In Psalms 68 David wrote Oh God when you went out before your people, when You marched through the wilderness with them. David was referring to God’s people when they lived in the wilderness after they escaped from Egypt and before they went into the Land of Promise. This forty year period is mostly been viewed in a negative way because of their unbelief. Yet, David writes that God marched with them in the wilderness.
Although, God’s people were wandering in the wilderness as a result of unbelief, it was not an unbelief that denied the existence of God nor were they without confidence they had been offered redemption and were in right standing with God. Although they knew they had failed to believe when God wanted them to believe they also knew that God did not abandon them. Through all of the challenges and adversaries in the wilderness they knew that God was with them by many infallible proofs.
And so when we falter in unbelief, in one way or another, we can be assured that God will never leave us or forsake us; for unbelief in one or many occasions in life is not sacrilegious stubbornness nor is it rejecting reconciliation and redemption when it is offered us. Life is complicated. The many failures in faith and life is never a reason to be immutably separated from God in which He will not rise up against all that confronts us nor does he keep His liberal provisions far from our reach.
There was little food and water in the wilderness. God’s people complained and started thinking they were better off in Egypt when they were subject to slave labor; for they they thought at least they were not in jeopardy of starvation. Yet even when they were complaining God stepped forward and convinced the ancient people of faith that He was their helper in the time of need. God provided a rock in which water gushed out to give them drink; an undeniable miracle from the hand of God. God also gave them food to eat. Bread fell from heaven in the morning and quail in the evening. When they travelled in the wilderness they were led by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day.
There were enemies in the wilderness. They lived in a harsh and barren land among harsh and barbaric nations and tribes. There is little doubt God’s people were afraid. And with fear there is always the tendency toward unbelief. And with good reason for diplomacy and political solutions were far from the minds of most ancient peoples. It was all about slaughter, slavery, and spoil. Yet the fierce inhabitants in the wilderness failed to recognize that God was marching with His people. Nations and tribes were defeated; for God interposed his will upon the barbaric inhabitants in the wilderness; prosecuting their violent crimes and barbaric natures. God rescued His people in every single case.
And because of their example, we are more convinced when we are treated unjustly or if those who choose to usurp God’s exclusive right to prosecute our faults, we are assured that if we seek God for an injustice or seek forgiveness when we have failed – we will find our help in God. For it is always possible that someone will strike out against us at some point in our lives, as the Psalmist wrote when he was treated unjustly and was occasionally at fault, that there was no help for him in God (Psalms 3:1-3). For in these times this might seem to be true to some, yet over time it is not true, because of the many visible and convincing proofs that God marches in the wilderness with us.
Written by Joseph Hutchison