Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by.
-Psalm 57:1
We all face times of difficulty that seem bewildering and hard to verbally communicate. We would love to feel understood during such seasons, and God can give us that amazing grace, but at first it can be hard to even put into words how we are doing, let alone understand what we are experiencing. Such seasons (and we are all guaranteed to have them) can spark us into a search for refuge and mercy, just like David's.
God’s sincere and earnest followers have never been strangers to such dark and rocky times. David faced them time and time again. His spiritual desperation must have become like a familiar road, where he saw different circumstances but a familiar spiritual crisis.
Why does God allow repeated times of trial, inner turmoil, and deep struggle beyond words? The answer to this cannot be wrapped up in a simple phrase. But we see a few truths about God and how He works that will not only make our trials seem light but can bring us to a place of true, deep healing in our relationship with God and others.
One thing we see in the Psalms is that David learned to conduct his search in the right place. David learned in the battleground of fiery trials to cry out to the Lord. He ran to God, and the man’s trials became Psalms that we now read, which teach us how to process suffering in this life. Think about your own moments of desperation. Have you been so beaten down by life’s circumstances, the pain of various disappointments, or the words and actions of others, that you decided, “I don’t want to talk to anyone, not even to God.” I can assure you, brother and sister, I have been there. But that is precisely where the devil wants to trap us. We become all bound up in inner isolation, and the bonds of love that God has for us cannot be experienced until we take down the wall that we ourselves have built! We must receive the truth of God to escape the trap and to begin tearing down the wall.
We wonder, “Can Jesus really handle what I’m going through?” Well, He took the full weight of divine justice, demonic opposition, and human sin upon His shoulders as He bled and died on the cross. So, today, your momentary, light affliction is not too much for Him. “But can Jesus handle how uncouth and emotional and selfish I currently am in the midst of this?” Well, did Jesus die to save you while you were yet a sinner or when you were all cleaned up? Only by acknowledging the true person, good and bad, and the true depth of our battle can we experience God's forgiveness, healing, and victory. Think about it; He is now your Advocate with the Father, and He was tempted in every way as you are, yet without sin! Jesus knows your sin, He forgives you when you repent, and He is even able to teach you how not to sin and to heal the root issue that is provoking you want to run and go your own way.
Another blessing David could have never expected in his times of calamity is the amazing way that Jesus revealed Himself through David’s pain. Because David cried out to God, because he ran to the right place for refuge and mercy, God used that trial for His glory! Jesus’ face shone through the suffering. David wrote Psalm 22 and many other passages that, unknown to David, were Jesus’ self-revelation of His own cross and agony on our behalf. In this way, David became a special vessel of the Holy Spirit even right in the middle of his unexplainable fiery trials.
All of this solidified and deepened David’s relationship of trust in the Lord. In another crisis later in his life, David had to face some consequences for his actions, but he said, “Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man” (2 Samuel 24:14). David had learned that the Lord was merciful, so he trusted in God’s hands. This is the essential first step, and it is learned repeatedly. But entrusting yourself to the Lord's hands does not mean God cannot use another person to be His vessel of refuge and mercy to you. After you get grounded in the Lord, please consider opening up to a loved one who has the Spirit of God. We can hide in isolation behind the notion that "only the Lord understands me," not knowing that God desires to heal us in relationship, that Christ in my brother or sister or spouse, may be the key to the hope of glory in my life.
Pastor Alex
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