Wednesday, February 19, 2014

from regions dark and deep

You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah 

Psalm 88:6-7


This song is classified as "an individual lament". That means that it details the soul troubles expressed by one person. It is a dark display of depression and difficulty. But when reading it, we must not focus solely on the painful descriptions that constitute the psalm's passionate prayer to God. After all, it is a cry to the "God of my salvation" (Psalm 88:1). As such there is a real faith, even as the fear and frustration pour out in this lament.


There are times when our souls struggle with God. Events are not always joyful. Sometimes it seems to us as if God is out to get us. Tragedy strikes us. We sin or are sinned against and our lives suddenly hurt. Or maybe we will suffer for doing the right thing. "In seasons of distress and grief..." we must make a practice of prayer... even if that prayer, like this psalm, is just spewing out the painful and hurting observations to God.


God can handle our feelings. He made us this way. He can understand our heartaches and troubles like nobody else. He knows when we are overwhelmed because circumstances do not surprise Him in the slightest. He brought them to us or in love allowed them as consequences so that our hearts would desire Him. There is no place so dark that His promises and presence cannot shine on us.


When overwhelmed, we should pray. When hurting beyond words we should share the pain with God. When we feel abandoned by God, we are not. He is as close as our prayer and He knows our hurting hearts.