“When I felt secure, I said,
   ‘I will never be shaken.’
 LORD, when you favored me,
   you made my royal mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
   I was dismayed.”—Psalm 30:6–7

When all is going well in our lives, we tend to think we’re immune from hardships and trials. We get a promotion and pay raise at work, and we believe we have job security . . . until the unthinkable happens and we are let go. We’re diligent about making wise investments with our money and believe we have financial security . . . until the stock market crashes. We’re following a good diet plan and exercising and feel we will always enjoy good health . . . until the test comes back positive.

When things are going well, we feel much like David did in Psalm 30, “When I felt secure, I said, ‘I will never be shaken.'” David was obviously at the top of his game when he wrote Psalm 30, and his sense of security made him feel invincible. God’s blessings and favor had made him feel secure like a mountain.

How quickly David had forgotten the source of his true security. In fact, the Hebrew word for “secure,” selew, implies a careless ease. Secure in his fortune and God’s favor, David apparently had forgotten to trust in God and began to become self-focused — self-sufficient, self-confident, and self-reliant!

David had become lax until God hid His face from David — an expression meaning that God had removed his blessing and protection from David. The results for David were devastating. As the New Living Translation says, “Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.” Immediately, in the next verse, David cried out to God and begged for mercy.

We, too, may get careless about our faith. We may allow our possessions, our education or careers, our sense of well-being, even our families or friends, to distract us. We may become more dependent on our abilities and our accomplishments, forgetting that it is God who has blessed us. When this happens, the urgency to pray or spend time with God is lessened. We may be lulled into a false sense of security.

And when the unthinkable happens, like David, we are crushed.

Thankfully, David offers us the antidote to becoming overconfident. In the last verse, after God has restored David and turned his “wailing into dancing,” David vows that “I will praise you forever.”

When we continually turn to God with grateful hearts and thank Him for what He has done in our lives, we will keep our focus where it belongs — on God, not ourselves.

Things going well right now? What a great time to stop and thank the One who provides you with true security.