Because they believe not in God...

"Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:" ~ Psalm 78:22

In Psalm 78, the children of Israel were being exhorted to remember all of the miracles that the Lord had done for them. In Psalm 78:1 - 7, it says "Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. ² I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: ³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. ⁴ We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. ⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: ⁶ That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: ⁷ That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:"

The Lord wanted Israel to remember continually the things that he had done for them and to teach it to each generation that they might always have their hope in Him. What a father's heart!  He wanted His children to know him, to love Him because he wanted the best for them. He wanted them to stay under His commandments so that he could protect them and yet in Psalm 78:22 it says "Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation..." 

What a statement. Despite all that God had done for them, despite the love and protection He showed them, despite the supernatural provision, they did not trust or believe in Him. As I was meditating on this thought, I started thinking of all of the times we do this in our own lives. 

As a Christian, we can so easily say "Oh, yes, I trust in the Lord," but when it comes to the situations in our lives, how often do we try to fix the situations ourselves? How often do we react in our own wisdom and strength before going to the Lord for His wisdom and will?" It is a convicting thought. I know that I do this in my own life. I pray and I read the Word, but then I run in to a situation and I try to fix it in my own strength, in my own wisdom, trusting not in the Lord to be able to fix a situation without my help.

It is so easy to read through the Bible and look at the children of Israel and judge them and convict them, but when I examine my own life, how often to I fail in the same ways that they did? 

Is there a situation in your own life that you are trying to fix in your own strength today? Give it to God. Psalm 28:6-7 says "Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusteth in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him." 

The Lord loves each one of us with the heart of the Father and longs to step in and intervene in our behalf, he only asks that we trust him. So lets do that today, lets believe in him and trust that he can and will help us because he is our strength and our shield.