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Psalm 94

O Lord, God of vengeance,
God of vengeance, shine forth!
² Rise up, O Judge of the earth,
Render recompense to the proud.
³ How long shall the wicked, O Lord,
How long shall the wicked exult?
⁴ They pour forth words, they speak arrogantly;
All who do wickedness vaunt themselves.
⁵ They crush Your people, O Lord,
And afflict Your heritage.
⁶ They slay the widow and the ^[d]stranger
And murder the orphans.
⁷ They have said, “The Lord does not see,
Nor does the God of Jacob pay heed.”

⁸ Pay heed, you senseless among the people;
And when will you understand, stupid ones?
⁹ He who planted the ear, does He not hear?
He who formed the eye, does He not see?

¹⁰ He who chastens the nations, will He not rebuke,
Even He who teaches man knowledge?
¹¹ The Lord knows the thoughts of man,
That they are a mere breath.

¹² Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord,
And whom You teach out of Your law;
¹³ That You may grant him relief from the days of adversity,
Until a pit is dug for the wicked.
¹⁴ For the Lord will not abandon His people,
Nor will He forsake His inheritance.
¹⁵ For judgment will again be righteous,
And all the upright in heart will follow it.
¹⁶ Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
Who will take his stand for me against those who do wickedness?

¹⁷ If the Lord had not been my help,
My soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence.
¹⁸ If I should say, “My foot has slipped,”
Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up.
¹⁹ When my anxious thoughts multiply within me,
Your consolations delight my soul.
²⁰ Can a throne of destruction be allied with You,
One which devises mischief by decree?
²¹ They band themselves together against the ^[q]life of the righteous
And condemn the innocent to death.
²² But the Lord has been my stronghold,
And my God the rock of my refuge.
²³ He has brought back their wickedness upon them
And will destroy them in their evil;
The Lord our God will destroy them.

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One temptation which we may have when approaching God is to expect Him to answer our prayer all at once, on our timing (usually immediately, or at least “very soon”), and in the way we want or think best.   But, God in His total wisdom, knows much better than us the correct way to answer prayer – the perfect way, the perfect timing, and the perfect sequence.  He is lovingly orchestrating good (we could even say “the best”) for us and everyone else involved – including the millions of derivative or interrelated effects which are involved with everything that happens.

So, we must remember that just because God did not answer a prayer in the way which we (in our extremely limited perspective) expected does not mean that He did not answer in exactly the right way.

This is all part of truly learning the admonition in Proverbs 3:5-8

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Proverbs 3:5-8

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* Narcissism is the modern colloquial term for what the Bible calls “insolent pride”.  See here