Saturday, March 12, 2016

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Psalm 55

David was not unfamiliar with difficult times.  His first child, born of the woman whose husband he had killed, died not long after birth.  One of his son's raped his daughter.  Another son tried to steal David's throne from him.  And, in Psalm 55 we read of his betrayal by a friend.  This man understood what it was to go through life's storms.

"Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest.  I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm." (6-8)  

No one likes going through storms.  Even David wished to fly away from his problems and be at rest.  Some seek to escape storms by escaping reality through fantasy, TV, drugs, alcohol, etc.  Others stuff those emotions deep down inside of their being and try to control them.  Still some explode, lashing out their feelings on those around them.  But, how did David make it through? Speaking from experience with God, David tells us how to make it through a storm in verse 22.

"Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken."

The Hebrew in the phrase "cast your cares" reads also like "cast your lots."  "Casting lots" was like "throwing dice" - you have these cubes and you throw them to see what number comes up.  You don't know what the results of throwing the dice will be.  However, you cast them away from you and let it be.  David encourages us to do the same thing with the cares (or lots) of this life.  Whatever situation we find ourselves in, no matter how big or small, we cast it on the Lord.  The promise is that He (The Lord) will sustain us and keep us from being shaken.  How He does that, I have no idea and I don't need to know - He just does.  He holds us up, gives us strength, and helps us to stand in the middle of it all.  And, while everything else is shaking around us, God gives us the capacity to be still and rest in Him.  I want that.  Do you?

A prayer for us...

Father, you know the situation that I'm facing right now.  I cast it off of me and onto you right now in Jesus' Name.  Whatever I have to face, I know that I face it with you.  Though I must stand in the midst of this, I know I do not stand alone.  Thank you for sustaining me, for covering me, protecting me, and empowering me to endure through this storm and see the other side.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.