Never Abandoned - Episode 107 - Psalm 37:25, 27-28

Psalm 91 - Pray It & Believe Course with Jan L. Burt - Jan L. Burt - Hiro

 

Jan L. Burt (@janlburt) TikTok | Watch Jan L. Burt's Newest TikTok Videos

 

 

 

Well hey there! Welcome to this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show - getting the promises of God into the people of God, so that we can believe them, trusting the Lord more and more, day by day, and live in a state of trust, resting in the goodness of our God. And then praying from a place of belief and trust and rest. That is the “why” behind this podcast, behind every single episode. And I am incredibly grateful that you’re listening today. My prayer is that you will be blessed, refreshed, encouraged and be refueled for the actual living of your life when you finish listening to the podcast. God’s word is life changing, and I think your life is the perfect life to be changed and bettered by the word of God today. Let’s get to it.

 

You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode #107.

 

Recently on the podcast, we’ve been looking at promises God gives us in Psalm 37. This is a psalm written by David, and his psalms hold so much raw and honest truth - they remind us that we can talk honestly to the Lord about the things in our life that are painful, that are unfair, that are overwhelming. And David also reminds us to be thankful, praise-filled people. I mean, the people who know the Lord should really be the most praising people on the planet. We have so much to be thankful for, even on the hard days. And this psalm, as we land at just about the midpoint of this psalm, it has some really awesome truths for us that should make us a whole lot less nervous or uncertain or unwilling to talk to God about the stuff in our life that needs His touch, His intervention, His hand and His blessing and also to live more thankful lives. This is not me lecturing anyone at all - nope. This is me reminding my very own self to be thankful daily, and to stay thankful in the ups and in the downs. 

 

Let’s look at three verses today, Psalm 37 verse 25 and then verses 27 and 28. I am going to read these verses aloud from the Amplified.

 

I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous (those in right standing with God) abandoned, or his descendants pleading for bread.

 

Depart from evil and do good; and you will dwell (securely in the land) forever. For the LORD delights in justice and does not abandon His saints (faithful ones). 

So we for sure have a couple of awesome promises to look into here. 

Verse 25 is a verse that my husband and I have been quoting for decades. Like, when we were young parents and had loads of medical debt and just were living paycheck to paycheck, we never stopped tithing and giving literally because we believed promises like this one. We just believed! We would speak it out loud, thank God for this promise in our prayer times, and when we would have something looming in the future that was likely going to be beyond our means, our finances, to take care of, we would remind ourselves of this promise. So, it’s kind of a personal one for me, you might say. Like, I have a lot of memories of choosing to stand in a place of belief based on the words we read in Psalm 37, verse 25, and you know what? Never, not even once, did this promise not prove true.

 

Our God is always, always true to His word. 

 

Verse 25 says - I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous (those in right standing with God) abandoned, or his descendants pleading for bread.

I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor their children begging for bread. 

 

Never.

What a bold word, that word never. When someone uses the word never, it can seem like an exaggeration because honestly it is sometimes. But not here, David is not exaggerating. He is stating that never in the course of his life, and think of some of the things he saw in his life - on the run from King Saul for 13 years, living in caves with hundreds of men alongside him, as the leader he would have held some measure of responsibility for feeding them, right, and also what about the care of their families? We know from reading in 1 and 2 Samuel that David took that seriously, the care of his men and of their families. Just thinking about that one aspect of his life, and reading this verse that says he has never seen those in right standing with God abandoned or their children, their descendants, begging or pleading for bread… well, never means never. David never saw it because it never happened. 

So, ask ourselves how is our standing with God? Are we in right standing with Him? That really comes through Jesus, and then we of course want to continue to live in a way that honors and glorifies Him and that includes obedience, right? So if that is how we are living, won’t this promise become our promise? 

Yes, it absolutely will. 

Speak it, pray it, believe it. In this verse, never really does mean never. You, your descendants, will not be pleading for bread - you will never be abandoned by your God.

 

That is the kind of promise that the whole world is seeking. 

The world so much wants peace of mind and freedom from worrying about things like provision. The whole world is full of people who want to know they won’t be abandoned or forsaken. We look for it in relationships and in the workplace and in friendships and we want it from our families and our friends and even from our neighbors. But really that can only come through the Lord, because He is the only one who can make such a big promise and then keep that promise.

 

I hope you and I can grow, day by day, to trust Him more. For His provision, literally for bread for ourselves and for our descendants, our children, our families, and also that we will not be abandoned. This is a promise filled with so much blessing, just the peace of heart and peace of mind it brings is worth more than gold, ya know? And I do want us to believe it. And to receive the full measure of blessing that comes with that belief. 

 

Verse 27 - Depart from evil and do good; and you will dwell (securely in the land) forever. 

