Pondering this verse first made me consider who is righteous? We are, if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. He is righteous and extends His righteousness to us through His sacrifice on the cross. It’s all about grace and mercy and a free gift for those who choose to accept it.

The next part of this verse is the “no fun” part. It is no fun and somewhat surprising that we whom God counts as righteous can still expect to have many troubles. They are not promises…the verse says may have many troubles. But such is life…we all have problems. Some with family, some with finances, some with health. But I don’t think anyone gets out of this life without some kind of problem at sometime.

The final part is the promise: the Lord delivers him from them all. It doesn’t say that the Lord takes us out of the situation and we are totally freed from it. No..it says we are there and God delivers us from the troubles. And just so we are all on the same page, keep in mind that God’s deliverance may not look like we envision. I think of recently being diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I can kick and scream and shout “unfair” all I want, but that won’t change the situation. I had to come to the realization that my only deliverance will be from God. He could use doctors, but maybe not. He could use miraculous healing, but maybe not. Perhaps the deliverance will come when I go home to be with Him and all of the health concerns I have here on earth are gone, just vanished. Or God could do something totally unexpected and unimaginable that I have not named because I don’t have His thoughts or the ability to think His thoughts. In every situation, we need to step back and let God be God. He made me and He can fix me in the way that He deems best. The deliverance is promised but my desire to tell God how I want to be delivered is not promised. I am not God, He is…so the promise is there. And once again, we all have to bask in God’s presence and know that He is working on the deliverance because He is always present with us. In the hard times, in the good times, in the sad times and in the happy times. God is there. He is present and waiting for us to surrender our will to His so that He can deliver us in His perfect way.