Do You Have a Life Verse?
Posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
I’ve been teaching Psalm 138:8 for over three decades and telling the story of how that wonderful sentence, “The Lord will accomplish what concerns me,” became our life verse. It was a dramatic moment in 1978 when a young Lieutenant Ed Underwood thought he was saying goodbye to his bride and his little family.
We thought I was marching to war from Ansbach, Germany and leaving them behind to take care of themselves as the fury of the Soviet Empire rained down on them.
We didn’t go to war, but that was the night Psalm 138:8 became our life verse.
Every time I preach that sermon, people ask me to help them find their life verse. My answer is always the same, “You don’t find your life verse; your life verse finds you.”
Our life verse found us through Judy’s unshakeable faith on that night when we thought our worst fears were coming true. Like David, she had lived a life of dependence on her God:
David’s lifelong experience with answered prayer gave him confidence in his God (Psalm 138:1-3). My Judy had trusted her Jesus through the trials of a little girl losing her daddy and watching her mommy lose herself to alcohol. Nobody had to tell Judy on that night that her God answered prayer; He had proved Himself to her many times. Her lifestyle of dependent prayer “made her bold with strength in her soul” (v 3).
David’s lifelong expectation that his God would be praised for regarding the lowly gave him confidence in His God (Psalm 138:4-6). My Judy had personal experience with a God who kept His eye on a little almost-orphaned little girl who cried out to Him on the night her mother abandoned their family. A Presbyterian pastor’s kindness invited these three homeless children into his home while her mother recovered from the crisis. Her lifestyle of trusting Him in spite of her circumstances had convinced her that “though her Lord is exalted, yet He regards the lowly” (v 6).
So, on the night when our family was “walking in the midst of trouble,” my Judy knew “that He would revive us…that His right hand would save us…and that He would accomplish what concerns us” (vv7-8).
You want a life verse? Then live a life of dependence on your God, and when your worst fears come true, I believe your life verse will find you!”
“The Lord will accomplish what concerns me” (Psalm 138:8, NASB).
