The world is filled with contrasts: light and dark, hot and cold, health and sickness, fruitfulness and barrenness. Almost every human experience or condition has an opposite. We have experienced highs and lows, and when we are in the midst of one extreme the other is almost completely forgotten. We have felt as free as a child leaving school for a long break, and we have felt like were weighed down with burdens far greater than anyone could bear. I have found a relationship with God and the guidance of God's Word are critical to maintain a godly and good perspective. And we need reminders - a lot of them.
David was a man whose spirit rose in joyful worship of God, yet he also experienced low moods and depression. In his writings we see him saying to himself at times almost to snap himself out of a funk, "What am I thinking? Trust in God and hope in Him!" Today my day began reading of such a place in Psalm 42:6-8: "O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. 7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."
David confessed before God his soul was cast down like a sheep that had fallen and could not stand up without help. He was intentional in remembering the LORD who had called him and brought him through many troubles. It didn't matter if he was in a deep valley or on a mountaintop, for God is faithful. In verse 8 David said poetically he was in the depths, and wave after wave knocked him over again and again. When he was at his lowest point and imagined it impossible to go deeper, further down he went. God created the oceans which cover the earth to be very deep - deeper than any human being can go alone. Submersible vessels have been designed to transport people safely through the crushing depths, but without them men could not survive.
Have you ever considered when God created the world He could have made the oceans shallow? But according to His design He made them very deep, dark, and virtually unfathomable. Our God who created the heavens to be high also created the depths, and He remains a good God wherever we find ourselves. Sometimes it takes a season in the depths (as Jonah literally experienced) for us to arrive with the confidence in God David experienced in verse 8: "Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." Even in the depths God remained good and was David's life. God's love was evident to David day and night, and therefore David made his prayer unto His God.
What confidence we can have as God's children even in the depths, when it seems wave after wave is pulling us under, when we wonder in desperation, "Do you see what is going on, God? Have you forgotten all about me? Don't you know how much I am suffering? Can't you do something?" Even in the depths He is there, and in remembering our God and exalting His name there is great comfort found. The one who cries out to God from the depths demonstrates faith the man at ease may only imagine he has. How good it is for us in the heights and from the depths to praise our Saviour Jesus Christ and thank Him for the lovingkindness He has shown us.
David was a man whose spirit rose in joyful worship of God, yet he also experienced low moods and depression. In his writings we see him saying to himself at times almost to snap himself out of a funk, "What am I thinking? Trust in God and hope in Him!" Today my day began reading of such a place in Psalm 42:6-8: "O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. 7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."
David confessed before God his soul was cast down like a sheep that had fallen and could not stand up without help. He was intentional in remembering the LORD who had called him and brought him through many troubles. It didn't matter if he was in a deep valley or on a mountaintop, for God is faithful. In verse 8 David said poetically he was in the depths, and wave after wave knocked him over again and again. When he was at his lowest point and imagined it impossible to go deeper, further down he went. God created the oceans which cover the earth to be very deep - deeper than any human being can go alone. Submersible vessels have been designed to transport people safely through the crushing depths, but without them men could not survive.
Have you ever considered when God created the world He could have made the oceans shallow? But according to His design He made them very deep, dark, and virtually unfathomable. Our God who created the heavens to be high also created the depths, and He remains a good God wherever we find ourselves. Sometimes it takes a season in the depths (as Jonah literally experienced) for us to arrive with the confidence in God David experienced in verse 8: "Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." Even in the depths God remained good and was David's life. God's love was evident to David day and night, and therefore David made his prayer unto His God.
What confidence we can have as God's children even in the depths, when it seems wave after wave is pulling us under, when we wonder in desperation, "Do you see what is going on, God? Have you forgotten all about me? Don't you know how much I am suffering? Can't you do something?" Even in the depths He is there, and in remembering our God and exalting His name there is great comfort found. The one who cries out to God from the depths demonstrates faith the man at ease may only imagine he has. How good it is for us in the heights and from the depths to praise our Saviour Jesus Christ and thank Him for the lovingkindness He has shown us.
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