ALWAYS REMEMBER, GOD SAVES

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Lord, You are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to You. May my prayer come before You; turn Your ear to my cry.

I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength. I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, who are cut off from Your care.

You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me; You have overwhelmed me with all Your waves. You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief.

I call to You, Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to You. Do You show Your wonders to the dead? Do their spirits rise up and praise You? Is Your love declared in the grave, Your faithfulness in Destruction? Are Your wonders known in the place of darkness, or Your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

But I cry to You for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before You. Why, Lord, do You reject me and hide Your face from me?

 From my youth I have suffered and been close to death; I have borne Your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me. You have taken from me friend and neighbor — darkness is my closest friend.

Psalm 88

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been in the depths of despair - depressed, forlorn, and nearly inconsolable? I know I have been. There were times back in that day when I wondered if the sun would ever shine again through the darkness, if joy would ever return and replace the painful aching within my heart.

Yes, those were days I pray I will never see again but now that I am in ministry, I can see how that experience equipped me to help people who are going through or who have gone through the same thing. And I definitely can relate to the words of the psalmist in the 88th Psalm. Through his words, we get a glimpse into how his hardship was negatively impacting his life. Look at all the difficulties he shares in just a mere 18 verses:

I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength. I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, who are cut off from Your care.

You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me; You have overwhelmed me with all Your waves. You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief.

I call to You, Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to You. I cry to You for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before You. Why, Lord, do You reject me and hide Your face from me?

Do You show Your wonders to the dead? Do their spirits rise up and praise You? Is Your love declared in the grave, Your faithfulness in Destruction? Are Your wonders known in the place of darkness, or Your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

 From my youth I have suffered and been close to death; I have borne Your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me. You have taken from me friend and neighbor — darkness is my closest friend.

Can you feel the hurt and anguish and feelings of rejection in these words? The distress is so deep that the psalmist is even questioning whether God is hearing his cries, whether He was concerned at all with his circumstances. He even felt that all he was going through was being imposed by God, a punishment through which there would be no end until death came. Truly, the psalmist was depressed and weary from his struggles.

Maybe you’re reading this today and thinking that your present circumstances have you feeling a lot like the writer of this psalm. You’re fatigued from trying to make it through your day-to-day struggles and wonder if God will ever let it end. Maybe you, like the psalmist, are feeling like God has completely turned away from you and is disinterested in helping you out.

If so, if you’re relating a lot to the psalmist, let me offer you a word of hope. Actually, it’s not me offering it at all but rather the very disheartened psalmist you’re relating to. For it’s easy to get bogged down in the body and ending of this psalm and completely forget about the opening. Maybe you forgot what was written. Here it is:

Lord, You are the God who saves me.

Eight simple words, words that bring us nothing short of hope.

You see, the psalmist didn’t have a whole lot to hold onto but what he did have was the confidence and trust that God would save him. Even though he was suffering from doubts, nonetheless, the psalmist never forgot the fact that God saves. He saved then, He saves today, and He will save well into the future.

God saves. As Christians, we know this through our belief and trust in Jesus Christ. Through Him, God brought us salvation, offering His only Son as an atoning sacrifice on Calvary’s cross to redeem us from our sins that would have condemned us otherwise. Through the shed blood of Jesus, all who place their faith and hope in Him are instantly justified or rather made just-like-I-had never sinned. Jesus’ victory over death at His resurrection brought the same victory to whoever receives Him as Savior and gains their own part of the salvation inheritance of eternal life. And it is that victory all Christian have that brings us the hope to make it through any and all of life’s challenges. Nothing can defeat us. No problem in life is greater than the God who will rescue us from the adversity according to His will. And nothing can take away the hope and love we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Friends, God never promised us life would be easy. He never promised us that we wouldn’t face trials and tribulations. But He did promise us that He would save us if we only trust in His Son Jesus, the Way and the Truth and the Life – the only way to God the Father.

Next time, you’re feeling bad like the psalmist, always remember as he did what’s most important.

God saves,

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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