Psalm 61:1-4; NASB
1 Hear my cry, God; give Your attention to my prayer. 2 From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 3 For You have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength against the enemy. 4 Let me dwell in Your tent forever; let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. Have you ever felt abandoned, lost, or overwhelmed? I know I have. I remember as a kid we would take family vacations and go on hikes. I would run up ahead and hide behind trees then jump out and scare my family (although I’m pretty sure they knew exactly where I was). Then one day, I ran ahead and hid behind the trees and waited to jump out and surprise my family. So I waited. And waited. And waited a little more. No family. “Hmmmmm,” I thought, “they should be here by now; maybe I’ll go back and check on them or maybe I went further than I thought.” So I head back down the trail. No family. No people anywhere. Maybe they all got eaten by bears or something (you know, I was like 6 so the mind can be a terrible thing). All of a sudden I was alone in the woods. I was afraid. So I cried out. David is writing this Psalm. And we aren’t sure when it was written or what the occasion was. But many believe it could have been when his own son Absalom took the kingdom from David and drove him out of Jerusalem. So David has moved from a place of security to a place that seems like he is at the end of the earth, far from home. When it says his heart is faint, that Hebrew word for faint actually means “overwhelmed.” Have you ever felt like that before? If so, you’re not alone. So David does the only thing he knows how to do: cry out to God. “Lord, hear my cry….pay attention…help me out!” One of the great things about the God of the Bible is that no matter where life takes us or where we find ourselves….He is already there. And He listens. And He helps. Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Now read that last paragraph again. Sit in those words, swim in that truth. You are never so far that God is not there. Because what David is looking for, what he is asking for, is not to retake his throne in Jerusalem. “Lord, let me be found in You. You are my refuge, my strength, my defense. God in you I find shelter from all of life’s storms.” My encouragement to you, the encouragement from Psalm 61…no matter what happens or where life finds you, remember who God is. He is a refuge, a strength, a shelter. He is always there. He always listens and hears. May our first response be to cry out to God and to wait on Him. Because His ways are the best. His love for you is the best. And believe it or not, His answers when you cry out are the best as well. You can trust in God in all things. And so you know, eventually my family all popped out from behind trees and surprised me. They were there all along. -Pastor Brian
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