Instead of living in fear of tomorrow, imagine if you were surprised by how good your future could be? Your future could be better than all of your dread. Stop and think about how much time you spend worrying about fearful futures. Now, what if you trusted God’s Word in the 92nd Psalm?
I think you might be surprised.
Outlasting Your Enemies
First, you’ll be surprised to see “the downfall” of your “enemies” (Ps 92:11). Now Jesus commanded us to “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). This action of love doesn’t change the fact that you will have enemies. What the 92nd Psalm is telling us is that the believer will outlast his or her enemies.
Charles Spurgeon had confidence in the Lord, that even though his theological stances were unpopular with his contemporaries, he would be vindicated in the future. He said, “For my part, I am quite willing to be eaten of dogs for the next fifty years; but the more distant future shall vindicate me.” (An All-Round Ministry, 360-361).
Some of your enemies might outlast you on this earth. But if you are a Christian believer, you can know that you will look on the downfall of your enemies, since you will live forever before the face of God and they will not. Truly, God is “not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you” (Psalm 5:4). If you believe in Jesus Christ, you will have a front row seat to see and hear “the doom of [your] evil assailants.” (v.11). This is why it is so important for us to “forgive our debtors” (Matt 6:12). We cannot overpower our enemies, but we can outlast them in love.
Spiritual Success in the Church
The second way you might be surprised by your future involves the place you will be most successful— the church. According to verses 12-13:
The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.
Psalm 92:12-13
Like healthy trees, the believer will prosper most in “the house of the Lord”. In the Old Testament, that would have been referring to the temple. But in the New Testament, Paul says that “we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Cor 5:1). The church is like a house in which believers are tools or vessels (2 Tim 2:21) or even spiritual stones (1 Peter 2:5), but Jesus is the builder of it (Heb 3:3-6).
The place where the healthy tree grows is in the midst of the wise landscaping of the architect, and builder of the house, Jesus Christ.
As a godly person gets older, they see more of their successful living in connection to the church fellowship. All of their other achievements will fade away, but the life of the church will cause them to keep growing, even into old age. Fellowship will be sweet. Worship will be sincere. The Word will be received like bread from heaven.
Old Trees With New Fruit
Most people are afraid to get old. They fear a future of weakness that age brings. But the 92nd Psalm promises that believers will “bear fruit in old age”. (v.14). We know that it doesn’t make sense. The end of your life is when you shrivel up, not ripen up. But like Sarah giving birth in old age, God is able to make women and men grow in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22), even when logic and biology would assume that their lives are nearly gone like an old orchard long since dead.
I was in a meeting and I heard one well-known pastor ask for prayer that his seventies would be the most fruitful years of his ministry! Following that, another well-known pastor said that he was in his seventies already, and he could testify that God was making that decade his most fruitful ever!
God has a surprising future in store for you, Christian believer. Maybe it’s time for you to trust in what God can do. He can even make your future “ever full of sap and green”.
May it be so among us all.
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