Psalm 17: Likeness

I talk to people who are in trouble every day. It’s far more than part of the job in being a pastor, it’s one of the joys. That may sound strange, there being joy in hearing about people’s trouble, but the joy is not in the trouble, it’s in the hearing, in being trusted, in being available. So far, we have seen that many of David’s Psalms have been written from and about his trouble. We’ve seen him betrayed by his oldest son, surrounded by enemies, discarded by those he served, hunted by the king and feeling alone and forsaken. Some of our troubles are of our own doing, we make bad decisions, convince ourselves to do things that we know are not right, put hope, trust and affection into things and people that are not where those things belong, we follow our hearts rather than leading them. Sometimes, we must throw all those descriptions aside and admit, confess as the Bible puts it, that we have simply sinned, we went our own way even though we knew it was not God’s way, we rebelled, we rejected God. But there are also times when our trouble has nothing to do with us. Oh, it affects us, it can feel like it is trying to destroy us, but it was not caused by us. What do we do when our trouble is not our fault?

That’s what David is trying to figure out at the beginning of Psalm 17. He prayed, “Hear a just cause, O LORD”, meaning, the trouble that he was facing was not of his own doing. He was just, innocent, pure, maybe even righteous in his present circumstance. So, David did the only thing he knew to do, he called on God. He pleaded at the beginning: “Hear . . . attend . . . give ear . . .” He wanted to make sure God was listening, I think he wanted to convince himself that God knew what was happening. Isn’t it funny how we believe, with our whole hearts, that God knows everything, that God is always present, even that God is always working, but when we get to our times of trouble, we don’t know what to do, other than to call out and ask the God who always listens, to please listen to us.

On the night of Jesus’ arrest, right after He told the disciples that He would depart from them and then told Peter the he would deny Him three times before the morning, He said to the group, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me.” Trouble was coming, but while their hearts would be affected, even broken, there was a way to keep them from being troubled. We have this very fallen belief that controlling our circumstances will protect our hearts, but Jesus was teaching us how to protect our hearts when our circumstances spin far out of our control.

The Greek word used in John 14:1 is used 17 times in the New Testament and each time it’s translated as “trouble”. But what exactly does trouble mean? It’s a broad word with many meanings. I mentioned earlier that I talk to people in trouble every day. Sometimes that trouble is very serious, life-altering, sometimes it’s something that will quickly pass and might even be forgotten. At times the trouble is self-inflicted, at other times there is someone else to blame and often there is no blame to assess to anyone, it’s just trouble. One of the definitions for the word used in John is “to disquiet, make restless”. Another is “to render anxious or distressed”. The most descriptive of all may be “to strike one’s spirit with fear and dread”.

David was praying, as I often do, for God to get him out of trouble, he wants to be delivered out of the situation he’s in, but Jesus seems to be telling the disciples how to endure the trouble, how to be delivered to the place they need to be. Jesus gave a very simple command, “believe in Me”. This is more than a belief in His ability, it’s a believe in His character, not just in what He can do, but in who He is. When our hearts get troubled, we have a tendency to forget what we know to be true about God. We begin pleading with Him to listen rather than believing that He always hears us. We begin to demand that He move rather than believing that He is always at work. We begin to beg Him to come rather than believing that He is always with us. We begin to question His love rather than believing that “God is love” and “He has loved us with an everlasting love.”

What we believe becomes evident when trouble comes. It’s the trouble that tests us, that squeezes us to see what we are made of, that presses us so that we will know if we are leading our hearts or if our hearts are leading our way. David pleaded with God, begged, called out, you might even say wrestled, but when he got to the end of Psalm 17, he seems to have realized that his battle was not ever with God, it wasn’t even with those who were causing him trouble, his battle had always been and would always be with his heart. When we can keep our hearts on track, when we can keep our belief and confidence in Jesus, trouble doesn’t vanish, but it loses its ability to strike our hearts with fear and dread. David closes the Psalm by writing, “As for me, I will see Your righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” David wasn’t pointing to a future home in heaven when all the trouble would vanish, I believe he was directing his heart. He was reminding himself to look at God’s righteousness even in the midst of his trouble, and he was remembering that a clear view of God will always put our souls at rest. The purpose of our trouble, no matter how it was caused or who is to blame, is to dim or blur God’s likeness in our hearts. David prayed for trouble to leave, but then he realized that for his heart to be satisfied, for him to be truly content with his life, he didn’t need God to remove his trouble, he needed to move himself nearer to God’s likeness. Today whatever your trouble may be, do not let your heart be troubled, remember God’s character, believe in Jesus and be satisfied when you are awakened to His likeness.