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7. GRIEVED AND GRAPPLING PSALMS 102:3

BLINDED V.3

For my days are consumed like smoke,

What should we do if we feel like our life is a waste. We can get in a tangle of feeling meaningless and inconsequential. When we boil everything down, there comes this miserable sense, that even our expressions are pointless, hollow, irrelevant and futile.

Our days are consumed like smoke. The end result of a burned up item is there is nothing but smoke drifting up in the air. Smoke quickly disappears in an elusive flume. Smoke is a ghostly eerie puff of flurry, evaporating into nothing. Are we nothing but a combustible substance?

Satan is the stoker of this blaze. The end result is the sensation of rising into nowhere.

We are asked in Jas 4:14 for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

The question is what is our life? Is it nothing but a cloud of smoke? Others may ridicule what we say as just blowing smoke and worthless nonsense. But really, our words are our life, for it’s out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

When it is our life that is in question it is our value that is constantly challenged. Our life is very fragile in a number of ways.

There is our life according to its duration.

How much time do we have left?

There is our life according to our distinctiveness.

What are the characteristics of our life? What impressions do we leave others?

The other delicate aspect of our life is that the slightest decision can crumble our possibilities.

What are our life decisions?

The expression of the psalmist is that he feels wasted, useless,

unsuccessful and out of it.

This is looking at our life according to our personal determinations.

Our determinations are our opinion of our life’s effectiveness.

The Psalmist is expressing his despair and the vacuum that depression causes. When you add in the negative censor of others, we can end up feeling stifled and repressed. If we feel like smoke and we feel the additional weight of lacking positive influence for others, it adds to our discouragement. But really what is our life or what are we surrendering it too? Are we unattractive and are we yielding and giving way too feeling distasteful and unappealing?

OUR LIFE IS WHAT WE LOVE THE MOST.

Where our treasure is there will our heart (life) be also.

We need to GIVE OUR LIFE TO THE LORD

give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways Prov. 23:26

We need to GIVE OUR LOYALTY TO THE LORD

return to the LORD thy God, and obey his voice Dt. 30:2

We need to GIVE OUR LOVE TO THE LORD

love the LORD thy God with all your heart & with all thy soul,

and with all thy might Dt. 6:5

We need to GIVE OUR LONGING TO THE LORD

seek Him with the whole heart Psa. 119:2

We need to GIVE OUR LIABILITY TO THE LORD

Trust in the LORD with all your heart Prov. 3:5

We need to GIVE OUR LOOK TO THE LORD

you will seek me & find me, when you shall search for me

with all your heart Jer.29:13

We need to GIVE OUR LIVELINESS TO THE LORD

Worthy, is the Lamb that hath been slain, to receive Rev.5:12

ALL OUR ENERGY                

the power,

ALL OUR EARNING              

and riches,

ALL OUR EXPERIENCE      

and wisdom,

ALL OUR ENDOWMENT    

and might,

ALL OUR ESTEEM                 

and honor,

ALL OUR EXALTATION      

and glory,

ALL OUR ENDORSEMENT

and blessing.

Our value is enhanced when we give our life to the Lord and allow the life of Christ to be our life: Gal.2:20

OUR IDENTITY                 

I am crucified with Christ:

OUR INDIVIDUALITY  

nevertheless I live;

HIS INDWELLING      

yet not I, but Christ lives in me:

HIS INVOLVEMENT  

and the life which I now live in the flesh

HIS INSISTENCE        

I live by the faith of the Son of God,

HIS INTIMACY             

who loved me, and gave himself for me.

For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s Rom. 14:8

When our life is given to the Lord our life is not a waste. Self-deprecation or criticism from others is invalid. We are not smoke.

and another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne Rev. 8:3

Our smoke can be an enjoyable incense that is received by the Lord. Our emotions are not a waste. Our sacrifices are not a waste but an act of worship.

We may feel like:

my strength and my hope is perished from the LORD Lam 3:18

We can get haunted that our splendor is evaporated as a fading vaporous smoke. But in Jesus our labor is not in vain in the Lord. We can cry out:

remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall Lam. 3:19

Sure we can feel that the expressions of our life are nothing but disappearing smoke. We can sense that our smoke stings the eyes of those around us. But our evaluation could be a figment of our own imagination. We may be nurturing a hypersensitivity of defeated thought patterns.

