Our Times Are Safe in His Hands

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