One of the things that becomes clear when we read through the Psalms is that God is repeatedly trying to reinforce his truth into our hearts. Very often we know truth in our minds but struggle to believe in our hearts. Take Psalm 31:8 for example:
You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.
For most people this is a nice verse to have on the fridge or on a book mark, but it is more difficult to internalize it in our hearts
When David wrote this he was likely being pursued by Saul and his men, so in the context of the Psalm we know that David had literal enemies. The majority of us do not really have many true enemies. Perhaps there are a few people who don’t like us very much but not people who actually want to harm us. (hopefully!!)
The Scriptures make it clear that the devil is our true enemy. It is not only legitimate but important for us to read Ps. 31:8 with that in mind. We have NOT been handed over to the enemy; quite the contrary: God is leading us to a spacious place. This is a place of safety and rest. This is obviously a spiritual place and it is independent of our natural circumstances. We find this confirmed in Psalm 23 where David writes that God leads us into ‘green pastures’ and ‘beside quiet waters’, even when we are in the midst of the ‘shadow of death’.
Psalm 31:8 is a powerful truth for our prayer life. We need to come into agreement with this truth, thanking God and confessing with our mouths that God has not given us into the hands of the enemy, and he has led us (and continues to lead us) into a spacious, restful place.
We can begin to pray this verse and agree with its truth. Here are a few suggestions of how to do that:
- begin by reading it out loud and verbally agreeing with its truth.
- if you struggle to believe that it is presently true in your life, talk to God and tell him why you feel that way.
- ask God to open your spiritual eyes to see the ‘spacious place’ that he promises for you. (again, the power of this isn’t in us magically declaring something and ‘willing it’ to be true; we want real connection and relationship with God; we can agree with God’s truth even while we honestly struggle to believe it)
- express the verse in your own words. connect in verses like Ps. 23, that talk about the same thing. Thank God and talk to him about what you are reading and feeling about it.
What we need is eyes that see and hearts that believe. Take this verse and make a point of praying through it for the next 4-5 days and see what kind of impact it has on your Spirit. You’ll be surprised!
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Jim
