"My Times Are In Thy Hand"
Context: The poet, feeling that danger is imminent, expresses his confidence in God, his "rock and fortress" to "pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me." He is weak and wasted with sorrow; both his enemies and his neighbors avoid him because of his grief; he is forgotten as though he were already dead. The object of slander, he petitions God to make his enemies, not him, ashamed. God will, he says, hide the innocent believers in His presence, as in a tent, so that they will be protected from gossipers. All "saints" should praise God because He rewards the faithful and punishes the wicked. The psalmist's lament and his faith are illustrated in the following lines (See also Browning: "Rabbi Ben Ezra," l. 4):
For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
But I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God.
My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
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