Psalm 34:19–22 

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 

Passages like this give us trouble. It sounds like an iron-clad promise… and if it is an iron-clad promise, then why hasn’t it been true in MY experience? I’ve had LOTS of afflictions that the Lord didn’t seem to deliver me out of. 

I bet your life has been the same. 

Our problem is not that we misunderstand this passage. We understand it quite well. It’s a promise of deliverance from troubling circumstances for those who are “righteous.” And we know that “in Christ” we ARE righteous before God (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). 

What we fail to notice about this verse and others like it is that we are making assumptions about the TIMING of the promise’s fulfillment. We assume that the deliverance is going to be DURING the time of affliction we have in mind. 

But consider this, you and I have both had past times of affliction. Did the Lord deliver us from them? Yes, eventually, He did. 

And one day, because of our faith in Jesus, EVERY affliction will be gone. We will be enterally delivered from them and from a type of life that is vulnerable to them. 

David is making a long-game sort of promise, one that he knows with 100% certainty will one day be fully realized for every person who knows the God he knows. 

As you seek God today, ask Him to show you just how reliable He is to keep this kind of promise. And remember too that He is good. ASK Him to deliver you from the specific affliction you might be undergoing right now. He’s good… He may provide deliverance just because you ask (see James 4:2). 

-Pastor Carey