(I want to listen to this sermon)

Reading:                                   Eccl.3:1-8 & Ps.31

Text:                         Ps.31:15 "My times are in your hand"

Are you one of those people who like to make New Year's Resolutions? As a New Year begins you seize the opportunity of looking ahead and determine that things will not be as they have been up till now – you'll change this or that and generally adopt a new pattern of life for the coming year.

Of course as we get older we tend to become somewhat cynical as we know just how difficult it is to keep it all up. What seemed such a good idea on January 1^st is possibly not looking so appealing by the end of the month – perhaps not even now!

And then again we are never fully in control of our own lives: while we are responsible for the way in which we respond to the circumstances of life that come our way we do not determine what exactly those circumstances will be.

King Solomon tried to investigate what were the important things in human life and believed that there were particularly appropriate times for the many different activities that constitute a normal human life.

I wonder which of his propositions will be true of us in 2011.

Will it be one of the following or perhaps a mix of several of them?

a time to be born, and a time to die;

                           a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

Experience tells us that we are likely to know some considerable change as the year unfolds.

How then are we to go forward into this New Year, come what may, with confidence?

I suppose that the making of New Year's resolutions is one way to try to cope with the future but I want to show you a more sure way. Let us look to our text this morning and see what it has to say to us.

It may be obvious but we need to be clear about this the psalmist is speaking to God! And the God that he is speaking about is not just any god but the God of the Bible. This God has always been there from the very beginning:

Gen.1:1 "In the beginning, God…"

Jn.1:1 "In the beginning was the Word…"

In a world of change how important it is for us to have some fixed reference point, something that is not subject to the vagaries of change as everything else seems to be. And the God of the Bible is just such a One. We sometimes sing the hymn "Abide with me" which contains the following words:

change and decay in all around I see:

O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

And this is no invention of the hymnwriter but a faithful adaptation of what is so clearly taught in the Bible. Here are just a few verses that speak of the LORD our God in this way:

Ps.90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."

Is.48:12 "Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last."

Of course the same description is used of the Lord Jesus in the NT:

Rev.21:6 "And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."

Nor is this God who has always been there a disinterested spectator. Rather He is a very active participant!

Is.46:9-10 "I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’"

Indeed His involvement is of a tremendously warm and encouraging kind:

Ps.103:17 "But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,"

Do you see here that it is not just that the LORD Himself is from everlasting to everlasting but His attitude and disposition of love towards His people is also so described!

Isaiah makes a similar point when he links the eternal existence of God to His willingness to enter into personal relationship with the creatures He has made:

Is.57:15 "For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite."

The NT record of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ explains in detail just how such intimacy has been made possible. The eternal Son of God took human flesh and dwelt amongst us, living our life, dying the death we deserve to die that by His sufferings we might be delivered from our sin, guilt and shame and be made children of God in Him!

We might be tempted to think that the psalmist is referring to all the good times of his life, that all of these times are in the Lord's hands but if we were to imagine that these were the only times the psalmist had in mind we would be wrong.

Yes, the psalmist is affirming that all his good times are ordered and kept safe in God's hands. He does celebrate what the LORD has already done for him in the past but he knows too that he is far from being free from all trials. His declaration is a declaration of his confidence that all his difficult, arduous and sorrowful times are there in the same place too. The psalmist des not maintain a limited view of God. He doesn't think of God somehow breaking through on a few odd occasions to bring blessing to him. No, this God whom he sets before him is much bigger than that! This God determines all his times holding them all in His hands.

You see the psalmist is here making an affirmation of faith. We mustn't imagine that life was going swingingly for the psalmist and that he was blind to any clouds that might darken the horizon. Perhaps it is easy for us to declare our faith when everything in our lives is going smoothly but this was certainly not the case for the psalmist at this point in time. Even a casual glance at this psalm makes this abundantly clear.

The psalmist speaks of his situation as being characterised by distress, grief, sorrow, sighing and failing strength (vv.9+10). He knows what it is to adversaries who plot against him.

