Psalm 69

Verses 13, 16-17...
    But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD.
        At an acceptable time, O God,
        in the abundance of Your steadfast love answer me in Your saving faithfulness.
    Answer me, O LORD, for Your steadfast love is good;
        according to Your abundant mercy, turn to me.
    Hide not Your face from Your servant;
        for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.

These verses call to mind my pastor's sermon from this morning, taken from the text of Deuteronomy 2:7:
For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
Both that sermon and my "Psalm of the day" speak of God's faithfulness and steadfast love.The context of Deuteronomy 2:7 is Moses' farewell address, in which he looks back over the past 40 years in firsthand testimony of "how all this time the Lord has blessed us."

1) Yes, the course of the Christian's life often involves great trials.

• But it is God who brings His people into those hard places. "Whatever the Lord pleases, He does" (Psalm 135:6). 
• God has good reason for bringing us into those hard places. I.e., our sanctification! (See Deut. 8:2.) His purposes are always wise and loving, though we may not fully understand. His goal is our conformity to the image of Christ. 
• Those wilderness experiences do not last forever. One day we will look at them from the perspective of a glorious eternity in God's presence.

2) The place of trial is also the place of blessing.

• God's presence with His people: He never abandons His children during "wilderness times." "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." He loved us enough to die for us, and He will keep us all the days of our life.
• God's pity for His people: sympatheitic knowledge, understanding, compassion. He is not unfeeling. Hebrews 4 tells us that our great High Priest is touched with the feeling of our weaknesses. I often remind myself that Christ knew greater loneliness than I will ever have to experience.
• God's prosperity to His people: He caused their families and flocks to increase even while in the wilderness. "You have not lacked a thing" ... even though they didn't always feel that way. Philippians 4:19 - And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. He not only blesses us along with a trial, but blesses us by and in and through a trial.

3) God's immense blessing of His people will continue forever.

• He has not failed me in the past; He will not fail me ever! 
• Moses was telling the people to look ahead in hope and confidence. 
• This expectation must produce dependence on Him and devotion to Him.