Tag: King David

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God sees and hears you.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭40‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It is really powerful and supportive when someone not only knows you are in hard times, but reaches out with a simple text or phone call just to say they are with you. Oh, to be seen and to be heard is actually comforting. It’s mysterious and welcomed. This was a Psalm David wrote himself. We don’t know when he wrote it, but it was placed among the poetry prayers in the collection towards the end of his life.

He writes about waiting for God’s help. Waiting while in physical or mental distress is extremely exhausting. They tell us that pain causes our mind to lie to us and tell us that the present circumstances will be permanent, like there will be no end to it. We just want out of it. We want to get back to normal, back to easy, back to joys of living and loving.

This Psalm is so powerful because David most likely remembers a moment when he was just a shepherd boy, tending his family’s sheep. As a shepherd, it was common for sheep to wander into these mud holes after a rainstorm in the open pasture. These holes looked shallow, but they could be deceptively, dangerously deep. The sheep would step in and sink down, deep into a mud so thick it was like wet cement. The shepherd would hear the cries of the sheep, immobilized in the muck. These holes could also be large enough that the shepherd could not reach the sheep with the crook of his staff. The shepherd would have to climb into the hole, wading in to the depths to wrap his arms around the muddy, scared sheep. He would have to pull the sheep out slowly while the sheep struggled by kicking, even biting at the shepherd. The shepherd’s rescue meant the sheep would be saved!

David sees his own life, filled with his own deep muddy holes and rejoices that God, the great shepherd heard him, turned to him, climbed into the muck and mire, wrapped his arms around him and lifted him out – saving his life. David sees his life as a series of rescues when God continued to set him on the rock of solid ground. David, then in response, lifts his own song of praise to God, thankful that God sees, hears, turns and lifts him out to safety. This is what God does in our life. He sees, hears, turns and rescues us.

Prayer

Dad,
How many times have I found myself in a muddy hole of life? How many times did I wander off? How many times was I trapped? How many times did I feel that I could do nothing to set myself free, rescuing myself? Many times! I also waited. I also cried out. You saw me, heard me, turned to me and lifted me out of the muck! Thank you! I remember and give you praise!

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Delightful determination.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“My life constantly hangs in the balance, but I will not stop obeying your instructions. The wicked have set their traps for me, but I will not turn from your commandments. Your laws are my treasure; they are my heart’s delight. I am determined to keep your decrees to the very end.” Psalms‬ ‭119:109-112‬ ‭NLT‬‬

There seems to be a tremendous side benefit to suffering, and I don’t like it one bit. A suffering heart is a tender heart and one that should draw near to God. You get this sense all through the Psalms when David and other writers lay out their troubles.

In his youth, David was constantly being pursued, hiding, running for his life. Yet, while he is in great anguish and notably the worst part of his existence- he was close to God. The most eloquent and beautiful words of deep love and commitment come out of him. And, not only are we, the readers, the benefactors, we also can develop a way of life similar.

The poignant question is, “Do we have to suffer to experience this closeness to God?” David’s dramatic phrases of his “life hanging in the balance” and the “wicked setting traps” for him are the life-season backdrop to his life as a younger man. But we all know what happens as David ages and gets all the luxuries and accoutrements of being a king! And, it’s in that season of his life, that commandments are broken and his heart’s determinations and affections are set on something else, someone with stunning beauty.

Which makes me ask another question, “Do we lose closeness to God when we are not suffering?” When there is no one is hunting us. There are no threats, no crushing circumstances of life. Do we delightfully determine God then? The seasons that we have much, or certainly more, are exactly the life stages that should be examined more closely!

Yet, I feel no desire whatsoever to put myself into states of suffering. Was this part of the reason monks and nuns would beat their own bodies (Self-flagellation) trying to force a physical, thus emotional suffering? They saw this a a spiritual discipline, calling it a “mortification of the flesh.” I see that as ridiculous. One thing about this Psalm is clear, David could never imagine a moment where he would “stop obeying” God’s instructions. Yet, we know he did. I would love to live a life that vigorously pursues God even as I age, even as I “get more” or have more.

Prayer

Dad,
Wow. It seems to me that we, as humans, are such a strange paradox. We are so simple in one sense, and deeply complicated in another. We’re simple in terms of our sin, our failures, like dogs returning to their vomit. We’re even predictable in that! In the other, we have and live with a duplicitous heart. One that longs, aches for a deep relationship with you. The other a horrible, unquenchable desire for our own will, our own way. When we’re young we are filled with vim and vigor. When we’re old we’re filled with memories and reflections. My desire is similar to David’s in his youth, to keep your decrees until death.

