 7:1-16 and which the psalmist summarizes in Psalm 89:19-29 as the promise of…

1. a great name
2. victory over his enemies
3. a magnificent kingdom
4. an everlasting throne
5. a permanent royal progeny
6. faithfulness and loyal love

The problems the psalmist currently faces go antithetical to these promises, which drives to the heart of the psalm itself, but before we ask the kinds of the questions the psalmist does, the first thing we need to do is stop and remember what promises God has made.

Difficult times are when we can learn just how faithful and good God really is, but sometimes we never make it that far. In our confusion and desperation, we reach out for human means of solace because we have no idea what God has promises us. Or, we confuse God’s promises and make them say what they really don’t say.

2. Reveal your heart to God

The second response we can have is being real with God. We can be tempted at times to fake our way through life, holding up a happy face, even to God. But when the heart’s not there, it’s not there. And God knows it. And what the psalms do is embolden us to tell God what’s on our heart.

What the psalmist does that’s so shocking to our sensibilities is he makes a demand of God: “Remember how your servants are mocked, O Lord, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations.” Obviously, this is personal for the psalmist. But the wonderful thing about it is that he lets God know. “Servants” here undoubtedly includes the psalmist, but really it’s talking about the reproach that’s fallen on David and his descendants. After all, David is referred to as God’s “servant” throughout the psalm (vv. 3, 20, 38-39).

The psalmist wants God to act. He wants God to do something about what’s going on. And he’s not shy about it. And neither should we be. That’s not to say that our prayers can turn into rudeness. That’s not what’s going on here. Instead, what the psalmist is doing is remembering what God had promised to David, looking around and saying, “What I see with my eyes makes it look like you’re not keeping your word,” and then asking God to fulfill what he has promised.

And you know what. That kind of prayer is a prayer of faith, not doubt. When you pray in full knowledge of the promises of God, it’s not a lack of faith that drives you to say to God, “Remember!” It’s a solid, full faith that takes you there, because you know he’s faithful and you know he can and will do what he’s promised.

3. Rest in God’s sovereign purposes

The last thing to do is sometimes the most difficult. To admit and rest in the fact that God is sovereign requires admitting that we are not, and that’s hard for all of us to do.

What the psalmist does is relinquish control and exchange it for perspective. He does this because he knows that what’s going on in Judah…this national crisis which has driven him to pray…is no coincidence.

In verse 50, we read that Judah’s enemies “mock the footsteps of your anointed,” which is way of saying, “everywhere the king goes, he faces the mocking insults of his enemies and the shame that comes with it.

But you need to grasp the level of sovereignty the psalmist sees in this. Obviously, something extraordinarily bad had happened in the nation to get to this situation. But what was it? The psalm itself gives us some clues as to the what and the how:

But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust. You have breached all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice. You have also turned back the edge of his sword, and you have not made him stand in battle. You have made his splendor to cease and cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with shame. (Psalm 89:38-45)

Getting the picture? This wasn’t an accident. The psalmist fully believes that God is sovereign and that nothing happens outside of his control. He looks out across Judah and he sees a defeated king, who has been cast off and rejected. He sees the crown in the dust, the throne unoccupied. He sees breached walls, enemies plundering the people, scorn and insults from neighboring countries, military defeat, etc., and he can only put the responsibility on God himself.

There’s the rub. This is the crux of the issue. God is sovereign. God is faithful. But how can both be true if God has done this to the one to whom he swore covenant loyalty and love? That’s the issue the psalmist is grappling with.

But even amidst his personal struggles, the psalmist knows what’s really going on. He knows why this has occurred, because he narrated the terms of the promises:

If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” (Psalm 89:30-37)

The pure reality is that the disaster that befell the nation and its king was the result of God’s promise. He promised that he would punish their sin and discipline David’s sons for disobedience. And herein lies the frighteningly wonderful reality: even in the disaster, God was being faithful to his promises.

The psalmist, then, was struck with the difficulty of recognizing that the trials before him were part of God’s sovereign purposes. And he was left clinging to the promise that despite the punishment, his love would remain. And that’s what he rested in. That’s what he pleaded for God to renew.

Between promise and fulfillment

The reality is that, even though our circumstances are theologically different from the psalmist, we still share the same fundamental perspective. He lived on one side of the cross…one side of the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant…while we live on the other. We have seen the revelation of the greater son of David, the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant (at least in part).

But our perspective remains the same. We both live in between promise and fulfillment. And while we live in this spot, we feel the tension that comes when our circumstances don’t fit the promises we hold so dear. For him, it was the promise of a glorious Davidic dynasty. For us, it’s the promise that all things work together for good (Rom 8:28).

We live in light of that promise, but we don’t yet see how it all works out. We still wait for the time when that promise is fully realized for us. In the meantime, what we can do is remember what he’s promised, be real with him, and rest in his sovereign purposes in our lives.