Turn with me this morning to the 31st Psalm, David writes, In you all more, I have taken refuge. Let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in your righteousness, turn your ear to me. Come quickly to my rescue. Be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name, lead and guide me, free me from the trap that is set for me, you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth. I hate those who cling to worthless idols. I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in your love for you. Saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place. The merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress. My eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and by years by groaning. My strength fails because of my affliction and my bones grow. Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors. I am a dread to my friends, those who see me on the street flee from me. I am forgotten by them as though I were dead. I have become like broken pottery. But I hear the slander of many. There is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O Lord. I say, you are my God. My times are in your hands. Deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me and let your face shine on your servant. Save me in your unfailing life. Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, or I have cried out unto you. Amen. Let's pray. You are our refuge and our fortress. You the sure rock upon which we build. To you, O living Christ, we come seeking the biosphere its ministry. We shall find refreshment for our souls in your word. Encouragement upon our fads that we should walk by your spirit's grace. Leave now and uniquely to each of us a point that blessings from your word that we shall be both encouraged and drawn together in Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. My times are in your hands, David, and with that simple affirmation he caught up one of the cardinal truths, one of the great parts of our Christian faith. David, as he wrote these words, as he made that simple affirmation is saying simply that life as a whole is in the keeping of God, whether it's joys or its sorrows, its successes, or its failures, its beginning and its close. All lie in God's keeping. And as David is reflecting upon life, and as he is thinking about what that means for his circumstance, he draws both encouragement and also direction from God, or he is penning these words at a place of trial in his own experience. Inevitably, it's only at places of anxiety that we reflect deeply upon the providence, the keeping power, the fact that our lives are lived in the palm of God's hands. For when things seem prosperous, it's hard for us to get a true measure of life. When we are well, we rarely think about times that we are going to be sick. When things are going so well, we rarely spend time contemplating the dreary downturns that come so easily. And that's the truth, for all of us because the foreground is so satisfactory and so engrossing that the reality is we rarely deal with the background. We're conscious of great energy, so we don't dwell upon the fact that we are all of us going to decay and find our energy dissipating. David is contemplating life and its meaning, and understanding his present circumstances from the situation in which he's hung himself, which is not an easy one and it's not a pleasant one. All his life has in some sense been a school of difficulty and trouble. His position at the court of King Saul was a troubled one. He knew what it was to enjoy the favor and then the anger, the love and then the jealousy of this king. He knew what it was to find the spear hurtling through the air into his heart and being missed by the air's breath. He knew what it was to be driven from the court of a man who had treated him as a son and to become a bandit hunted by the soldiers that he led into battle. He knew what it was to be in Travelle even when he came to the throne. He bound his life constantly faced with challenges and as he writes these words, the circumstances inevitably are those of a man driven from his success. He has been king, he has conquered his enemies, he's triumphed over those that would destroy his kingdom. And yet suddenly he finds himself driven from his capital, removed from his throne by his second son who has armed an army, raised a rebellion and with the support of the population, driven his father from his throne and in all likelihood these words were penned as David has sought refuge in a neutral city having fled his own kingdom and on the far side of the Jordan is looking now at his people, awaiting the possibility that his own life will come to an end because of his son's rebellion. David knew that life was not simple, it was not easy he knew that it was not one in which he would constantly be assured of success and yet as he looks at his future and it is a very uncertain future. He doesn't know what tomorrow would hold, indeed there is a likelihood that for him tomorrow would hold capture, imprisonment and perhaps death with the hands of the son that he loved. He knows that he's lost popular support. He knows that his reputation is in rags his sin with Betsy but has become public talked about. He's conspired together to bring the death of Uriah the Heter who had sought only to serve him and the kingdom. He was a man who knew the uncertainty of the future and who knew that the righteousness of God was no guarantee that he would enjoy what tomorrow would bring for his own sins he sets before him and he knows that the Lord is righteous and that the ways of God are just and that he deserves as a result of his own behaviour that he should face punishment. So he's reflecting upon his life knowing that it is uncertain and yet even though he does not know that tomorrow will be prosperous even though he cannot guarantee that it will hold wealth and restoration and even though he knows it may not bring to him all that he has dreamed of and hoped for and accomplished. He writes a truth. My days are in your hands O Lord and then he writes his response. I trust in you. I say that you are my God and that's the secret of living life. There is