We should raise our sights above, to the one who has the real worth. Don’t give in to the crass disarray of our groveling perceptions and spooky misgivings. Jesus is the solution to the battling in the shadows of our mind games. The Psalmist took his smoky feelings to God. This can renew the vigor away from uselessness to our value in Christ.

F.W. Faber wrote:

How wonderful, how beautiful the sight of Thee must be,

Thy endless wisdom, boundless power, and awful purity;

O how I fear thee, living God, with deepest, tender, fears,

and worship thee in trembling hope and penitential tears.

6. BESTOW ACCELERATION TO MY CALL PSALMS 102:2B

Incline Your ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.

Is asking God to cut us some slack in the timing issue a signal of impatience? Why do we start feeling edgy and intolerant when impending loss is imminent? Why does stress and exasperation gurgle inside of us with unnerving surges?

The pointed direction is: Redeem the time, because the days are evil.

Now that’s a novel concept. How do we add that to our shopping list? How do we buy time?

the king answered and said, I know of a certainty that you would gain the time, because you see the thing is gone from me. Dan 2:18

The magicians we’re stalling because they didn’t have an answer for the king and they didn’t know how to solve his dream mystery. They we stalling for time. Daniel comes along and seizes the moment, (Redeems the time) He squeezed everything possible out of the opportunity. He makes this acquisition by crying out to the Lord. It is a simple request. He asks for insight for the situation. He is given the insight. In addition he gains a miraculous promotion and a timeless blessing. This is all accomplished by buying up the opportunity. God gives exceedingly, abundantly, and above all that we ask or think.

The alert is:

Awake you that sleep & arise from the dead & Christ will give you light. Eph.5:14

We can live like we’re dead to the spirit sphere. We can bang through life unaware of the light He has for us. We can just be in a fog, missing the spiritual options in each situation. The answers are obtainable; we have to buy up the opportunities, to get at them. Prayer really isn’t that baffling. I confess I miss great bargains constantly. We have to be aggressively opportunistic. The prayer method is a simple one-word phrase. No lengthy piece of poetry really. We just need to say “HELP!” The privileges are present and now. God’s prospects surround us.

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise Eph. 5:15

Circumspectly, we don’t hear that everyday. We are to be attentive. Awake to where we are and where we place each step. We have to get alert and aware, conscientious to how we use each moment. It is being meticulous, painstaking and careful with our time.

Incline Your ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. 

Or in other words pleading with God to please help, please open our eyes, I’m dumb, so please hold my hand. I’m weak so please hold me up.

We are asking God to hear us and run toward us in our every need. He is asking the same of us. He is prompting us by the alarm clock of jarring circumstances. He is telling us to wake up and rise to Him by asking Him and keep on asking Him over and over.

Prayer is the time exposure of our soul to God. This is the process of the image of God being formed on our soul through the proper use of time. We need to redeem the time. We are living in an age of instantaneous digital photography. We have lost the former process of photography. We need time in the dark room. Time for exposure to various solutions is essential. The digital process of the instantaneous is not adaptable to spiritual exposure.

We can end up with a hazy image of our eternal and infinite God. Our picture can end up poor because our negative is weak. The negatives need the time in the dark room and His likeness will come in the light. We have to give God time to achieve a proper likeness, to be changed into the same image from glory to glory. A fool has been described as one who has lost the proportion of things. We get captivated by the secondary and lose sight of the primary.

The present time can be one of difficulty. But the application of the truth to all the circumstances that appear to be obstacles in the way is the only way we will redeem the opportunity. We must buy every opportunity for God. He gives us the purchase power in prayer. This is how we get the right focus.

5. BESTOW ACCELERATION TO MY CALL PSALMS 102:2

Incline Your ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.

No one enjoys waiting. No one has ever told me what a charge they get out of waiting on the Lord. Waiting demands patience. And the development of patience doesn’t cultivate easily. In fact it is miserable to hear that troubles are the source of patience.

