A whole Summer of Psalms has come and almost gone!? Man, time sure has flown by!! We have very much enjoyed getting to dig deep into the scriptures with you all, learning what God has to tell us through the Book of Psalms. I believe one of my favorite things while going through this book is seeing how applicable it still is today. Even though it is in the Old Testament, there are so many things that I feel I can effectively apply to my life. This week, the girls and I are gearing up for our new series and we are very excited about it! We will give more details later in the week, but we do ask that you be in prayer with us as we continue to let God guide our hearts and thoughts in this next series! We are overjoyed with the amount of love and support that we get with each post, and we cannot thank each and every one of you enough!
I spoke a little earlier on how even though the Psalms is OT, it is still very applicable to my life. Well, today we are going to dive into Psalm 142 and this Psalm is especially relevant. Have you ever had something so traumatic hit you, it left you feeling so alone or feeling less than? Well, that is David in this Psalm. This whole Psalm David is in a cave, hiding from Saul because God announced David as the next king. Let’s see what we can learn from David in this Psalm!
Alone and in a cave, desperate for a friend to lean on, completely overwhelmed, David cries out to God, His portion. In the first verse, we see that David audibly cries out to the Lord and the Lord only. We know that David knows the pagan gods, but he also knows that he cannot rely on them. He can only rely on the one true God, Yahweh, the God of Israel. So, we have David, in his war room, a cold, dark, (probably smelly) and wet cave, pouring his heart out to Yahweh. I love how in verse two we literally see that David “Pours out his complaints” to God in prayer. This is such a powerful, God knows what is on our hearts, even the dark and heavy stuff that we don’t want people to see. Just as verse three says, “when my spirit is overwhelmed, you knew my path”, God has a plan and direction for our lives. We may have points where we feel discouraged and overwhelmed, but we know that our encouragement always comes from Christ!
Have you ever walked into a room full of people (let’s say the gym) and automatically told yourself that one person in that room didn’t like you because of a glance they gave? Have you ever found out that you weren’t invited to dinner with your close friends via Instagram or Facebook? Have you ever felt so alone that you felt like no one would care if you were alive or dead? Well, this was David, he felt alone. David felt that every refuge around him had failed, except the refuge that the Lord provides.
Verse five to the end of the chapter is so beautiful and contains fantastic reminders for us today. David could say with confidence that God will remain his one true refuge. He knew that he could not rely on his worldly possessions alone to make him feel comfortable or to feel safe. He needed God, the one true refuge of our lives, our portion forever and ever. David once again begins to cry out to God for help. David didn’t try to sugar coat his worries, he didn’t try to ignore them, he leaned on God because that is who he needed above all. David understood that in his weaknesses God would provide strength. That is such great confidence to come out of prayer with! Knowing that after you just poured out your heart to God, that he will provide protection and guidance for you. Wow, this psalm is so beautiful and powerful! We see David grow so much in these short seven verses. David’s cry came out of utter weakness but after he was done pouring his heart out to God, he left with a great confidence knowing that he has God on his side! I know that in my life personally over the last 6 months, I felt like my prayer life has been the opposite of David in this passage. I am so quick to hide the fact that I feel alone or that I am in trouble but equally as quick to give God a laundry list of wants.
Thank you all for allowing me to go through this Psalm with you all! I have very much enjoyed this series and cannot wait to see where we go next!! I love you all and am very thankful for each and every one of you!! Have a great week!! -Courtney F.
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