PS 68:5-6 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Any consideration of God’s goodness must also consider His holiness and justice. God delights to meet needs, even (or perhaps especially) those that seem impossible to meet. However, He doesn’t put up with rebellion. Rather, He deals with it in ways that give the rebellious opportunities to repent. The first part of this passage reminds me of something the man whose funeral I attended yesterday wrote in one of his books. His favorite Scripture was Romans 8:28, and he wrote that no trial, no hardship, no sorrow, is wasted if it draws us closer to God. Orphans and widows go through a lot even today, and they had it much harder in David’s day. However, God was able then to meet them in their need, and He is still capable of that today. It is when we react to our circumstances by rebelling against God that the world around us seems blasted and scorched, with nothing to nurture us or make us glad. The flip side of that is described in Psalm 86, where it speaks of those who have set their hearts to follow God finding that their place of weeping has become a place of refreshing. It isn’t a question of what we experience, but of our attitude, as to whether we will go through that hard place to the abundance on the other side. Rebellion will get us stuck right in the middle of it! We encounter people all the time who seem stuck in something they have experienced. The expression in American English is that they need to get a life, and of course, true life is found only in Christ. That’s why forgiveness is so essential, because it is only as we forgive that we let go of the hurts of the past to move on into the good that God has planned for us.

I feel like I have been incredibly blessed, but that isn’t to say I haven’t had my times of weeping, of agonizing over one thing or another. I have learned the truth of this passage first hand. As a pastor, I am constantly dealing with people who need to learn it, to let go of their rebellion and repent of it. Counseling would be so much easier if I could just press a switch and make that change in them! However, these things must be of our own free will, and things that can be switched on and off aren’t free. I am to be an agent of God’s comfort and blessing, but I must remember that I am not the source of that comfort and blessing. I need to help those to whom I minister understand that as well. My goal should be that no one would stay in the scorched land, but that all would move on into what God desires for us.

Father, I can think of many people offhand who have spent years in “scorched” circumstances, and yet they haven’t been able to see that it’s been by their own choice. One such person recently wrote me from prison! I can think of several others who are in emotional prisons of one sort or another. I have no wisdom to lead them out, but You can do so, just as this passage says. I pray that You would do so, that You would open their eyes to see that the exit is right in front of them, and that repentance will take them through it. Keep me from trying to force them in my strength, but keep me available to You as Your instrument of deliverance and healing, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!