I cry out to God;
yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen
to me! When I was in deep
trouble, I searched for the Lord. All
night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not
comforted. I think of God,
and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help. Interlude
You don’t let me
sleep. I am too distressed even to pray!
I think of the good old days,
long since ended, when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I search my soul and ponder the difference
now. Has the Lord rejected me
forever? Will he never again be kind to
me? Is his unfailing love
gone forever? Have his promises
permanently failed? Has God
forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed
the door on his compassion?
Interlude
And I said, “This is
my fate; the Most High has turned his hand against me.” But then I recall all you have done,
O Lord; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty
works. O God, your ways are
holy. Is there any god as mighty as you?
You are the God of great
wonders! You demonstrate your awesome
power among the nations. By
your strong arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and
Joseph. Psalm 77:1-15
It's a very common experience; all too
common! The pressure builds on the job,
or in the family, or with neighbors, death, Covid, bills, age…and on into the
abyss. You’ve been overwhelmed; hope has
vanished. Even just listing these gives
me a cold chill. I’ve been there; chances
are you have too, or you even live there.
Whether you’re a believer in God, follower of Jesus, or
someone who’s not quite sure if God is even there, you’ve probably prayed
during those times. You ask for a
solution, or at least some relief, and the heavens respond back quickly with….NOTHING. There’s no sound, no skies unfolding with
answers, not a twinge of assurance suddenly welling-up in your gut; just the emptiness
and certainty that you’re on your own, in your pain, and completely forgotten.
The Psalmist, a court musician in King David’s reign,
spent a night in prayer over what was happening in his life, and a kingdom in chaos. Heaven went dark on him. You can just picture the building sense of Why
Bother? If you’ve watched that
develop in a friend, or family member, you know it’s time to collect all the loose
prescription bottles around the house and change the combination on the gun safe. The scenes start playing over and again in
your mind of how you can escape such pain.
If you’ve faced this, and lived-through to a revival of hope, you know
it was something greater than what was left inside of you that saved you from
yourself. There was a moment when it all
changed, or it gradually dawned in your soul, that a genuinely-hopeful light did
exist at the end of the darkness.
For Asaph, it was a long history of staying close to God’s
family, prayer, and choosing faith over feelings. He began to recall (out loud in his written prayer)
all the historical facts of God’s goodness.
He started listing them, one-by-one, and with each post of God’s unending
faithfulness, the light of dawn crept a little closer. This practiced litany of Israel’s history
with God’s lovingkindness became a sermon Asaph penned for other depressed, hopeless
ones in Israel. By the time this court
poet was done, his own darkness was glowing with surprising and fierce joy; the
next Psalm ends with God’s solidified tenderness and hope:
He cared for them
with a true heart and led them with skillful hands. Psalm 78:72
For You Today
You chew on that as
you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
For
other posts on this topic: A
Prayer From the Hourglass and Has
God Forgotten to Be Gracious?
[1] 6 Images: Pixabay.com Unless
noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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