Tuesday,
June 29, 2021
O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry. For my life is full of troubles, and
death draws near. I am
as good as dead, like a strong man with no strength left. They have left me among the dead, and I
lie like a corpse in a grave. I am
forgotten, cut off from your care. You
have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths. Your anger weighs me down; with wave
after wave you have engulfed me. Interlude
You have driven my friends away by making me
repulsive to them. I am in a trap with
no way of escape. My eyes are
blinded by my tears. Each day I beg for
your help, O Lord; I lift my hands to you for mercy. Are your wonderful deeds of any use to
the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise
you? Interlude
Can those in the grave declare your unfailing
love? Can they proclaim your
faithfulness in the place of destruction? Can the darkness speak of your wonderful
deeds? Can anyone in the land of
forgetfulness talk about your righteousness? O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day. O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me? I have been sick and close to death
since my youth. I stand helpless and
desperate before your terrors. Your
fierce anger has overwhelmed me. Your
terrors have paralyzed me. They
swirl around me like floodwaters all day long.
They have engulfed me completely. You have taken away my companions and
loved ones. Darkness is my closest
friend. Psalm 18:1-18
The Psalmist moves from addressing God as JHWH,
the LORD who is his salvation, to admitting the only real friend he has is the
darkness. What flows inbetween these two
opposites is the crying-out of a soul that has been emptied by life’s harsh
circumstances. This is a man facing the
darkness and contemplating embracing it.
Death is on the horizon, and the pain of continuing to live is so filled
with the emptiness of admitting his life has been a waste of effort, all he can
see is the darkness. It is the testimony
of one who has had hope disappear; all that is left is to turn to the wall and
wait, contemplating the moment of relief when death takes over. It seems so unjust, but the last flicker of
hope has been snuffed like a flood of a fire hose against a paper match.
Been there?
Are there?
One of the things I’ve noticed (all too often) is
that most people don’t admit to coming close to that darkness occasionally. That is usually for one of two reasons. Either the person is of strong faith, and they
know the darkness cannot overturn the eternal light God has placed within their
soul when they trusted Jesus. Or, it is
when the faith of a person has been assaulted so much, doubt has gotten the
upper hand. In either case, to admit to
the darkness is to somehow grant it victory.
Seemingly.
But that is faulty thinking. Admitting the darkness, like the Psalmist holds up the darkness as the only thing he’s got left in this life, is the same thing we did when we first came to Christ, admitting we lived in darkness and were, in faith, going to trust the great light God promises. My good friend, the tax collector, Matthew, understood this as he quoted Isaiah’s prophecy to us about Jesus, the light of the world:
the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.” Matthew 4:16
For You Today
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
No comments:
Post a Comment