A Word in Season: Holy Resignation (Psalm 31:15)

Holy Resignation as Trust, Not Fatalism

A Christian by the name of William Lloyd wrote a hymn that begins, my times are in your hand, my God I wish them there, my life, my friends, my soul I leave entirely to your care. That's the language of what used to be called holy resignation.

Sometimes when we say we're resigned to something it means a sort of a shrug of the shoulders, a fatalism, a stoical attitude. But that's not what Lloyd had in mind when he wrote his hymn and it's not what the psalmist had in mind in Psalm 31 when he said in verse 15, my times are in your hand.

Holy resignation is not a careless fatalism, a sort of a Christian pessimism, well God's in control, who knows, I suppose if that's the case I might as well just get on with things. The psalmist wrote those words in the midst of a deep trial.

David’s Trial and Confident Prayer

He was surrounded by enemies, he was afflicted and assaulted, he was lied about, he was slandered, he was undermined in every sense. He talks about being repulsive to the people who are around him, forgotten like a dead man, a broken vessel, fear on every side.

All these things seem to be swirling around him and pressing in upon him. What will he do under those circumstances? Where will he turn and who will he trust? Verse 14 he says, but as for me, though I may have all these enemies against me, though I may have all these difficulties that I face, though these particular pressures and dangers may sweep in against me, but as for me I trust in you O Lord, I say you are my God, my times are in your hand and therefore he would go on, deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me, make your face shine upon your servant, save me for your mercy's sake.

It is a wonderful expression of holy resignation to be able to say my times are in your hand, to be confident that whatever else may be going on around us and whatever may be coming against us, God truly is our God.

Providence Over Life, Nations, and the Church

And you will notice how that spirit of trust is deliberately and directly opposed to the things that are taking place. It's not a denial of those realities, it recognises them and it responds to them.

But as for me, I trust in you O Lord, I say you are my God, that's the truth that is opposed to these other things, my times are in your hand. Now do we actually believe that? Do we really believe that our times are in God's hand?

That's true in the sense of life itself, we know that our days are appointed for us, God has knit us together in our mother's womb, he has appointed the day of our birth, he's appointed the day of our death, and he governs all the days in between.

In that sense, our times are in his hand. But more than that, the events that take place around us, all the other lives, the births and the deaths that take place during our existence in this world, those also are all appointed by God.

And the personalities and the characters of those things, the rise and the fall of the nations, the times and seasons through which we live, the illnesses that we might have, the jobs that we will do, the people that we will be involved with, all of these things are in the control of God.

The church to which we belong, the difficulties that that church will face, the blessings that that church will appreciate, the members that that church will bring in, the prospects and opportunities for service that will come in the life of that congregation, the very fact of our salvation and the working out of that in our lives, the service we will render to God in our generation, do we believe these things?

Holy Resignation in Times of Trouble

If so, it will be a great assistance to us in our times of trouble, when there are dark days, when there are painful seasons, when there may be many enemies, great sorrows, particular difficulties, we need to be able to oppose in faith our confidence in a sovereign and gracious and merciful God, and say, but as for me, I trust in you O Lord, I say you are my God, my times are in your hand, and I leave them there, willingly, gratefully, trustingly.

This is true, holy resignation, resting upon God, confident that he is in control.