And it is in just such a context that he declares: "My times are in your hand"!

We're not to think that the psalmist was some strange kind of masochist who enjoyed suffering he wasn't and he made repeated please to the Lord for deliverance – he asked to be rescued or saved, for the LORD to be gracious to him, for the LORD to make His face to shine upon him – ie. he longs for a renewed sense of the LORD's presence and favour – and he asks for his enemies to be shamed and silenced.

There are around 2.500 references to hands in the Bible as a whole which is way too many for us to even contemplate thinking about. What I want to do then is to confine our thoughts to what the NT has to say to us.

The psalmist was content with his declaration and so was confident that God's hands were a safe place for him and his times to be. Jesus in the NT was obviously of the same opinion because He was happy to commit His spirit into the hands of the Father (Lk.23:46).

Just what those hands were like we understand best by considering Jesus who came to make the Father known to us.

Jesus' hands were used for a variety of excellent purposes:

·       He laid His hands on people – to heal the sick, to cleanse lepers, to restore eyesight to the blind etc.

·       He laid His hands on children to pray for them and to bless them

·       He raised His hand up as He pronounced blessings and to encourage

·       He stretched out His hand to save Peter as he was sinking under the waves

How was He able to do this? Well again the Bible gives us the answer. The Father had given all things into His Son's hands (we're told this on two separate occasions Jn.3:35 + Jn.13:3).

Power can be such a terrible thing when wrongly applied but we simply do not find it being abused by our Lord Jesus Christ. How confident we may be of leaving our times in such hands!

After His death and resurrection – where once again His nail-pierced hands are shown to wavering disciples to reassure them of the reality of the events that had recently taken place – He was then raised to the Father's right hand ie. the place of full authority, honour and power. Exalted there, having made purification for sins, He acts as our leader, our Saviour, and He intercedes on our behalf.

Given the exalted position He now occupies what weight that now gives to His promises concerning the safety of those who take refuge in Him!

Jn.10:28-29 "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand."

So if the psalmist could express his trust that his times were in God's hand how much more ready should we be to be confident in the fact that our times are in His hands when we know so much more about what He has done for us!

Are you safe in God's hand? Have you taken refuge in the Saviour? The safest place for you to be is in the hands of a loving Saviour and that for all eternity.

Christian, rejoice and be glad and trust Him who makes no mistakes.

While the Christian who trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ is as safe as houses in the LORD's hands and can rest secure in the sure knowledge that his times are in the LORD's hands and as such well ordered and directed, the same cannot be said of the man, woman, boy or girl who does not have faith in Christ.

We may well be tempted in an age that likes to imagine that God's whole purpose in existing is to molly-coddle and spoil His children that Jesus will only ever be some kind of big softly towards us indulging our every whim and fancy. The reality is far different.

Did you know that Jesus is described by John the Baptist as coming with a winnowing fork in His hand?

Mt.3:11-12 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

 Jesus is portrayed not as being universally generous to all but of separating one category from another. The offer of salvation is genuine but if you will not receive what God offers on God's terms then you must know that there are consequences, dire consequences!

Judgment in the hand of the Lord Jesus!

In the Acts of the Apostles we read of how a temporary judgment was inflicted upon the magician Elymas who opposed the Gospel message and who sought to impede others responding to it. He was made blind for a time as a warning – and the message is a stern one.

The writer to the Hebrews puts it very starkly:

Heb.10:31 "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

 Have you ever thought about that? Many folk blindly imagine that being in God's hands will be good for them but that is not what is spoken of here.

God's hands are a safe place for us if we have our sins forgiven and a Saviour who represents us but if we were in God's hands in any other state we would be in a desperately hopeless situation exposed endlessly to the wrath of God.

And yet today is the day of salvation! There is still a way of escape from this dangerous path that all of us begin life on. Repent of your sin, put your trust in a crucified and risen Saviour and cry out to God to have mercy upon your never dying soul.

If you have done that then go your way rejoicing confident that your times are in His hands!

Amen.