the secret of being a servant of God, there is the confidence that is able to deal with tomorrow even though tomorrow is uncertain. It is to know that life is held in the hands of a God who is sovereign the Lord has not only set in motion the world in which we live his creating power has called all things that are into be and he governs it. Not remotely, he governs it with a purpose and the purpose is that life here will display and reflect his glory and move towards his own purpose. While David knows that that sometimes for him is mysterious or he doesn't understand the ways of God and he doesn't always comprehend what he means to be part of the purpose of God. He does know that his life matters to the Lord. He does know that what happens to him is of enormous importance to the Lord and that life itself is lived in the hands of a God who holds the key to the future. The Lord's hand is on the helm of his life. The Lord's hand is on the helm of your life and mine upon the life of the church our history and our destiny have a purpose and a direction. David knew that whatever may happen to him his life was not simply held in captivity to chance and to events over which he had no control. Jesus himself, both knew and taught that reality to all who listened to him. For he said you'll remember, consider the ravens, they neither so nor reap yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds? Or again, he looked at the beautiful flowers, considered the lilies of the fields how they grow, God quotes the grass of the fields. How much more will God quote you? And turning to his disciples, the Lord provides for his people. He gives to them what they need. It's the reason that he taught us to pray and to say thank you for our daily bread. The Lord is the creator, he is the giver, he is the provider for our life. But more, not simply removed from us, he is at the same time as providing, protecting us. Or you'll remember that Jesus said to his servants, are not too sparrows sold for a farthing, not one of them shall fall to the ground without your father knowing, therefore do not be afraid. And he is reminding his disciples you and me that the Lord not only is providing for our life, he also is providing for us a protection in life. He has not removed in the heavens far from us so that we cannot find a God who cares and knows and loves. David knew, not only the provision of God but he knew the protection of God. And though he was unsure as to whether or not he would lose his kingdom, one thing he was clear about, the deciding factor as to whether he would lose his kingdom was not whether he could raise a new and greater army, whether his strategies were more urgent and important than absolums, not whether he could devise new plans and construct new methods to overcome absolums, he knew that despite the choices of life there was a higher purpose that would determine his future. It didn't mean for David that his choices were unimportant. It meant that his choices were made knowing that nonetheless life was lived in the hands of God. And it's important for us to understand that. We are not fatalists who simply throw up our hands in horror at the future and say what will be will be. We aren't the ones who can make it or unmake it, our choices are important. But ultimately what is decisive is the purpose and the will of God. And it raises for us the question that he raised for David. How do we look at tomorrow? We don't know what's going to happen. Nobody else knows what is going to happen either. They can make educated guesses as can we. If you look back on last year and ask yourself how many of you could have predicted what would happen to you to bring you today, most of us have no inkling as to the content of next year for any of our lives. And yet what David teaches us is a vast import. Regardless of the fact of what we know or don't know, our lives are lived in the hands of the Lord. And as we have anchored our lives to Christ, as we have by faith been united to the Savior, who has come, lived and died for us, who has borne our punishment that his righteousness imputed by the Father to us is the real experience of our life we can know. The choices important though they are, yet are made with our lives determined ultimately by God. How do we respond to a God who holds us in the palm of his hand, who holds life in his hand? First David, I trust him you and to each of us comes the challenge that is born of the confidence that we are in God's hands and it is the challenge of resting our lives in his hand. For David, trusting in God involved the cultivation of consciously living in the presence of God. It wasn't simply a fatalism that shrugged and said I know that God's in control so I will simply live. It was the reality of day by day drawing himself into the presence of the Lord. I trust in you, Lord. He explains it, 16th Psalm, he says very simply I have set the Lord before me. Trust, give words in what David does with the knowledge that his life is held in the hands of a sovereign God is to consciously bring himself out by our day by day into the presence of the Lord. All when he wrote the Colossians will remember said, set your minds on things that are above and not on us and he is reminding us of the nature of our activity. What does it mean for us to trust God? It means that we set our minds upon the Lord. We don't take him for granted. We come into his presence, we discipline ourselves to seek the Lord both early and late. Every night before I go to sleep I set the alarm clock. Now I wake up every morning before the alarm clock. It has never yet woken me but every night I set it for that one time when I won't be awake before it. But to set the clock I have to make a series of decisions. I have to say I want the alarm to sound at 6 o'clock in the morning and I set it so that it will sound there. That's what David did. What Paul enjoys us knowing that all of life is lived in the hands of a sovereign God. Set your response that you will consciously live it in his sight. Not take it for granted. Not occasionally remember God when it is church time but know that every day is lived in his trust which is what