For the last few months in my time
with the Lord, I have been going through Psalms. About a week and a half
ago, I was reading Psalm 31 and got to the verse that said, “My times are in
Your hands” (31:15). I was about to leave for the hospital to spend the day
with Mom. Two days prior, she had decided to transition into hospice care as
the cancer was now in her abdomen and there were no more viable treatment
options for her. Additionally, she was dealing with incredible pain, and we
knew that her time here on earth might be nearing the end. Here was a verse
that spoke right into our situation: Our times belong to the Lord. Mom’s time
belonged to the Lord.
Psalm
139:16 says that “all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before
one of them came to be.” From before Mom was born in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, on
November 29, 1951, the Lord knew that her final day on earth would take place
on September 29, 2026, while she was at home with her husband and children.
This was God’s plan for her; it was born out of an all-loving, all-wise
Fatherly heart. And this truth gives peace in the midst of the sadness. We do
not have to understand why this was the time the Lord set for her. Yet we are
called upon to trust that the Lord is accomplishing His will and that He is
good, even as we grieve and miss her terribly. We know that she is happy and
whole in the presence of her Savior and that we will see her again in the place
where there are no more goodbyes.
There is a
song we used to sing in Germany based on Psalm 31:15. The chorus says, “My
times are in Your hands. Now I can be at rest (at peace) in You.” Believing
that God knows the number of our days, that our times are in His hands, helps
to quiet our troubled hearts. No diagnosis, no accident, no tragedy will alter
the plan God has for us or the days He has numbered for us. There is peace in
knowing that God is in control, even over the day of our homegoing.
As I was
studying this passage a bit more this week, I learned that the word used for
“times” means more than just the passing of time. While it does relate to the
number of days that we have on this earth, it is not limited only to this
application. The word “times” is translated “circumstances” in 1 Chronicles
29:30 which references the account of David’s life “and of the circumstances
that came upon him.” It is not just the number of our days that are in God’s
hands, but also our circumstances. The challenges we face, the disappointments we
feel, the grief we bear – these, too, are in His hands. Therefore, with King David,
the author of Psalm 31, we declare, “But I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You
are my God.’ My times are in Your hands” (verses 14-15a).
I know this truth helped sustain
Mom as well, for yesterday, as I was leafing through a journal in which Mom had
copied bible verses after her cancer diagnosis, I saw that this passage was one
of them. She knew that her times were in God’s hands. In the midst of great
sadness, we rejoice that the God who led Mom to Himself through her faith in
Christ also led her, in His perfect time, safely home.
-- Amy O'Rear
