I cry aloud with my
voice to the Lord;
I make supplication with my voice to the Lord (Psalms 142:1 NASB).
Much can be learned from this prayer of
David which he called Maskil, or instruction.
It seems that our best life lessons most always come from the hard
place.
The setting for this prayer is a cave,
be it Adullam or En Gedi where David is hiding from his half-crazed King, Saul. In our Christian journey we come to reside in
our own caves much like David did. It is
our human tendency to start to wonder if our circumstances reflect our
disobedience or sin. Maybe the
inexplicable situations that beset us indicate that we are not out of His will
but in the center of it. It is in the
hard place that God transforms us from a casual believer to a disciple of
Christ.
David’s Pit of Despair
I
pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare my trouble before Him (v.2). David was not ashamed to admit, as spiritual
people sometimes are, the state of their affairs. Verbalizing our fears and anxieties to the
Lord instead of internalizing them is sometimes just what the doctor orders.
What gave David encouragement in the
midst of his complaint? When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You
knew my path (v.3a). When David was
about to sink under the weight of his present burdens, it was his confidence in
God’s past faithfulness that sustained him.
God not only knew every previous path he had walked but was more than
sufficient to take him through them. Dwelling
on God’s previous faithfulness is a biblical method of dealing with present
fears.
In
the way where I walk
They have hidden a trap for me (3b).
David had been a faithful and loyal servant of his
King. His reward was that Saul assigned
to him ambitious motives and had him hunted down like a wild animal. The Bible does say that you reap what you
sow, but that may be more of a long-term outcome. In the short-term cause and effect does not
always happen. David had to keep his eyes
on God for the justice due him. He had
learned he could never expect too little from man or too much from God.
Look
to the right and see;
For there is no one who regards me;
There is no escape
for me;
No one cares for my soul (v 3b-4).
When we step out in faith for God often we are attacked by our enemies
and forsaken by our friends. It appears
he is all alone, like a type of Christ, who was even deserted by his
disciples. But the key word is appears,
as David said, “I cried out to You, O
Lord;
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living” (v.5). The cave was David’s hiding place, but
he realized it was only a temporary solution.
God alone was his refuge to which he could run to at any time and
place. The Lord alone was the source of
his security and safety.
David understood that the battle was
bigger than him. “Give heed to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my
persecutors,
For they are too strong for me (v. 6). Humility tends to reveal
to us what we can accomplish and what only God can do. David told God what He already knew; the
battle was bigger than him.
My Pit Of Despair
On one occasion I was certain had
provided a job for me. But things were
just not working-out. The situation
continued to spiral downward. I prayed
all the right prayers and responded in all the right ways with little or no
effect. I was getting desperate. Then one day I read this portion of
scripture. I thought to myself, my enemies are too strong for me. I had
read this portion of scripture many times before, but because of my dilemma it
sort of sunk in this time. I told the
Lord, “My enemies are too strong for me.
If you don’t do it, it doesn’t get done.” At this point God started to do some
remarkable things for me. He started to
fight my battles for me. Letting go and
letting God seems to be one of the most difficult tasks for self-sufficient
believers. The cartoon character Pogo
once said, “We have found the enemy and the enemy is us.”
“Bring
my soul out of prison,
So that I may give thanks to Your name (v.7a). When we are in the pit common emotions are
fear, anxiety, and depression. David
certainly was not immune to these. Surely
David wanted out of the prison of that cave.
But I think this portion speaks also of confinement of the soul (our
emotional state) that fear and anxiety bring.
When we are going through trials there is often a dichotomy between our
volitional (the will) and our soulish (our emotions) nature. We are choosing to believe the best but there
is a lag in a corresponding emotional response.
We are believing and confessing that God is good but our emotions are
crying out; if that is true, why is all this happening to me?
David knew that God alone could bring
his soul out of the prison so he could give thanks from his heart. It is a great miracle when God delivers us
from our literal cave of suffering, but it can be even a greater miracle when
God gives us a thankful and grateful heart in the midst of our pit of
affliction. And often it is only after a
change in our internal attitudes that we see a release from our external
conditions.
We might want to further amplify this
point by saying that unlike David, who could not leave the cave, we can. There is always the temptation to run. To flee anywhere that will rid us of our
discomfort.
And
in doing so we can have a short-term reprieve, but somewhere down the road we will
find ourselves in another cave. It will be
focused around a new set of circumstances and list of characters, but with the
same plot, the transference of revealed truth from the head to the heart. The critical need of most Christians is not
more knowledge, but the application of the truth we already have. The Bible was never intended just to inform us but to transform us.
The
righteous will surround me,
For You will deal bountifully with me” (v.
7b). David ends with a statement of
faith. Thankfulness encourages faith,
and faith assures us of God’s bountiful blessing.
Ken Barnes,
the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”
YWAM Publishing
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/
