“It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.”
~ 2 Samuel 22:33
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever been asked to do something and then have wished that you did not have to finish what you had been asked to do? Forty days after your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn arrived in Bolivia for the very first time – which was in late August in 1978, your grandmaa and grandpaa had a lot of reasons to wish that they had not listened to God’s call to go to another country as missionaries. The day that your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia, one of the Bolivian South American Mission field team missionaries told your grandmaa and grandpaa that there was a possibility that your Aunt Lynn would be kidnapped because of her white/blond hair. The day after your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia, your dad began eighth grade in the missionary kids school that is located on the outskirts of Santa Cruz. Your grandmaa and grandpaa did not know before they left for Bolivia that they would have to pay a tuition to Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center in order for your dad and Aunt Lynn to be students there. When your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia, they were not receiving the monthly support amount that had been budgeted by South America Mission for them to raise. When your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia, they found that the Bolivia South America Mission field team missionaries to be just as human and carnal as any guy or gal who your grandmaa and grandpaa had worked with in the United Sates. After your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Bolivia for forty days, your grandmaa and grandpaa began to wonder if they should have sold the house that they were buying in Aberdeen, South Dakota, if they should have left the friends and the church that they really enjoyed in Aberdeen, if they should have filled up a U-Haul truck with all the stuff that they had not sold in Aberdeen to go to Chicago to spend three years while your grandpaa was a Moody Bible Institute student, if they should have made the long, hot drive to Edinburg, Texas where your grandmaa and grandpaa spent nine months studying Spanish at Rio Grande Bible Institute and if they should have left the amenities that living in the United States offers to go to a hot, muggy, windy, sandy country to be missionaries with a field missionary team of missionaries who your grandmaa and grandpaa wished at times acted differently than the way that they acted.
Your grandpaa after having lived for forty days in Bolivia wrote over two pages of reflections about how your grandmaa and grandpaa were feeling about how it was for them to live life in Bolivia. Your grandmaa and grandpaa felt like they were in the middle of a flood – a flood that was drowning everything around them that they valued. Your grandmaa and grandpaa after living for forty days in Bolivia wished that they had known a whole lot more about what life would be like for them to live in Bolivia before they had taken off from the United States for Bolivia. Your grandmaa and grandpaa after living for forty days in Bolivia were not wishing to return to the United States but . . . after David was anointed by Samuel to be the second king over God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, how do you think that David felt after several years after Samuel anointed him that he was still not the king over the Israelite people group’s guys and gals? How do you think that David felt after Saul – who was the first king over the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, came to hate him to the point where he vehemently wanted him dead? Your grandpaa has the feeling that David wondered at times what life would have been like for him if he had told Samuel that the only thing that he wanted to do in life was to just take care of his dad’s sheep. David wrote down his thoughts of how he felt as he tried to stay ahead of the guy – the Israelite people group’s first king – Saul, who wanted to murder him.
David often turned his thoughts into a psalm song. Psalm 18 is one of the psalm songs that David wrote. This psalm song was included in what is now 2 Samuel 22 by the historian who finished the Samuel Book. The historian was recounting David’s life during the years that David was king over God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals. This psalm song that David wrote is about a time when God saved his life from his enemies – including Saul, who wanted to kill him. David wrote in this psalm song why God saved his life from his enemies – including Saul, who wanted to see him dead. David wrote in this psalm song about all the help that God gave him during this time when he was constantly facing death from his enemies – including Saul. David says in what is now verse 33 “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” David wrote about how God helped him overcome his enemies – including Saul, how God saved him from being destroyed by his enemies – including Saul, and how he learned to praise God for the victories that God gave him. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have learned the past twenty-five years that God is always teaching your grandmaa and grandpaa to trust in Him, that He will always help you grandmaa and grandpaa through the difficult times that are always ahead of them and that your grandmaa and grandpaa now have all kinds of reasons to praise God for all that He has done for them. Your grandpaa knows that you will sooner or later go through some really tough times. Your grandpaa knows that you will sooner or later make life decisions that you will really believe that God has led you to make but after you have made them, you are going to wonder why God had you make them. Your grandmaa and grandpaa hope that you will pull a David – that you will learn to totally trust in God knowing that God made a plan before He created planet Earth that He is unfolding to show you what His good, acceptable and perfect will is for your lives.
2 Samuel 22 (367)