In His Hand

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A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. (Psalms 24:1-4 KJV)

It is comforting, isn’t it, to think that the earth is in the Lord’s hand. That He cares for what happens here, for all of us. Please, do not become too comfortable until you get acquainted with with God and His attributes. Paul – in the midst of writing to new Christians – includes this verse:

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31 KJV)

David had a different view:

And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. (1 Chronicles 21:13 KJV)

Have we found confusion between these two verses? Not hardly. And, they cannot be viewed without context, either.

Paul was writing about someone who had left off believing in God. David was writing as a man who depended upon God.

We would need to know the background in II Samuel 24 to understand David’s strait and we would have to know more of Hebrews 10 to understand Paul’s admonition. Single verses are nice to quote, but understanding to whom they were written, what happen before, when in history, where the authors were and why they were written.

That’s really the beginning of the study, too. It is necessary to know much of God and His perfect judgment before understanding that one person would be fearful of God and falling into His hand while another – under indictment of his error – would fall into the hand of the Lord because of His mercies.

Working toward that understanding is a very personal journey, isn’t it? It takes courage for us to examine our place along that journey. I think milestones along that road include a lack of knowledge regarding God and (hopefully) realization and acceptance that God does exist. What we do next determines whether or not we fear His hand in our lives or we lean and depend on His hand for guidance and strength.

Are you open to such examination? Open to asking God, Himself, where we are in His hand?