Psalm 77:1-20
‘I cried out to the Lord for help; I cried out to God to help me.’ (NIV)
I love how expressive the Book of Psalms is. I always find balm when my heart is troubled in the chapters of this Book. From the Psalms, I see a lovely pattern.
Its okay to acknowledge your pain, your anguish and your despair. You see the writers of this book doing that several times. I am wary of faith that requires me to deny my current realities. Yet again, they also turn their pain and grief over to God. Thats the beautiful part, see how this chapter in particular evolves.
First there’s an acknowledgement of his distress, and then he turns his eyes to God; acknowledging His greatness and power, His ability to solve all problems. He also meditates on all the previous deeds of the Lord, remembers that indeed the Lord is faithful, and begins to praise Him.
He ends up encouraged and filled with faith. . could this have been David’s ‘formula’ for ‘encouraging himself in the Lord’? sure looks like a great one to me
One last thought. A lovely Christian lady said this to us recently. When things are going terrible, you know how loudly we complain to and against God? Right? When God sorts it all out for us, it would be nice to thank Him as loudly too, if not louder. #food for thought.
Shalom
