Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

We live in a fallen world, in which even God's followers are not guaranteed freedom from adversity, including hunger. In my opinion, the verses cited in the question are not intended as a universal or unconditional promise of God's deliverance of His followers, but an assurance of God's ability to deliver in circumstances that might seem otherwise impossible. 

The Bible provdes examples of this in occurrences such as Elijah being fed by ravens, and by a widow whom God continually re-supplied with flour and oil, during the three-year famine resulting from the drought that God had sent to Israel as punishment for the wickedness of King Ahab (1 Kings 17). (If the psalm cited in the question was written by David, those events had not yet even occurred at the time that the psalm was written.)

Our attitude should be that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3:16-18 when King Nebuchadnezzar threatened to throw them in a fiery furnace if they did not worship the golden idol that the king had set up. They replied, "King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

April 04 2020 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report