Testing
Karen Grant, Guest Writer
TODAY’S TREASURE
For it is not an enemy who taunts me – then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me – then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house, we walked in the throng (Psalm 55:12-14).
“Except our sins, there is not such plenty of anything in all the world as there is of troubles which come from sin, as one heavy messenger came to Job after another. Since we are not in paradise but in the wilderness, we must look for one trouble after another. As a bear came to David after a lion, and a giant after a bear, and a king after a giant, and Philistines after a king, so, when believers have fought poverty, they shall fight with envy; when they have fought with envy, they shall fight with infamy; when they have fought with infamy, they shall fight with sickness; they shall be like a laborer who is never out of work.” Henry Smith1
Charles Spurgeon used Smith’s words to illustrate the testing of Psalm 11:5:
The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
I think I would add betrayals to Smith’s list of tests we will most certainly endure in this life. God isn’t testing us to see if we are good enough (we aren’t); He is testing us just as surely as my eight-year-old grandson is tested on “desert” and “dessert.” Did you study the words? Do you understand their definitions? Are you ready to use them in the right context? He is testing us as a newly forged sword is tested – will it crack or bend; is it ready to perform its purpose?
Smith does well to use David as a prime example of testing. Consider the betrayals he faced. His brothers mocked him when he displayed faith before Goliath (1 Samuel 17). His first wife Michal’s love waned after her father gave her to Paltiel (1 Samuel 25:44) when David fled for his life. 2 Samuel 6:16-24 exposes her outright disgust for David when he danced before God in a public display of abandoned worship. King Saul betrayed David as he relentlessly attempted to kill him (1 Samuel 18:6-9). David went to extraordinary lengths to prove his loyalty to Saul; in both a cave (1 Samuel 24) and a camp, he could have killed Saul, crying from a hilltop, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? (1 Samuel 26:18).
He suffered devastating betrayals from those closest to him. Read Psalm 55 and feel his experience in verses 12-14
For it is not an enemy who taunts me – then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me – then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house, we walked in the throng.
Later, in perhaps the most devastating of blows, David’s testing reached a crescendo when his own son Absalom attempted a coup against him (2 Samuel 15-18).
Recalling these familiar stories helps us glean this for our own wounded hearts: betrayal is to be expected as part of the human experience – not in a Puddleglum, fatalistic way, but in recognition that we must prepare for it if we aim to grow in Christ. Ephesians 6:10-18 is a good place to begin.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
It is one thing to be betrayed for our own sin. It is another to be tested through betrayal by another’s sin. Both will occur in our lifetimes, and both can be redeemed through patiently allowing the Redeemer to work in and through even our most difficult disloyalties.
Look at Psalm 55 again, especially verses 22-23:
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.
Observe David calming himself by determining to trust God to make things right. As a nation’s King, his foes often needed to be destroyed, and he trusts God to do whatever was necessary to protect him and give him the courage to stand in God’s strength. What would we determine to wish for our brothers and sisters who have betrayed us and need to experience the grace we are claiming for this season of testing? Instead of wishing for their destruction, can we begin praying for them to experience God’s mercy and the same grace we are experiencing or trusting the Lord to give to us?
PRAYER
Oh Lord, this is such a heavy issue; how to deal with betrayal, especially when we choose not to defend ourselves, to allow others to believe lies? David experienced betrayal at the hands of those he trusted the most. Every time we are tempted to replay the hurt, remind us to cast our burdens about betrayal on You. Empower us to walk by faith, fully trusting that You are sovereign and we can trust You, even, especially in this broken place.
Spurgeon, C.H., The Treasury of David, vol. 1a, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1976, commentary on Psalm 11:5, p. 138.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen Grant loves being a pastor’s wife at Parish Presbyterian Church. She and her husband have three grown children and six amazing grandsons. A graduate of Covenant Seminary, she also served on the PCA’s multicultural church planting and mercy committee. She and her husband co-founded Franklin Classical School in Franklin, Tennessee, where she continues to serve on the board of trustees. She enjoys studying & teaching the Bible, reading, traveling, cooking, working out with her exercise buddies, and all God’s creation. Karen shares with MARKINC, in this Help & Hope Story: Ministry Wives, Betrayal and Restoration.
For more from Daily Treasure please visit MARKINC.ORG.
Originally published Wednesday, 10 August 2022.
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