Psalm 27:7-10 Easy-to-Read Version
7 Lord, hear my voice.
Be kind and answer me.
8 My heart told me to come to you, Lord,
so I am coming to ask for your help.
9 Don’t turn away from me.
Don’t be angry with your servant.
You are the only one who can help me.
My God, don’t leave me all alone.
You are my Savior.
10 Even if my mother and father leave me,
the Lord will take me in.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
When My Father and Mother Forsake Me …
Psalm 27 includes a verse that begs us to look closer.
David declares, “When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me.”
He doesn’t say, “If my father and mother forsake me,” he says, “when.” This is something that David knows about.
Having a parent forsake you is one of the most hurtful situations a child can experience.
Some are blessed with great parents.
But then again, for reasons and rationale known but to God alone, too many are not blessed with great parents, these children experienced complicated family situations first-hand. For the very coldest of all of them, a mother or father had called long distance to let him know that they never wanted to see them again.
I know of a couple of families where the parent’s texted their children in school to tell them they would need to find somewhere else to live because they could not, would not, will not at any future time be able to care for them any longer.
Those children ended up living out their school years on the streets, in drug houses and essentially homeless. Eventually they both ended up in prison cells.
They only remember their Thanksgiving and Christmas days living in squalor or behind prison bars – abandoned, forsaken, forgotten, destitute, hating God.
The Psalm writer David knew something about hardcore family rejection.
After he had been anointed king by Samuel, but was not actually the king, things got a exceptionally thorny, even life threatening pretty quickly.
King Saul had no intention of giving up his crown to a boy and was becoming murderously unstable. David was married to the king’s daughter and bff’s with his son, but that didn’t keep King Saul from failing in his family responsibilities and with sword, chasing him around the country with intentions of killing him.
During this time, it was not only David’s life that was in danger, his family was now facing a very real threat to their own safety.
In 1 Samuel 22, they packed up and left Bethlehem to be with David.
Verse two, “And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontent gathered to him.”
This was definitely not what they envisioned about hospitality and family !
By verse three David had asked the king of Moab if his parents could stay there.
Jewish life completely revolved around their family and community.
Their land was passed down from generation to generation. Jewish families would never have abandoned their family land if they had any choice at all.
Moving to Moab (historically Israel’s enemy) must have been devastating for David’s mom and dad.
We don’t hear of David’s parents again.
We might assume that they died in this foreign land where everything was unfamiliar and hard.
We might also assume, based on Psalm 27, that they let David know that they blamed him for their situation.
Whatever was said, he felt their disapproval acutely.
You may also have a complicated relationship with one or both of your parents.
It’s hard. It may be something that you have tried to overcome your entire life.
If that is the case, let David’s words bring you some comfort. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me.” Then the Lord will.
I don’t say this flippantly at all, but in such times let the Lord take care of you.
So often we experience deep, deep hurt and we never heal from it because we hold it tight, even find our identity in it, and never let it go enough to let Jesus bind up our wounds, heal broken hearts. You have to choose to let Him heal you.
We may never have lifelong congenial relationships with our parents. Reality may be the depth of the betraying situation is echelons beyond unrecoverable.
Letting go of the immensity of our hurt won’t be easy. But with an effort, it will require prayer and Godly council from spiritually strong people who understand what they’ve experienced. If we have empathy, courage to give our hurt to God, as David did, we will find that He takes better care of us than we can imagine.
Does The Faithful, Perfect Father really Exist for me?
Psalm 68:4-6 Easy-to-Read Version
4 Sing to God! Sing praises to his name!
Prepare the way for the one who rides on the clouds.
His name is Yah.[a]
Worship before him with joy.
5 God, who lives in his holy palace, is a father to orphans,
and he takes care of widows.
6 God provides homes for those who are lonely.
He frees people from prison and makes them happy.
But those who turn against him will live in the desert.
Unfortunately, not everyone has had a positive experience with their father.
Deadbeat dads walk out on their families, offering only neglect instead of care.
Some children have never met their fathers.
Or, worse, some wish they had never met them.
Sadly, our world is plagued with poor examples of fathers, men who abandon, neglect, or abuse their families.
Your own bad experience may make it difficult to accept God as your heavenly Father.
But God’s faithfulness far exceeds that of even the best parents.
Even if our father and mother forsake us, the Lord will not.
Our Father God is the perfect Father. He fills a painful vacuum of love for all whose earthly fathers have forsaken them.
God’s intention in calling himself Father is to reveal his heart’s desire to have a real relationship with you, his child. He loves you in a way that no human has ever loved you, with ferocity and faithfulness that no human love can match.
If your own father has failed you, then you need, more than most, the faithful Father in your life.
Do not reject the vivid image of God as your Father because your own father failed to live up to his calling.
No one should be abandoned, neglected, or abused. We all need the authentic unconditional love and affirmation of the perfect Father.
If God is in us … We can be a model of fatherhood, more like God the Father …
https://fathers.com/ might just be a good place to start being more like God.
Our Father who art in Heaven … Hallowed be THY name … thy kingdom come thy will be done … on earth as it is in heaven … give us this day our daily bread.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father, thank you for calling us your own children and welcoming us into your life and into your family. Replace the pain of our bro-ken relationships with the joy of your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Psalm 133 Easy-to-Read Version
A song of David for going up to the Temple.
133 Oh, how wonderful, how pleasing it is
when God’s people all come together as one[a]!
2 It is like the sweet-smelling oil that is poured over the high priest’s[b] head,
that runs down his beard flowing over his robes.
3 It is like a gentle rain[c] from Mount Hermon falling on Mount Zion.
It is there that the Lord has promised his blessing of eternal life.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 