 

Don’t be in the camp of people doing evil things. I don’t think you need a diatribe about what is actually evil and what isn’t. The New Testament tells us not to even be around things that have the appearance of evil, so that says it best. Like, even if it appears evil don’t be around that. How down in the weeds should we go with this, you might ask? Well, Jesus took this stuff so seriously that he said if your eye causes you to sin, you would be better to gouge it out and be blinded in one eye than to give in to that sinful living and if your hand causes you to sin, to cut it off and be maimed but not in sin. So this is pretty serious. Jesus was saying, take this seriously. And yet, we really don’t. How far down in the weeds should we go? Well, how far do you need to go before you take it as seriously as Jesus said to take it? That’s how far you need to go. 

 

Depart from evil - leave it, don’t stay with it, don’t remain there, just depart. That doesn’t indicate a later return. God wants this to be far from you because you walked away from it on a long term, permanent level. Be a departer, then. 

And instead, do good.

Again, you don’t need me to tell you what is good. You already know. It’s all over your Bible, too, so the good you ought to be doing is going to jump off the pages to you so long as you are opening it and reading it. Want to know what good things God wants you to do? Open your Bible and find out.

 

And once you join those who have departed from evil and now are doing the good works your Father wants you to be doing, you will dwell securely in the land forever. So, to take this literally, in the very land where you live, in whatever country on this planet that may be (and there are people all over the world who listen, last month there were people from 49 countries who listened to the podcast, and that is just awesome, isn’t it? The big C church around the world is who will spend eternity together, and I love that we have some kind of connection here on this earth via things like podcasts) You will live securely wherever you dwell. Take this promise seriously, because it is in the word of God in order to be believed. And when we believe a promise from the Bible, we are taking it seriously. This is your promise. Believe it! And believe it for your workplace, too. You will dwell there securely. And pray it over your local church, because our leaders, our pastors, the people we attend church with, need to be covered in believing prayer. You can be the one doing that praying, and God will hear you as you pray. You will dwell securely in the land. Such a good, good promise for us.

 

Verse 28 - For the Lord delights in justice and does not abandon His saints (faithful ones); they are preserved forever but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. 

 

The Lord delights in justice. 

Our God is not in the business of ignoring injustices. 

He delights in justice. 

He sees, and He will set it right. He is merciful and wants people everywhere to come to salvation and experience His forgiveness. But He delights in justice, so a time of reckoning will come. Somebody may need to hear that today. 

 

You have an eternal promise here, that His faithful ones (if you know Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, the one way to heaven, the one way to receive God’s forgiveness, then you will be preserved forever). In these three verses, we find promises to sustain us in this life, in the right now, and promises to sustain us for eternity. Aren’t God’s promises amazing? And isn’t the One who makes these promises generous and kind and merciful and benevolent? 

 

But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. 

God says this, clear as day, and He means it. He does not love for wickedness to increase and continue and spread from one generation to the next. He just doesn’t. And when He says there will be a cut off point, well, then, we can be sure that it will be so. 

It’s important to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And it’s important to do those things in full the sight of our children. And then to encourage them to do the same thing. What we teach our kids matters, folks. Character matters. Having good character and teaching good character. 

 

You can trust that the same God who did these things in the life of His servant David will do them in yours. He is no respecter or men, meaning God does not pick and choose who He will care for and bless and when and where He will or won’t keep His promises based on us as humans, our status, our achievements, our prosperity, and lineage. The kingdom of God isn't like Harvard. Having a great grandparent who was a such and such and a so and so does not make a hill of beans worth of difference to God. These promises are yours so long as you know Jesus as Lord. 

 

If you do, then believe them. And watch God keep His word to you.

 

Hey, my course on Psalm 91 is available and I’d love for you to join. The link is in the show notes, (Psalm 91 - Pray It & Believe Course with Jan L. Burt - Jan L. Burt - Hiro  or you can check it out on my website, just scroll down a smidge on the page that comes up when you go to Jan L Burt dot com or use the Google and search for Psalm 91 Course Jan L. Burt and it will come right up. It’s an audio course, each lesson drops right into your app where you listen to podcasts and as a special offer to a group I am part of, a prayer group to be specific filled with prayer warriors who believe God’s Word with everything they’ve got, as an offer to that group I have discounted the course pretty significantly but this price will only be around for a couple of weeks. I’m speaking at an upcoming summit and before that takes place in June the price will go back up to $37 but through the first few days of June 2022, it’s all the way down to just $21, so like a total steal at that price. I’d love for you to join me for this course. Not much I can think of than really understanding and believing the huge promises we find in Psalm 91. Life changing for you, life changing for everyone you pray those verses over, life changing on pretty much every level. 

 

Thanks for listening, and do not forget these promises are for you. God will keep His word and you will never be abandoned and will always be provided for and will dwell securely in the very place where God has you right now. 

 

See you next time!

Jan L. Burt (@janlburt) TikTok | Watch Jan L. Burt's Newest TikTok Videos

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