Written ~ 08-28-2023
Psalm 142:1-7
I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy. I pour out my complaints before Him and tell Him all my troubles. When I am overwhelmed, You alone know the way I should turn. Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me. I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me. Then I pray to You, O Lord. I say, “You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life. Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Bring me out of prison so I can thank you. The godly will crowd around me, for You are good to me.”
When I read about David’s life before becoming king, he went through some very harrowing experiences. Many times, during his early years, he ran for his life. After a while I can only imagine how overwhelming and worrisome it was to have someone constantly pursuing him. While you and I may not have anything chasing us, hounding us, making us run for our lives physically. We do have things in our lives that we run from emotionally and spiritually.
When David says in verse 142:2,
“I pour out my complaints before Him and tell Him all my troubles.”
As you read this verse, what comes to mind in your own life, what complaints, what troubles do you cry out to God about? What overwhelms you? Write out a list of those things, as you cry out to the Lord, look at that list and ask the Lord to rescue you from the traps you have set for yourself. I say, “the traps you have set for yourself,” because a lot of times we are our own worse enemy. We can cause our own stress by putting unrealistic goals on ourselves, expect perfection when there is no way that can be achieved. In verse 12:3b it says,
“Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.”
It’s good to identify who or what those “enemies” are in your life. If an enemy is in constant pursuit of your emotions or attacks your spiritual life, it’s a good idea to know where those attacks are coming from, to better understand how to stand against them and fight them. Go back to verse 2, where it says, “I pour out my complaints… I tell Him my troubles…” If we are complaining about the same things over and over again, the same “enemy” is causing trouble time after time. Guess what? It might just be that we aren’t truly releasing those “traps” we have set up for ourselves. Go back and look at the list you wrote out of your troubles, are all of them caused by other people? Or are they things within yourself that you need to finally purge from your life? I think, at times, we look at ourselves and “wish” something was different. When we take a closer look, what are those things that we can let go of and release control of? When we cry out to the Lord and ask for mercy, are there things that we need to acknowledge that are actually coming from our own hearts and minds? Or are we trying to place the blame on other people, outward circumstances as the constant source of our troubles? It’s difficult, I know! We don’t want to look inward because what we need to purge and improve might be too painful to release.
Verse 142:3 says,
“When I am overwhelmed, You alone know the way I should turn. Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.”
At the top of chapter 142, in my Bible the header says, “this Psalm was written during David’s experience in a cave”. David was running from his enemy and had to hide in a cave for protection. While we know David’s enemy was a physical one, he had Saul’s army pursuing him, he was quite literally running and hiding for his life. But for you and me, what is our “cave?” Where do we go to hide from our enemies? What emotional hideaway do we retreat into when things get too tough? With the constant pursuit of an enemy, David used his time in the cave to go to battle with the Lord. He went to the Lord for guidance. That’s why in verse 142:3 he says, “You alone know the way I should turn…” But then look at verse 142:4… it says,
“I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.”
While it’s good to reach out to others during our time of “overwhelming trouble”, sometimes our help is only going to be found in the Lord. There are going to be things that we need to clear up with the Lord first, before we can expect the help of others. Think about it. If we only pour out our complaints and troubles to one another without seeking real guidance from the Lord, those traps we have set out for ourselves could actually get more dangerous! We need to have balance here, let’s not turn verse 142:4 into something negative, like, “See? No one cares about what I am going through, they just walk right past me, they don’t even care enough to stop and help me.” We can’t continue to expect our friends to always be the ones to give us the kind of guidance that only the Lord is qualified to give. But let me say this, the Lord will place people in your life to offer Godly advice. Are you ready to accept His message? When we put so much pressure on ourselves to “figure things out” on our own, or go to friends for help, it will come down to us finally realizing we are searching for refuge in the wrong places. That’s what happens to David. He’s looking outward, he’s concentrating on all of his troublesome circumstances, traps have been laid out, friends are passing him by, but… look at verse 142:5 and see what he says,
“Then I pray to You, O Lord. I say, ‘You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.’”
Oh, that we would all come to that point, when our enemies are pursuing us, we can say, “You are all I really want in MY life.” Have you determined yet, the “enemies” in your life? Are you at the place in your walk with the Lord where you realize that refuge in Him is all you need?
Verse 142:6 says,
Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.”
If our emotions and our spiritual life are being attacked with constant pursuit and we haven’t yet determined who our persecutors are, we run the risk of being overpowered and bowled over. That’s why I encourage each of us to take the time and write out those “enemies” of ours, putting a face to their name, so to speak, will help us identify the ones we can rid ourselves of, hopefully for good! When there seems to be no way out, there is help and it comes from the Lord! In verse 142:7 David sums things up by saying,
“Bring me out of prison so I can thank You. The godly will crowd around me, for You are good to me.”
When the walls that have imprisoned us have been punched through, are giving way, and have finally crumbled around us and we see the Glory of the Lord’s rescue, oh how we will rejoice! It’s going to be hard work; it’s going to be a fight. But the Lord is right there to fight with you, to break down the emotional enemies that have brought your feelings of unworthiness to their very lowest. The Lord is right there to fight for your heart and mind to be spiritually intact. And when He does!!!! You will rejoice and give praise to the Lord for all He does for you! Once you have been freed from those unrelenting “enemies”, the godly people in your life, those who support and love you will come to rejoice with you.
So, what should our prayer be for today? I think it would be wise to go to the Father and ask Him what those “enemies” are in your life. If you have hid those “enemies” deep within a cave of your heart, they need to be released and dealt with, it isn’t a good idea to keep pushing them deeper into the caverns of your emotions. Do you know why? If we do not bring those things to the light, they will be in constant pursuit of destroying who you are, they will set traps for you, cause your walk with the Lord to be troubled. They will cause a constant state of overwhelming circumstances to flood your well-being. Focus your attention on the Lord. Cry out to Him. He will rescue you; He will pull you out of your “prison.” When we come to realize that the Lord is all we want in life, we will begin to see Him as our refuge, then, we will know to seek guidance from Him first… in everything!
~AMEN~