Psalms 66:10-12 (ESV)
[10] For you, O God, have
tested us;
you have tried us as silver
is tried.
[11] You brought us into the
net;
you laid a crushing burden on
our backs;
[12] you let men ride over
our heads;
we went through fire and
through water;
yet you have brought us out
to a place of abundance.
In
the hard times it is natural for us to question, “Where is God?” We sometimes
take solace in the thought that while God did not cause our pain, he did allow
it. But what if he caused it? Or at least, what if he had a purpose in it? “You,
O God have tested us . . . You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing
burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads.” How can that be?
The
ancient Egyptians had a way of testing gold. “This method is called fire
assaying and involves taking a small sample of the material under test and
firing it in a small crucible with a quantity of lead. The crucible was made of
bone ash and absorbed the lead and any other base metals during the firing
process leaving only gold and silver.”[1]
This is the very thing the Psalmist is describing in Psalm 66 regarding Israel’s
experience. The purpose of testing is not to destroy the gold, but to reveal
its true nature.
When
we forget the purpose of the trials we lose heart, we blame God. When things
don’t go our way we accuse God of abandoning us. All the while God has a higher
purpose. It is through the fire that the power of God is revealed. It is
through the fire that the purity of our faith is exposed. It is through the
fire that the reality of God is revealed to the world around us.
The
good news is that the psalmist doesn’t end the psalm in the fire. “You have
brought us out to a place of abundance.” God doesn’t leave us in the fire. When
we are in the midst of the fire it sometimes feels endless, but that is just
perception. There truly is an end to the fire and a place of abundance into
which we will come in God’s time.
Some people seem to have more fire in their lives than others. I can’t explain that. I don’t know the mind of God. But this I know, you can trust him. Whatever his purposes, whatever his reasons, God is there in the midst of the fire. He is right there with you even when you cannot see or feel him. He never abandons his own, and one day you will experience the place of abundance. I am convinced that every joy in this life, every hint of goodness is only a tiny glimpse of the abundance we have yet to come. As believers in Jesus Christ, we can trust him.
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