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Going to God first, BEFORE we spin out.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage. Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. I am sick at heart. How long, O Lord, until you restore me? Return, O Lord, and rescue me. Save me because of your unfailing love. For the dead do not remember you. Who can praise you from the grave?” Psalms‬ ‭6:1-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David implores God to restore, not continue to rebuke. To heal, not to discipline as David sees it. I realize this is probably David’s general outlook or worldview. EVERYTHING that happens, good or bad, comes from God. Interesting right? I don’t see David blaming natural consequences per se, or an evil presence such as Satan when things are going bad. I don’t even see him really blaming King Saul or evil men. He’s really got his focus on God’s design and desire to control all that happens in his life and the kingdom life. Why else would David constantly remind God of how long he’s been waiting for justice?

In this passage David dramatically reminds God of something else. How can I praise you of I’m no longer alive? Who praises from the grave? Well… I get his point. We would rather praise and tell of God’s great mercy here, while we’re alive in this planet, while there are people to hear the testimonies of His goodness. However, from a eternal perspective, God will always receive praise, even from the beyond. I’m not sure about the ancients view of the afterlife. David uses the word, “sheol.” Which is a realm of the dead, where all the dead go. He certainly did not believe he could continue to give God praise from there.

What would happen if I took my griefs, failures and frustrations to God FIRST? If I had this kind of open conversation with God at the front of my tendency to “spin” or ruminate? I just had this happen. And I was feeling desperate to tell someone what I had experienced, what I was feeling AND let those awful theories take my brain off to a hundred different directions. The one I should have talked to first, was God. The Psalms always reminds me to do this, that’s what I love about these songs and poems. But I still don’t choose God first! It’s very annoying that I do this.

Prayer

Dad,
Even though you have given me access and permission to go to you, to approach you, I still have a difficult time following through. Maybe it’s just me? Maybe everyone else just does this automatically. I even had the perfect yucky day yesterday and was wishing I could tell someone to get it out of my head, but oh no, I didn’t pray a peep! I didn’t let you in. I didn’t reach out for help to sort through the pain and disappointment. I do remember pausing before I sent some dumb texts that would have made things worse. I need you so badly when things are stressful and I start dropping or forgetting important things I’m supposed to get done.

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Lessons to learn from David’s singular truth

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain. But I confess my sins; I am deeply sorry for what I have done.”Psalms‬ ‭38:17-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​Wow. This entire Psalm of David is so raw and honest. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he must have had Covid… j/k. Who can compare to David’s songs and prayers of repentance? The entire psalm is filled with a mixture of physical, emotional and spiritual pain he is experiencing. As I read it, I feel as though he’s not going to make it, he’s describing the end of his life.

This psalm blows my mind because, in the middle of this physical calamity David 100% attributes the cause to God being angry, himself being guilty as charged and ridding himself of his sins. There is not one ounce of any possibility that he has caught something natural or the result of “general” sin or sickness being a part of our fallen world, Nor does he attribute it to an attack from a very real entity of evil! He completely receives it as FROM God and goes directly to God to admit, repent and wait for judgment to pass. “My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.”

He is NOT expecting to be let off the hook, but asks for the patience go through, and to wait for God to come and relieve his pain. “For I am waiting for you, O Lord. You must answer for me, O Lord my God.” And, “Come quickly to help me, O Lord my savior.”

I can honestly say, I have never thought about this kind of raw, direct, straight to the point prayer when I have been at my sickest or lowest moments in life. He doesn’t blame a virus, bacteria, infection, a devil or even God himself. He just flat out starts repenting and recognizing his own unworthiness. I am humbled by this and it makes me think about my own mortality, and times of fever, aches or misery. Once again, I am thankful for the lesson and model from David’s own life and the words he left behind for me to reflect on.

PRAYER:

​Dad,
Wow, what a glimpse into a world that I am not comfortable in at all. I know very few who are at the point of extreme pain and solid resolve acceptance of who is really in charge of life itself.

I am normally talking people out of such honest thoughts and prayers when they speak of their own responsibility and repentance for sin! I will not be so foolish to do so again. Mostly, because I realize how little I actually know of such things! How could falsely relieve the tension by pretending that I know of someone’s circumstances? I will also think through my own response to sickness, pain and suffering. I am thankful for David’s honest and pure words.