David, the psalmist, cries out to God. He is in such a state! Enemies every where. He so overwhelmed that he cries out to God in his anguish!
1Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
3because of the noise of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
David just wants to run away from it all, but he turns to God for the answer to his difficulties in life.
4My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me.
6And I say, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
7yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness;
I think about this and it reminds me how often I want to handle it myself when life gets difficult. I want to take care of the problem myself in any number of ways. Bossing people around, anger, tears, of "think woman"! and so forth. And I'm sure David had his moments of "I want to do it myself"... and even hear he's tempted to handle it himself by running away. BUT... and I love buts. He turns to God despite what he wants to do. Instead of running away he turns his heart to God, beseeching God to "Give ear to my prayer".
He asks God to handle the problem for him.
9Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
do not depart from its marketplace.
He takes solace in the fact that he knows that God will be with him. That God will indeed help him.
16But I call to God,
and the LORD will save me.
17Evening and morning and at noon
I utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
18He redeems my soul in safety
from the battle that I wage,
for many are arrayed against me.
19God will give ear and humble them,
he who is enthroned from of old,
Selah
because they do not change
and do not fear God.
And the reason that he knows that God will help him? Those arrayed against him "do not change and do not fear God". God takes care of his own. He really does. He hears our prayers and responds to them.
David knows that
22Cast your burden on the LORD,
and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Just think about this for a moment. God created us. God created the world. He is infinite and powerful and has every reason to cast us aside. BUT we can cast our burdens on him. He will sustain us. He will NOT permit the righteous to be moved... hmm...had to think about that for a moment. What does that really mean? Matthew Henry says "He will never suffer the righteous to be moved; to be so shaken by any troubles, as to quit their duty to God, or their comfort in him. He will not suffer them to be utterly cast down." That resource is found here.
Think about that for a moment. The troubles of the righteous in God, will never get so bad that we will be shaken, quit our devotion to God, or lose the comfort that he gives us. Things might get rough, but if we stick with God things will work out okay. Wow...what a comfort and surety that is.
He knows that God will take care of us. He will cast our enemies away. He knows that through it all ... We can Trust God.
23But you, O God, will cast them down
into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.
WE CAN TRUST GOD.
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