PSALM 109:22-27 – For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me. I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat. I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they wag their heads. Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love! Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it!

THEME OF THE DAY. THE PLACE OF SAFETY, REST, AND STRENGTH. At some point in our walks with the Lord, today’s scripture will be our experience. And likely repeatedly for this is the path of the Christian pilgrim living in a foreign land, foreign enemy land, far from home, with enemies constantly seek the Christian’s demise. What David is proclaiming, we may also proclaim. It is the reality of living in a fallen world doing battle with a real devil, a difficult world, and a weak flesh. Notice what David is saying of himself. He is exhausted, weak, destitute of any self-help resources, feels frail and ready to break, has been ridiculed, mocked, made fun of, accused, and is what the Lord Jesus describes of His people – “bruised reeds ready to snap” and “smoldering wicks ready to be blown out” (Matthew 12:19-21). Yet, notice how David responds and where he goes for help, but before we look at where David goes to be strengthened, let’s notice two things he doesn’t do.

First, David does not hold a pity party of one. Yes, he “complains” but his complaints are really confessions in prayer to God. He isn’t crying out “woe is me” to an audience or looking to draw attention to himself and his misery. He is pouring himself and his pain out to his God. The Puritan pastor John Flavel said, “Complain to God you may, but to complain of God, you may not.” Flavel’s point is that Christians may bear their souls to God, like Job in his suffering, but they cannot complain over circumstances causing them pain. This is to “shake a fist” at God in rebellion against His rightful sovereignty in their lives. David isn’t complaining. He is sharing his heart with his God.

Another thing David doesn’t do is try to change his circumstances or solve his misery on his own. He was keenly aware of his inadequacies. And we must get there too. When tough times come, we have a tendency, due to sinful desires for control and comfort, to try and change whatever situation or person that is causing us to suffer. It is during these trying times we must learn submission, not ramp up our efforts to fix what is causing us to suffer.

But now we shift to what David did in his suffering. He throws himself at the mercy of God in two ways; reliance upon His steadfast love and His covenant commitment to David – Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love! Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it! Friends, the very things that are trying us and making life hard, painful, and perhaps seemingly unbearable, didn’t just happen. There is no luck or fate in life, just the workings out of a sovereign God who works all things according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11). And that is where David went and so must we. God is using all these painful things to develop our trust in Him and our likeness to the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus. That means everything, even the painful things, even painful people, God is using to accomplish those two things. And we may confidently rest in His work because they are all done in love; His steadfast love which will do tremendous work in our hearts and minds as we learn not to complain, but submit to His always good and loving ways.

PRAYER: “Father, please help me, protect me, and strengthen me against my foes for Your namesake.”

QUOTE: “When Satan accuses and roars at us, hide in God’s steadfast love and covenant commitment to us”