O LORD, hear my prayer

The last few weeks I struggle with negative thoughts and bad memories. I translated a blogpost about Jehoshaphat for my blog and several times this week I thought: yes, this is how I experience it.

We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You! (2 Chronicles 20:12) 

COMPLEX

Some situations are so complex. And there is someone who knows our weak spot. He attacks us when we are vulnerable. He suggests doubt, he stirs up evil thoughts, he darkens our minds, and in every way  he is seeking to loosen our hold on God. 

👉 Do you recognize that? Can you tell me how you have learned to handle it? 

This morning I read Today's Verse and that brought me back to the Bible. I read Psalm 143 and - how amazing -  it became my own personal prayer to God. So here is my decision: I take time to study Psalm 143. I ponder the work of His hands.

O LORD, hear my prayer. In Your faithfulness, give ear to my plea; in Your righteousness, answer me ... for the enemy has persecuted my soul; he has smitten my life down to the ground; he has made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead. Psalm 143:1-3

DAVID'S CRY

David feels himself broken off from all created beings. On this earth every kind of refuge is for him lost (the expression is like Job 11:20). There is no one there who should ask after or care for his soul, and should right earnestly exert himself for its deliverance. Thus, then, despairing of all visible things, he cries to the Invisible One. He is his "refuge" (Psalm 91:9) and his "portion" (Psalm 16:5; Psalm 73:26), the share in a possession that satisfies him. To be allowed to call Him his God - this it is which suffices him and outweighs everything. For JHWH is the Living One, and he who possesses Him as his own finds himself thereby "in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13; Psalm 52:7). He cannot die, he cannot perish. (Source: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary)

Also sharing this blog: Psalm 143 - dealing with depression. Read Krisan's story! She writes: This Psalm is about that deep dark black pit of knowing I failed — again — and finding hope. Read Krisan's story!

👉 Are you finding God in the Psalms?