David brings in response to the knowledge of God's control. He's built out of the experience of the faithfulness of the Lord. It isn't a feeling as much as a matter of the will. God has come to this His servant. He's come to you and to me. And our response is not I feel now that I need the Lord. I will set the Lord before me. Whether I feel it or whether I don't. I will take time in the discipline of the morning to meet in prayer, to contemplate God and His mercy, to read His word, to see, phrased by phrase, the power of His word. And catch my life I will set the Lord before me so that my life will be consciously lived in His presence. For most of that it isn't the reality of what we do. It calls out to us the discipline of setting first the kingdom of God. It's possible to do this because the Lord has taken initiative in your life. He has enabled you to draw near to him. Therefore do not let life control you. Or anything else. Don't let people's views, circumstances, but no. That's what David found. He didn't know whether he would be able to cross the river, re-conquer the kingdom. He didn't know if the army would gather to him when he sounded the call. He didn't know if he would defeat his son. He didn't know if he had the heart to see absolute displace. But he did know that he would set the Lord before him every day. And he would walk as the Lord led him. And he would follow. And in doing that he could trust that the Lord would hold him in the hollow of his hand. Trust involves cultivating a determination for live consciously in the presence of God. But more than that it involves also believing that the Lord will be there to reward those who seeking. That's what happened for David. He brought his needs before God. He didn't know whether he would be king again in Jerusalem. And though he wanted deliverance he brought his needs to God not knowing whether or not he would be king. Whether he would know prosperity or want. Plenty of poverty. Whether he would know a prison or a palace. But he did know this. That he would come into the presence of God and the Lord would reward him. And each one of us as we seek the presence of the Lord has to be schooled. Well one author has called the art of recollection to remember regardless of the circumstances certain realities. It doesn't matter whether you have got lots or little you are. If I think you are linked to God in Jesus Christ, a child of a king. You are adopted by grace into the family of God. You are an heir of eternity. If you know and love Jesus Christ as Lord, it doesn't matter whether you exit this life in rags or in riches. You are still a child of a king. And you will inherit his presence. David knew that God knew him. He didn't forget the Lord. He didn't forget that he belonged to the Lord. He remembered how God had come to him and enabled him to overcome a giant from Philistia. He remembered how the Lord had been his protection when he faced the wolves on the mountain side that would scatter the sheep. He knew the Lord's hand was upon him when Saul turned against him. He knew that though he may never again dwell in a palace in Jerusalem, he was still a child. And to remember that meant that his future no matter how uncertain it may be in terms of what was held back was ultimately secure. For the reward he sought was not some gift, not some reestablishing power and prestige and plenching. It was the fellowship with God that knows the love and the touch and the covenant promise. It is the reward of which Paul speaks when he writes to the Romans and says, I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor demons nor the present nor the future nor powers nor heights nor depth nor anything else in all of creation. He can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus' outlaw. Every day, for dated and for us, we ought to remember that we belong to Christ and therefore every day with its challenges or its choice is God's day. One foot of his providence is that because you are a child of God you may walk with him into an unknown future. David knew both the security and the comfort of the presence of God amidst his enemies and his enemies were real. The certainty of his mortal enemies was matched by the reality of facing an eternal enemy. Peter reminds us that each of us faces one who is second only to God in power and might a roaring lion seeking to devour us and we know the hostility of the evil one, we know the enmity of the powers of evil. As reality comes to us, their power is made known through others, through slights, through anger, through hatred, through malevolence, through terrorism. There is evil with which we contend and that is the enemy of the soul. We will face a tax, we will face a source but we do so in the company of God who has said, even there, I will hold it and my right hand will keep you. David didn't know tomorrow but he did know that the Lord would never abandon him and that as a child of God he would by the mercy of God through the gift of perseverance in view that he should be brought at last to the presence of the one who had loved him and guided him and kept him. That is the promise to the child of God. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, the hour comes and it is now come that you shall be scattered, of remained with his own. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. With each one of us is the same promise, whatever the future may hold. We are not alone. The Father who worked with the Son even to the cross is with us and we are not abandoned but held in the hands of the one who holds the future. My days, our days, are in thy hands the Lord, my God and I am glad that they are there. Let's pray. Our gracious Father, we face a future trusting in the providence of your care, though we confess before you the reality of our changeableness, we thank you that you are unchanging in mercy, in grace and in sovereign power. Grant to us that we may catch fresh sight of your provision and your power that your grace made known to us and in a smithelied us all our days. We may dwell secured in your unchanging mercy, revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray in His name.