We read in Psalm 31, verse 15:
My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon upon this verse, which you may read here. Following is a small excerpt from the sermon which I found especially encouraging today:
How often we meet with people who are staggered by slander! It is impossible to stop malicious tongues. They wound, and even slay, the characters of the godly. The tried one cries, “I cannot bear it: I shall give all up.” Why? Why yield to mere talk? Even these cruel tongues are in God’s hand. Can you not brave their attacks? They cannot utter a single whisper more than God permits. Go on thy way, O righteous man, and let false tongues pour forth their poison as they will. “Every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.” If my times are in God’s hand, no man can do me harm unless God permit. Though my soul is among lions, yet no lion can bite me while Jehovah’s angel is my guard.
This feeling, that our interests are safe in the highest keeping, breeds an independent spirit. It prevents cringing before the great, and flattering the strong. At the same time, it removes all tendency to envy; so that you do not wish for the prosperity of the wicked, nor fret yourself because of evil-doers. When one knows that his times are in God’s hand, he would not change places with a king; nay, nor with an angel.
(Sermon No. 2205)
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, May 17th, 1891, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington