Entirely Under God’s Control

This year, I'm sharing my "Treasures" of my study of my "Ponder the Morsels" book. I've picked 31 Psalms to study throughout 2013. Today I studied Psalm 146. Here is what I learned.

The Lord protects and preserves the strangers and temporary residents, He upholds the fatherless and the widow and sets them upright, but the way of the wicked He makes crooked (turns upside down and brings to ruin). Psalm 146:9 (AMP)

The Lord ·protects [guards] the ·foreigners [sojourners]. He ·defends [supports] the orphans and widows [the socially vulnerable], but he ·blocks [frustrates] the way of the wicked. Psalm 146:9 (EXB)

"The way of the wicked he turneth upside down." He overturns their plans, defeats their schemes; makes their purposes accomplish what they did not intend they should accomplish. The Hebrew word here means to bend, to curve, to make crooked, to distort; then, to overturn, to turn upside down. The same word is applied to the conduct of the wicked, in Psalm 119:78 : "They dealt perversely with me." The idea here is that the path is not a straight path; that God makes it a crooked way; that they are diverted from their design; that through them he accomplishes purposes which they did not intend; that he prevents their accomplishing their own designs; and that he will make their plans subservient to a higher and better purpose than their own. This is the eleventh reason why those who put their trust in God are happy. It is that God is worthy of confidence and love, because he has all the plans of wicked men entirely under his control.  Albert Barnes

“He has all the plans of wicked men entirely under his control.” So, often I wish I could “play God”, for I’d “zap” those wicked men into submission. If they were holding a rally to promote an ungodly or immoral idea, I’d make it rain and storm. I’d find ways to mess up their plans. But I’m not God! So, I have to realize that even those that go against God’s Word are under His control... and that God’s mercy and love is available to them as well. 

Sometimes it’s easy to think that I’m “above” others, for their sin must be worse than mine. But as I’ve stated before, God is holy and sin is sin. There is no distinction between sins—to a holy God, all sin is despicable. 

To create a positive day, I need to remember that yes, the plans of the wicked are entirely under God’s control, and then I need to acknowledge God’s grace and mercy in my own life.