Help, God - the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy. If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped. I pray to God - my life a prayer - and wait for what he'll say and do. My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning. O Israel, wait and watch for God - with God's arrival comes love, with God's arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it - he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin. (Psalm 130 The Message)
Good day dear Friend! May God's many blessings come flowing through His word for you today; and may we be blessed to overflowing so that we may be a blessing to someone in need as well.
David wrote another psalm out of his pain. At this point of his life, he had lost two sons. One in childbirth; the child of the illicit affair with Bathsheba and Absalom, who yesterday we saw murdered in battle by ten of Joab's armor-bearers. To lose any loved one is to have the bottom of one's life fall out from under us. Some cope better than others. In recent days, I have heard of daughters weeping uncontrollably for the loss of their mothers and rightly so, for a mother's love is deep for her children, and the children who are aware and appreciative of that love respond in the same way, and to one day lose that mother is a tragic day. Hear David's lament as he says, "Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy." The pain and pressure of battle, with the many whom David had lost in such, and then the loss of a son, even a rebellious one weighed heavily on his spirit and mind. David can think to ask for mercy for the thoughts he must have been thinking; always, had I done things differently, the outcome might have been different... - we're all guilty of those. And David takes it farther; "If You, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness if Your habit, and that's why You're worshipped." This modern paraphrase version captures truth in an interesting way; God's habit is forgiveness. Even in our grief, we must cry out for forgiveness, sometimes asking God to forgive the deep sense of loss we have even when our hearts know that our deceased loved ones are in God's presence. David turned his life into prayer, and most of his prayers written and published as the Book of Psalms; waiting, ever waiting for God's response. "Waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning" David's routine during these tough times. And he turns his attention back to the nation and reminds them to wait for the Lord, for the Lord's return would be a blessing of redemption.
Dear one, whatever pain you are feeling, whatever loss, it's okay to cry. It's okay to feel sadness and to grieve; indeed it is part of healing; yet never lose sight of the big picture of God being the loving One in control, who holds the keys of life, eternal life even for us. If this time has caused you to sin in thought, word, or deed against that plan, now is the time to ask for forgiveness. It will come.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I pray for this dear reader and for all who mourn and weep during this day. May Your comfort, joy, and peace be with them and those who surround them. We rejoice in the promises You have made to us all. Be glorified in us, loving Father; we pray in Your Son Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! May your life be a blessing to many today!
Eradio Valverde
