By Amber Balista
Psalm 40 1-3& 11-17 This is the Psalm for my devotional today. Its bit longer but worth taking some time with, so I am encouraging you to do that. Read it though twice, and highlight some things that stand out for you. Read it outload even to a loved one or pet.
1 I
waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit,[a]
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
11 Do not, O Lord, withhold
your mercy from me;
let your steadfast love and your faithfulness
keep me safe forever.
12 For evils have encompassed me
without number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
until I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to
deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me.
14 Let all those be put to shame and confusion
who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
who desire my hurt.
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God.
I find this psalm to be a prayer for this time in the world when I cannot seem to know what to say. Maybe there are other times where it is fitting. Moments in the world or in our own lives. A few years ago, my husband and I moved out of Ohio. My martial artist husband wanted to train and open a school in Denver. That goal was disrupted with a back injury which decisively returned us to Ohio. Details aside, when we first moved everything was disorienting. We lived in a small room and shared a kitchen with 3 other housemates who were also there to train martial arts. I continued to work for Walgreens, but it was a new setting and I had very few hours those first couple months. Being there felt like I was walking around blind, unsure of what to do next for lack of seeing the path. I had more time than I once had and no family or friend near me. I was anxious about the living situation, the pressure on my husband and the thought that we had made the wrong decision to move there in the first place. I was grieving the life I once had and wondering what good God could possibly do with this situation that I found myself in. As a new pattern of life began to emerge I realized that God had never left, that God’s good plan would not be spoiled. As the psalmist says, “He inclined his ear to me and heard my cry.” God was and is present in the desolate pit and miry bog. God was there making my steps secure. Some of the pain of that adventure still stays with me and my husband, but I am confident to say that God hears me when I cry, and God hears you.
In my anxiety then, and in my unknowing now it is the steadfast love and faithfulness of God that I can trust. That we all can trust. God came all the way down into the muck of human life. Jesus Christ endured the very worst of humanities capacity for betrayal, fear and evil. There is no pain we can know that God doesn’t know. When we call for God’s help- God is not deft to our cry. God knows we are poor and needy. God knows our shame, our fear, our anxiety and all the evil that surround us. He is giving us a new song- a song of praise to our God, the Lord in who we put our trust.
In our trust let us call out O Lord, make haste to help us.
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