Psalm 130 begins,

"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord"

Have you ever felt despair? I am not talking about disappointment. I am talking despair, a grief, a sorrow, a pain that literally made your heart ache. The kind of experience which makes you feel isolated from everything, from God, from others from life itself. It’s as though a wall has gone up around you.

Remember the story of Elijah. He was so filled with fear and despair that he fled into the wilderness. He was scared because he was being stalked by Jezebel. Certain that she would find him and kill him he cryed out to God,

"take away my life."
(1Kings 19:4)

He felt he was the only one left to champion God’s cause, that the entire world was against him.

Unlike Elijah’s situation, we have no idea what is causing the Psalmist his pain and anguish. We are not even sure who the Psalmist is. Scholars suggest either Hezekiah or David.

Hezekiah would have experienced despair and frustration as he sought to return Judah to its obedience to God. Judah’s lack of trust in God, was evident by the altars, idols and pagan temples in the land. It was manifest in the fact that the doors of the temple of Jerusalem were nailed shut. No doubt, His attempts to bring sweeping religious reform were met with great opposition. His trust in God, compared to his country’s lack of trust, surely would have caused him to say,

"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord."

Like Hezekiah, David would have had reason to cry out to God in despair. When he was running from King Saul, who wanted to kill him. After he was confronted by the prophet Nathan, concerning his adultress affair with Bathsheba. After his subsequent decision to have Bathsheba’s husband killed in battle. During the period of hiding from his son Absolom who was attempting to assissinate David. While he mourned the death of his son, Absalom.

The truth of the matter, is that we really don’t know who or what the circumstances were that caused such despair that the Psalmist spoke,

"out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord."

In a way this makes the Psalm timeless. It could be a Psalm writtten by anyone at anytime. It is Psalm that could have been written by the pilgrims during their long voyage to a new world; by a parent who received news that their child was killed in battle; by a person who was just told the tumor was malignant; by a child, hiding in a closet, afraid of being abused again; by an adolescent in tears, because once again he or she was made fun of or picked on by his or her peers; by a family, who lost everything when the stock market crashed; by you or me, when something happened, to make us feel despair, to make us feel isolated and alone, to make us feel that even God didn’t care. We cry out.

"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord

Lord hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive

to the voice of my supplication."

As we cry out, we wonder why. Why me? What have I done to deserve this? What great sin have I committed that God is holding a grudge against me? What would make God turn away from me and be silent?

We wait for an answer but none seems to come. Day after day, patiently we wait. We wonder why hasn’t our situation changed. We know God can change our situation. We remember passages of scripture which tell,

"Ask and you shall receive."
"Ask anything in my name,
and it will be given to you."

Well God where is it? You have told me to ask, and I have, BUT.....

How long must I wait? How long must I continue in my present situation? I have done everything You have asked of me. Now its your turn to be faithful. Its time to intervene and save me.

Our moanings, our wailing, our Psalm of lament is no different, then Psalm 130...

"Out of the depths, I cry out to you, O Lord."

What heightens the intrigue of this Psalm of lament, is that it is followed by Psalm 131. Psalm 131 depicts a 180 degree turn around from Psalm 130. The Psalmist is not boldly and desperately, raising a fist at God crying out in desperation. The psalmist is not filled with a sense that God owes him. Instead, you see a person with a humbled heart, kneeling and bowing before God. You see a Psalmist who compares his state of being to that of an contented infant. An infant who has just been fed and is being craddled in the arms of it's loving mother. Such contentment has provided the Psalmist with a sense of security and well being. It is this peace that has led the Psalmist to say,

"O Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time on and forevermore."

What has changed in the life of the Psalmist. If Psalm 130 & 131 were written by the same person, what has transpired to change his state of mind? Has God finally relented? Has God complied with the wishes of the Psalmist? OR

has the Psalmist resigned himself to the fact that this is the way life is going to be?

Like Psalm 130, Psalm 131 says nothing about where he lived, what his position in life was. All we know is that he is peacefully at rest. What has caused this contentment?

The conclusion I reached as I studied these 2 Psalms is the situation hasn’t changed, but rather the Psalmist has changed.

Earlier this week I was talking to a person, who certainly has had her share of tragedies in her life. She related a story of how she ran into a friend, whom she hadn’t seen in 9 or 10 years. The last time she had seen that person, her personal situation was in complete disarray. The friend asked her, "Has your situation changed since I last saw you." She wasn’t quite sure how to answer that question. Her situation was basically the same, but she was in a state of mind. As she thought, she realized, God didn’t change her situation BUT God had changed her. Her trials, her tragedies, refined her. God used them to shape her, to mold her from victim to victor. She realized the answer to her question, "How long God?" was not only dependent on God, but also on herself, and her willingness to allow God to use these situations for growth.

"Hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore."

God desires to move you and me from despair to hope, from victim to victor. The choice is yours.

AMEN

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