March 3, 2025 – Before!

Go?
Delay?
Postpone A-GAIN?
Cancel?

By the time you’re reading those questions, we will know the answer.

Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and shield.
Yea, our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let they steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in thee.
Psalm 33:20-22, RSV

I remember the date, February 16, 1969, two days after Valentine’s Day.

Bill came over to my dorm that Sunday evening excited to share with me. We had been dating for about a year, and had mutually agreed to take some time off to discern God’s heart for our relationship.

February 16, 1969 is the date we mark as our engagement!

Bill shared how the above scripture confirmed his desire for our future together. All the plural pronouns — “our”, “we”, “us” — six times in the three verses spoke God’s heart to him and for us.

There is also another theme running through these verses, waiting, trusting, hoping. The words of Psalm 33 spoke a promise to us, a promise without timing. It would be 3 1/2 years before we married.

This week is another opportunity to wait, to trust, to hope. Different circumstances, the same need. The questions at the top were our reality. Our plan was to leave for a campus visit in two days. But the weather! Ahhhhh, Colorado!

I snapped the above photo as I sat on our deck that morning with only a sweatshirt for warmth. The sun and the blue-sky gave no indication of the blizzard slated to come our way within the next seven hours!

As I enjoyed the morning, I reviewed that promise. Waiting, trusting, hoping were still relevant.

But God pointed me to the second line, “he is our help and shield.” Our shield, John Calvin in his commentary on The Psalms, describes as an impregnable fortress. 

My mind wandered to another truth that God has whispered to us many times in our marriage, Psalm 84:11. Two phrases stood out: in the first line, God is described as a shield.In the third line, no good thing does he (God) withhold. 

God’s shield is for our protection; it is our impregnable fortress.

God will not withhold good. Our good is also the good
of those on the campus we are planning to visit.

Those truths allow me to rest with the questions: go, delay, postpone, cancel!

Psalm 33:20-22 is the doxology for a Psalm on God’s steadfast love. God’s answer rests in his steadfast love. Calvin also says, “… there is nothing better than to commit our welfare to God.”

Promises do not have an end date!

Update: The blizzard turned into a fairly minor winter storm. We were glad to be able to go. And now we’re home again enjoying spring-like weather.

Copyright: Sue Tell, March 2025