Patience is endurance and perseverance, which are qualities that don’t grow effortlessly. Patience is the ability to tolerate waiting, delay, and frustration without becoming agitated or upset.

Trouble develops patience by showing us our need of the Lord in our lives. We see our impatience and call to Jesus to Incline His ear unto us: in the day when I call answer me speedily.

Waiting doesn’t mean our circumstances change.

But waiting on the Lord is praying about every issue we face. The Lord will help us, strengthen us and guide us. Waiting is looking expectantly for the Lord.

William MacDonald writes:

“It is absurd to think that He cares less for His people than for the stars which He guides so unerringly.”

“He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength” Isaiah 40:29.

God helps those who need it the most.

Waiting on God is the condition for finding God’s help. Waiting is patience, faith, and surrender to the Lord.

Ole Hallesby writes:

Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only he who is helpless can truly pray.”

Christ’s Spirit helps us in our weakness.

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” Rom 8: 26.

It almost seems that the help of the Spirit is triggered by our helplessness.

To pray is to accept that we are & always will be, wholly dependent on God for everything.

When we feel most totally helpless, we should be confident that God is with us and is listening to our prayer. He will help us wait and His Spirit pours patience into us.

4.BRING AVAILABILITY TO MY COLLAPSE PSALMS 102:2

Hide not Your face from us in the day when we are in trouble

Problem after problem and we feel that God is obscuring His responses to our troubles. He’s playing hide and seek. How can He act that way when He is the only one who can solve our distress and difficulty? It feels like a perpetual assault where He is concealed. Can’t we come to grips, but this feeling won’t leave? Is this just an agony that we’ve self-concocted? Spurgeon writes “Our prayer is intensified into a cry, then the heart is even more urgent to have the audience of the Lord.^”

Our trouble is unbearable. William Cowper wrote

“That were a grief I could not bear, Didst thou not hear and answer prayer.”

Don’t depend on earthly comforters,

God is the wonderful counselor in a time of crisis

God is our refuge & strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear,

though the earth should change;

and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea

Psalm 46:1-2

We need trouble as our prompt to respond to God who disguises Himself in our troubles and stresses.

When we’re quick in including Him in each issue then He’ll be prompt in responding

Troubles should increase the intensity of our prayers not our doubts.

“Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In every change, He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul:

thy God doth undertake to guide the future, as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know

His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,

And all is darkened in the vale of tears,

Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,

Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.

Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay

From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on

When we shall be forever with the Lord.

When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past

All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul:

begin the song of praise On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;

Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,

So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.

Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine

Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

“We only learn through pain. It is pain that causes us to change. Pain may take us to a doctor for help. Pain may send us back to school. Pain may force us to dissolve a destructive relationship. Pain may bring us to God.” Williams, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1989). Psalms 73–150

To be frantic about God being this delusional hidden quality is really our own invention. This comes from our implacable natural inclination toward fictitious, imaginary fears. In our stress we create and believe delusions. We become hypochondriacs in our mind games. We dress the shadows of our existence in colorful costumes and ghoulish outfits. We lack faith, and decline in a dementia that our Lord Jesus detests and scolds. This attitude drives us from the reality of his constant care, denies us of sensation of his loving arms and lifting ability. God uses the legion of surrounding troubles for our good. For we need to come to the fact that the snags of life are not damaging difficulties. To say our Lord is hidden and ignoring our needs is turning our back to the only one who can save and will deliver from every hitch, nuisance, breakdown and difficulty.

We can plead that He reveal His face in our time of trouble but we are the ones that have turned our back on Him in our fears and doubts. He says: remember Me, think on Me, behold Me, meditate on Me. Then we cry, how can You Lord Jesus expect me to abide in Your love if Yo hide Yourself from me in the time of need?

The answer of course is He doesn’t hide at all from us but we hide from Him. We are demanding certain things. We want everything to work out our way and according to our approvable. If those expectations are not met we feel like the victims of things that we interpret as tragedy.

Eliaphaz says to Job: 

Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Job 5:7

We feel that bad things only happen to fools and idiots.

