BELIEVE THAT YOU WILL SEE THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING
From The HeartPublish date: 09/06/2004
[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living! 14 Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord. Psalms 27:13-14 AMP
David wrote most of his Psalms before he became king -- many of them were written in the middle of the toughest times of his life. David had been anointed king, but Saul was still on the throne. Saul, to whom he had been nothing but loyal, had gone crazy and was trying to kill him, but David, out of respect for God and the king, would not touch a hair on the king's head. David had not done anything wrong and yet he was forced to live in caves and run for his life. It must have been extremely difficult for him: mentally, physically, emotionally and in every way. The only thing that got him through everything was his faith in God and his relationship with God.
You could say that David was an optimist – he hoped in God, he believed that God was good, and he believed that he would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living! David had a promise from God and he believed and expected that God would keep His promise. You have to be a person of faith to be an optimist and David had faith in God. In order to have faith in God, you have to first know what He has promised and then, secondly, you have to believe that He is faithful to keep his promises. If you have faith, then you are not impatient. All the time you are waiting, you are hoping for and expecting the Lord, you are brave and of good courage and your heart is stout and enduring. If you have faith, no matter what you are going through right now, you have a confidence that God is coming through for you and that He will not be late. Even if you have lost something, if you have faith, no matter what you have lost, or what the devil has stolen from you, you have confidence that God will restore it to you.
Because of faith also Sarah herself received physical power to conceive a child, even when she was long past the age for it, because she considered [God] Who had given her the promise to be reliable and trustworthy and true to His word. 12 So from one man, though he was physically as good as dead, there have sprung descendants whose number is as the stars of heaven and as countless as the innumerable sands on the seashore. Hebrews 11:11-12 AMP
Sarah was not old woman when she married Abraham, but she had been married for many years now and all this time she had been barren and had never borne a child. Now she was old and well beyond her childbearing years. However, God had made a promise to Sarah that she would bring forth a son in her old age and she believed this promise. She believed that God was reliable and trustworthy and true to His word. Because she believed, she herself received the physical power to conceive a child, even though she was long past the age for it.
[For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be. 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he considered] the barrenness of Sarah's [deadened] womb. 20 No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God, 21 Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised. Romans 4:18-21 AMP
Abraham had no human reason to hope so he put his hope in God. He had faith that he would become the father of many nations, as he had been promised. Even when he looked at his own 100 year-old, impotent body and at the barrenness of Sarah's womb, he did not weaken in faith. Because he kept his eyes on God's promise and not on his situation, he did not waver and doubt. His faith grew stronger and stronger until he saw the manifestation of the promise -- his precious son Isaac.
David said, "what would have become of me had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living!" David knew that if he had given up hope, if he had believed that God had let him down, and if he had believed what the devil and his circumstances were telling him, that his life would have been destroyed and he never would have fulfilled the call and the plan of God for his life. Yes, God had made him a promise, but it was his confidence in God's Word that brought him out of his difficulties into the blessing. Because Abraham and Sarah believed that they would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living, God's promise to them came true. Their descendants number as the stars of heaven and are as countless as the innumerable sense of the seashore.
God is a good God and He has good things planned for you. Study God's Word, find out what He has promised you, believe those promises, believe that you will see the Lord's goodness here on earth, not just in heaven, and when you look back on your life you will be able to say, just like David, "I am so glad that I believed in God and that I trusted Him, because without Him I would never have made it. He has always come through for me!"