Psalm 77:2
Psalms are pretty popular, and for good reason. Throughout all the psalms, David is a roller coaster of human emotion. I see myself in many of his words and can identify with a lot of his feelings. While I have to turn some verses into metaphors for my own life (i.e. I am not a king and do not fight battles against other nations), many ring clear and true written just as they are in just about every version of the bible.
I have plenty of highlighted verses throughout the book of Psalms. Having spent so much of my life in pain, many of them are verses which highlight David's anguish, his times of sorrow, when he fears that God has turned his back.
In today's psalm, my highlighted verse is verse 2: "I found myself in trouble and went looking for my Lord; my life was an open wound that wouldn't heal. When friends said, "Everything will turn out all right," I didn't believe a word they said." (MSG)
This is one of the reasons I love The Message and the way it is written. So often, in all my times of distress, friends would attempt to comfort me by saying some form of those exact words. Other versions of the bible read that David's soul was not or refused to be comforted. I do identify with those words as well, but the way it is spelled out in The Message carries far more weight for me. "...my life was an open wound that wouldn't heal." Throughout many of my darkest times I wrote a lot of poetry. One untitled poem from 2004 begins,
"It's a scar that's still an open wound
that no amount of time can seem to heal..."
Over and over again, I identify with David's pain. "I'm desperate for a change from rage and stormy weather." Ps 55:8 (MSG) "I'm caught in a maze and can't find my way out, blinded by my tears of pain and frustration. ... For as long as I remember I've been hurting." Ps 88:9, 15 (MSG) "Long enough, God - you've ignored me long enough." Ps 13:1 (MSG)
The neat thing about David and his psalms, though, is that verses like those are very few. Verses expressing pain and grief are not few, but in most of the psalms, David immediately asks God for help or reassures himself by ruminating on God's love, strength and forgiveness. "And me? I'm a mess. I'm nothing and have nothing: make something of me. You can do it; you've got what it takes..." Ps 40:17 (MSG) "If God hadn't been there for me, I never would have made it. The minute I said, "I'm slipping, I'm falling," your love, God, took hold and held me fast. When I was upset and beside myself, you calmed me down and cheered me up." Ps 94:17-19 (MSG)
While David has his moments where he is stuck in the pit, trapped in that dark place, more often than not he quickly runs to God for rescue. Without hesitation, he lifts his hands high so that God may grab onto them and haul him out of the pit.
Without hesitation, he lifts his hands high so that God may grab onto them.
When I am in so much pain, it is easy for me to forget God's heavenly mercy. It's easy for me to forget that God wants to give me joy. It's easy to forget that it is from God that I draw strength, it is God who saves me, and it is God who covers me in his grace. I need to take a lesson from David who, in the midst of a losing battle, trusts that God will bring him through.
Amen! :D
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