He delivers us in six troubles: in seven no evil will touch us. Job 5:19

We think that nasty things only happen because we are wicked and this is completely false. Our fear is that we are freaks of nature and that our immense evil has caused God to turn his back to us in our trouble.

But Job answered and said, Oh that my griefs were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinks up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Job 6:1-4

Everything is from the hand of God. God is not hiding himself, but in trouble He is revealing Himself.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Job 38:1-4

Our life seems a continuous whirlwind. The wind appears to blow everything we thought we had of value away.

He has thrown me into the mire, and I am like dust and ashes’ I cry unto You, and You don’t hear me: I stand up, and You don’t regard me. You are become cruel to me: with Your strong hand You oppose me and are against me. You lift me up to the wind; You cause me to ride upon it, and it dissolves my substance.

Job even complained that he had cared for the troubles of others but he was being hung out and denied when terrors exploded in on him.

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. Job 30:25-26

But the wind is not blowing us apart, God answers in the whirlwind: Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  

Why are we feeling so abandoned, why are we accusing God? He has been with us the whole time. Gird up now thy loins like a man, Get a grip.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be serious, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ 1Pet.1:13

As we see the Lord in our problems things make sense.

In Job 38:4-6 God says; I put the earth together one molecule at a time; I’m in complete control of it.

In Job 38:7 He says; I’m in control of the Planets, the Angelic host do all my requests, nothing takes place outside of my authority.

V.8 the sea came from God’s womb. The turbulent Ocean is my infant at its birth, the sea came out of My bowels v.9 the clouds I make as a swaddling band that cradle the sea.

God brake the earth & the sea by his decree:

He made a vast chasm in the earth to hold the waters of the sea,

He provided as a sort of cradle to put this swaddled infant in;

God slashed the earth, raised the hills & sank the valleys,

He made channels to convey the waters that ran off the earth to their appointed place.

This is beautifully expressed, showing his wise plans. Everything God does is for our blessing.

We need to see Him in everything. He is not hiding. Job 38:10

So the LORD blessed the end of Job more than his beginning:

for he had fourteen thousand sheep,

and six thousand camels,

and a thousand yoke of oxen,

and a thousand she asses. Job 42:12

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.

In the world ye shall have tribulation:

but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

Confirming the souls of the disciples,

He exhorted them to continue in the faith,

He said that we must through much tribulation entering into the kingdom of God. Acts 14:22

2. EXTREME AND EFFUSIVE Psalms 102:1.

GUSHING GRIEVANCE

BE ATTENTIVE TO MY COMPLAINTS Hear my prayer,

Prayer is actions of communication that has many facets. One component of prayer is to pour out our complaint before the LORD. As we dispense the feelings we dump out of our heart all the disorder in our lives. We can feel sapped and depleted. We can feel weak and bled. With this self-emptying comes the exhaustion of extreme intensity and loss. The discharge is a great amount and a lavish discarding, leaving in its wake emptiness and weakness both emotionally and physically. The end results being that we lose our grasp, slip in our footing, stagger in our position, and can easily slide in our character.

We see this hollow container void of precious life juices portrayed with its results in Psa. 22:14-15

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my insides. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You have brought me into the dust of death.

How intensely severe it is to be vacated of all life force and have our soul refilled with the dust of death. This can be a personal experience but also it can be an entering in to the loss of others in a deep piteous compassion and grief.

Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. Lam. 2:11

The psalmist expressed the slippage he felt in his life when he saw his own devastation and drain and sensed others were not as exposed to the wreckage and waste he was enduring: Psa. 73:2

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

But in all this drain and loss what has been the cost? There are the shed tears, the invested emotions and feelings, the seemingly exploited gifts and treasures, the unappreciated sacrifices of care, love and devotion. Do we pull it all back in, as a collection of our spirit? Or do we pour it out before the Lord as done for Him and to Him and through Him?

He will store it all in his eternal storehouses, for His glory; for in Him there is not loss but gain, for that which we counted gain is loss until it is given up for His glory.

Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him:

God is a refuge for us. Psa. 62:8

Others can mock and ridicule and declare our emptying as a wasted sacrifice and blood vainly spilled but we can bring this to our God also and plead for vindication. We may look and feel like the only thing that we have left on our schedule is an appointment with death but our victory and reenergizing is letting Him be known, that must be our goal to proclaim Him in all his wonder and beauty.

