It is easy to find yourself feeling down and out.
The other day I had the opportunity to have a meal with two of my daughters and asked where they wanted to go.
The typical "this" or "that" was discussed before we settled on a place.
Apparently, it was not where one of them wanted to go which I became privy to when a hungry girl had a face filled with tears.
She was not angry or pouting, she was just feeling overwhelmed and sad about a lunch decision.
It struck me how easy it is for her, me, or anyone to find themselves feeling low.
This week, I read Psalm 57 which we assume David wrote while hiding from king Saul. His daily life is filled with legitimate concerns relationally and circumstantially. His issue is not being bummed about a lunch decision but wondering if he will have lunch that day. His issue is not spending time with those who loved him but carefully avoiding those who did not.
He speaks of his life as calamitous, having terror as if he were being pursued by lions, having people pine for his downfall, even his death.
While he cries out to God and pleads for His merciful intervention, he gives us an atypical example of what we can and should do when facing undesired circumstances and hardships.
In his grief and anguish, he asks for God to be exalted above the heavens. It is somewhat of an ironic request as God is exalted...period. David knew that but was expressing his longing for God, even amid this injustice, to be elevated in his mind and life as a follower.
He was asking for the name and nature of God to be exalted among those who were witnessing this awful time in his life. He wanted God's glory to be on full display in what He (outside of space and time) was allowing to take place upon the earth (fixed in space and measured in time).
David was going to bring that about by fixing his attention to God's goodness and declaring that to others.
Ultimately, David would utilize singing, instruments, and other followers to declare God's goodness (particularly through this dark, desperate series of life events).
What a beautiful, but difficult example to follow. At the risk of sounding condescending or woefully ignorant, let us consider a few helpful principles to help us lift Him high when we are feeling low.
A good God allows bad times- we are creatures of comfort and desire life to meet our expectations. Followers of God have relinquished such a simple (even selfish) outlook in favor of His rule to accomplish His glory. This means that our frail minds will interrupt different occasions, moments, and stints in our life as "bad"; some may quantifiably be bad, while others are just not as enjoyable. Remember that your God is always good, and He is always right.
Pour out your heart to a good God who cares- David did not hold back from speaking plainly to God about what he felt was taking place in his life under the all-seeing eyes of God. He was transparent, visceral, and raw. His anguish found description through times of prayer. Even though it did not readily change his situation, he was changed by it. Friends, go to God even when you do not have "the feels"; He cares, knows, hears, and is at work.
We need our focus reframed- David did not dismiss the reality he was experiencing, and he could not eliminate it; he elected to reprioritize what mattered most while sitting in the cave (possibly waiting to die at the hand of Saul). God's magnificence is what David yearned to see be seen. Do I?
Testify to others when has passed- David's struggle and growth throughout that time became the platform by which he exalted God through song and instrument both personally and corporately. The time he experienced was not wasteful; later it found completion in praise. David was merely demonstrating what Paul spoke about to the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 1 where he outlined the resources we have during a trial and the ultimate reason behind our trials.
The day came when David was able to leave the cave. Down the road, he was even able to sing of that day while sitting as the king of Israel. He had many such times of struggle and "being low" but none that were accidental in God's economy.
Let us embrace this reality- the "lows" of life regularly teach us more about the splendor of our God and help forge in us the ability to lift Him high.
Sincerely,
Pastor Paul Norton