THE DESIRE OF THE DISTRESSED Psalms 102:1-11

CRUSHED AND COMPLAINING Psalms 102 Intro. Part 1 

PRESSURED   A Prayer of the afflicted,

PLAGUED       when he is overwhelmed,

THE LORD GIVES US TRIUMPH IN EVERY PROBLEM 

many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers us out of them all. Psalms 34:19

Problems are a potent motivation to prayer.

We have an outstanding promise of assuring rescue.

We have precise encouragement in every trial.

And we have extraordinary enablement in each difficulty and burden.

THE LORD GIVES US DELIVERANCE IN EVERY PREDICAMENT 

David went out where Saul sent him & behaved himself wisely 1 Sam 18:5

David behaved himself wisely in all his ways & the LORD was with him 1 Sam 18:14

When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely & Saul feared him 1 Sam 18:15

David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was much set by. 1 Sam. 18:30

David grew in wisdom

He behaved himself wisely

He behaved himself wisely in all his ways

He behaved himself very wisely & Saul feared him

He behaved himself more wisely than all

THE LORD’S VOICE KEPT HIM ABOVE THE CURVE GIVING DAVID WISDOM

O how love I Your Word! it is my meditation all the day.

through Your Word I’m made wiser than my enemies

through Your Word I have more understanding than all my teachers:

for Your Word is my meditation.

through Your Word I understand more than the ancients Psalms 119:97-100

You have showed me great & sore troubles,

You will make me live again,

You will bring me up again from the depths of the earth Ps 71:20

DAVID FACED WEIRD FAMILY DYSFUNCTION

David endured the insensitivity of his father,

David weathered the jealousy of his brothers,

David excelled under the savagery of his father in law Saul;

David persevered in the betrayal of his wife Michal.

David tolerated, the incest of Amnon, his son who raped Tamar, his daughter,

David grieved the murder of Amnon by Absalom his son.

David resisted the deception of Joab,

David groaned under Absalom’s rebellion against him;

David blessed the curses of Shimei,

David admonished in the squabbling of the sons of Zeruiah;

David’s bio is a kaleidoscopic assortment with many others.

David felt a variety of inward emotional devastations.

There were the polluting corruptions of his own heart,

There were disgusting filthy expressions of his natural inclination.

He dealt with destitution hiding in a lonely escape,

He was hole up in a dark cave with the dysfunctional discontent

He attracted the rag tag riffraff

He endured the hiding of God’s face & the temptations of Satan.

David never blames it on the instruments of second causes.

He viewed everything from God as the one who either laid it all on him,

He saw each circumstance as allowed it by the Lord, for his good & God’s glory.

THE LORD GIVES US HIMSELF IN THE MIDST OF OUR PAIN

When we are overwhelmed & grow faint.

When we feel totally weak, because of sickness,

When we have excessive emotional stress.

We listen to David in the Psalms who says that he felt covered with a shroud, He was draped and totally clothed with emotional devastation. He was buried to the point of struggling for breath from the pressure of the constant onslaught of crushing heaviness and heaving uncontrollable feelings.

So what does the Psalmist do?

He prays. This is the answer, David journals his feelings, writing Psalms of poetic prayer expressions. He buries his head in the bosom of his beloved. He pours out his tears in The Lord’s comforting warmth.