He does hear us, each of our complaints are precious to him.

wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die Psa. 79:10-11

This word complaint means lament and it’s an expression of one’s discontent and displeasure. We are all by nature grumblers and grippers.

I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him my trouble. Psa. 142:2

Hannah was accused of drunkenness because of the weight of her grief. The emotional expression of her complaint in prayer appeared delirious to Eli. She defends her outpouring.

And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. Count not your handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. 1Sam. 1:15-16

The Psalmist expresses the same bottled up feelings and explosion of emotion.

Psa. 55:2 Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;

After we have given it all to God and complain to The Lord over and over, we return to the fact that He is really all we want, and need, He is the one we adore:

My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD. Psa. 104:34

Rise my soul behold tis Jesus, Jesus fills thy wondering eye, see Him now in glory seated, where thy sins no more can rise.

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

say many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the

LORD delivers him out of them all. Psalms 34:19

This is 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

Thou, which have showed me great and sore troubles, shall make me live again, and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Ps 71:20

David endured the insensitivity of his father. He tolerated the jealousy of his brothers. He stood under the savagery of Saul. He stomached the betrayal of his wife Michal. Then in his own family he endured, the incest of Amnon when his son raped Tamar, his daughter. His solution to this debacle was incomplete and Absalom his son murdered Amnon. Then he weathered the deception of Joab, and Absalom’s rebellion against him. Then while fleeing from the murderous uprising of Absalom the curses of Shimei rained in on him, and then the squabbling of the sons of Zeruiah.

David felt a variety of inner emotional devastations. There we’re the polluting corruptions of his own heart, the disgusting filthy expressions of his natural inclination. He dealt with destitution hiding in a lonely escape, hole up in a dark cave where he was surrounded by dysfunctional discontent from the rag tag riff raff who he attracted. He endured the hiding of God’s face, and the temptations of Satan.

David doesn’t blame it on the instruments of second causes, but he blames God as the one who either laid it all on him, or allowed it to happen to him, for his good and God’s glory.

THE LORD GIVES US HIMSELF IN THE MIDST OF OUR PAIN 

When we are overwhelmed and grow faint. When we feel totally weak, because of sickness, or excessive emotional stress. We listen to David in the Psalms who says that he felt covered with a shroud, draped and totally clothed with emotional wreckage and buried to the point of struggling for breath from the pressure of the constant onslaught of crushing heaviness and heaving uncontrollable feelings. And 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.

SIGNS OF DECLENSION V.1-2

DECLINE IN CHARACTER  

Help, Lord; for the godly man ceases; for the                                

faithful fail from among the children of men.

DECAY IN COMMUNICATION

FUTILITY                  

they speak vanity every one with his neighbor

FLATTERY                

with flattering lips

FABRICATION        

and with a double heart do they speak.

SEVERITY FOR THE DEROGATORY V.3-4

ENTICEMENTS ARE EXTINGUISHED

The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips,

HAUGHTINESS IS HALTED                     

and the tongue that proud things

CONCEIT IS CANCELLED                         

who have said, with our will we prevail

ARROGANCE IS ARRESTED                    

our lips are our who is Lord over us?

SALVATION FOR THE DOWNTRODDEN V.5-7

THE POOR ARE PLUNDERED                  

for the oppression of the poor

THE DESTITUTE ARE DESPERATE        

for the sighing of the needy

THE PROMISE WILL BE PERFORMED

now will I arise, says the Lord; I will set

him in safety from him that puffs at him.

GOD’S PROMISES ARE:

PERFECT AND PURE                

The words of The Lord are pure words

TESTED AND TRUE                  

as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified 7 times

GOD’S PROTECTIONS ARE:

SECURE AND STABILIZING     

You will keep them, O Lord You will preserve them

ENDURING TO ETERNITY        

from this generation forever

THE PERVERSE ARE PROWLING

The wicked walk on every side

DEPRAVITY IS DIGNIFIED          

when the vilest men are exalted.

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.