Out of the Depths

"Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD; ² Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. ³ If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? ⁴ But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. ⁵  I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope."

Psalm 130:1-5

Often we must be taken to our lowest point before we will look up and cry out to God in earnest.  It may be we have prayed to God many times, but there is desperation and consciousness of our personal need in the depths.  We do not like to see anyone down or low, nor do we delight in being cast down ourselves, but being low may not be low enough.  We should not labour moved by pity to hinder anyone from reaching rock bottom by trying to fix their circumstances, for in the depths is the exact place where God works to deliver and change people for good.

Jonah is a man who cried to God out of the depths.  After God called and commanded him to preach in Nineveh, Jonah refused and boarded a ship headed in the opposite direction.  God prepared a powerful storm which tossed the ship with wind and waves.  While the crew panicked and called all hands on deck, Jonah initially remained asleep in the bottom of the ship.  He was at the bottom of the ship, but he needed to be brought lower.  He did not cry out to God in the storm because he had been sleeping through it!  Jonah instructed the crew to throw him overboard, for he perceived his disobedience was the cause of the storm.  It is possible Jonah expected to die, and this would have been easier than what God prepared for him.

God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he remained alive in the belly of the beast for three days.  After three miserable days beyond reckoning, Jonah found himself at his lowest point.  Only then did he cry out for God's attention and intervention.  Jonah 2:2-7 reads, "And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. ³ For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. ⁴ Then I said, 'I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.' ⁵ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head. ⁶ I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. ⁷ When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple."

It was by reason of his affliction Jonah cried out to the God he at one time fled from.  He had been brought down to hell, down in the cold crushing depths of the sea - and it was there he discovered he was heard by God.  Jonah had finally been brought to the breaking point by extraordinary circumstances, and it released the prayer for deliverance God delighted in and was prepared to answer.  No one likes the dark depths, but even in those seemingly God-forsaken places His light shines brightly for those looking for Him.  Sometimes we are truly incapable of seeing anything, like Jonah in the belly of the great fish.  But we, like Jonah, can cry out to God.  A tiny baby which cannot express himself in speech can cry, and when we direct those cries to God He will hear us based upon the promises of His Word.  Crying for ourselves does nothing, but God is moved when we cry out to Him in faith.

So if you find yourself at the breaking point, do not stop on the threshold of brokenness.  Forfeit your pride and self-pity and all backup options and throw yourself on the mercy of our great God who hears, forgives, and saves.  Then do as Jonah did, obediently doing the very thing God told you to do at the beginning without resistance.  The depths are not fun but they can be most fruitful.  Turn your eyes away from the impossibilities, away from self, and look again to God in His sovereign throne.  Those who trust in Him will never be put to shame.