Have you ever truly seen the righteous forsaken?

In Psalm 37:25a, David writes, “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.”

Stop for a moment and think about all that David went through. He faced a literal giant, fought massive wildlife to protect his sheep, Saul tried to kill him on multiple occasions, and his very best friend died at a young age. 

He knew what it was like to spend endless nights in a cold cave while hiding. He knew what it was like to have a son turn on him. And he even knew what it was like to lose a child in the womb. We could go on and on. 

Now while you read the Psalms, you won’t find anywhere that David dealt with a worldwide Pandemic, but if you read 1 and 2 Samuel, the Psalms, 1 Kings, and multiple sections of the New Testament, you will see that in his lifetime, David experienced a lot. 

A lot of pain. A lot of grief. And a lot of time thinking, “Where are you, God?” (Read Psalm 42.)

Yet, somehow, in verse 25, he is able to write that in his youth and his old age, he has not seen the righteous forsaken. 

For God’s people, for followers of Jesus, you won’t see it either. We will never, ever, see God forsake us, even when it looks like he has. 

But maybe you don’t believe me. Perhaps you don’t believe the writings of David. 

Can I tell you, even in my years spent as a pastor, I sometimes didn’t believe it either. 

So we’d ask, as you read this, have you ever taken those thoughts, those doubts, to God? 

Have you ever sat in the silence of the morning (or even the chaos of the kiddos being home EVERYDAY), and asked the Lord, “Where are you? Have you forgotten about me? Do you not see what is happening to me? Do you not see what is happening to our world?”

If you’ve not done that, will you? 

As a friend, I’d strongly encourage you to. 

And guess what? If you do, the Bible tells us that we will be met with grace, love, and kindness from a Heavenly Father who sees all, and knows all. And somehow, uses every single thing that happens in this world, for His glory, and our good (Romans 8:28). 

God never promised David an easy life. God never told us that there wouldn’t be a pandemic.

But for those that have placed their hope in Jesus, he did promise to “never leave us, and never forsake us.” (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5, Joshua 1:5, 1 Kings 8:57, etc.)

And because of that, I can assure you that one day, we will all be able to say that, “we’ve been young and we’ve been old, and we have never seen God’s people forsaken.”