Rev. Don Campbell
1 Kings 1-2; Psalms 37, 71, 94
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, May 29, 2019
“IT AIN’T OVER TIL IT’S OVER”
David was in his final days, but his eldest living son Adonijah rebelled against David as had his older brother Absalom. With the help of Joab who had been a general in his father’s army and Abiather the priest, he attempted a coup which would unseat Solomon before he could be crowned as David’s successor. Working with Bathsheba, Nathan was able to skillfully bring David’s attention to the coup and David had Solomon anointed king as coregent with himself, firmly establishing Solomon’s succession (1 Kings 2:12). David is the epitome of Yogi Berra’s famous line “It ain’t over til it’s over.”
David wrote Psalm 37 in his old age (v.35) and in it, he encourages the righteous three times not to fret over evildoers (vv.1, 7,8). He said instead to trust the Lord (v.3), delight in the Lord (v.4), commit our ways to the Lord (v.5), and be calm in our souls as we wait on the Lord (v.7). The thought of his soon going the way of all the world was on his mind in Psalm 71, as he requests, “Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent (v.9). Then, “So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come” (v.18). In Psalm 94, he raises a rhetorical question: “Who rises up with me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers? (v.16). His answer: “If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up” (vv.17-18).
As nightfall approaches for many of us, what are our thoughts? Do we fret over the evildoers of the world, including the wicked rulers who frame injustice by statute and band together against the righteous? Or, are we focused on the steadfast love of the Lord? Whether we learned to trust the Lord on our mother’s breast as did David (Psalm 71:6) or we came to know him late, as the shadows of death grow ever nearer, let us remember, “It ain’t over til it’s over.”
CONNECTION
1. “Waiting for God” was the name of a British sitcom which ran from 1990-1994. The plots revolved around the life of residents of a retirement home. Except for the two “heroes” of the series, most residents seem to have accepted their fate of just waiting for God to take their souls and the home to take their bodies to the cemetery. How does this “waiting” differ from what David meant when he said, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him”? (Psalm 37:7)
2. David spoke of a time when his physical strength would be spent (Psalm 71:9). Our physical strength may be spent, but, if free from any form of dementia, what can we do? (Psalm 71:8)
