Resting Assured

      By Fern Horst

"I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping." (Psalm 6:6-8)

I love the Psalms. They express so much of my own emotions and experiences with beautiful language, whether it be those of despair and heartache, or those of elation and praise.

I'd venture to say that most of us can identify with the Psalmist when he painted the word picture of making his bed to swim with his tears. It may not always be literal tears that we shed, but if we are human it is likely that we have spent nights wide awake, our hearts weeping over something that is a heartache to us.

Sometimes God eventually removes that heartache from us, and sometimes He doesn't. But if we allow Him to, He always has grace for us. A friend of mine who recently lost her husband to cancer writes often in her blog of the mercy drops that she experiences in the midst of her grief-filled days and nights. No matter our circumstances or our heart's cry, we can find God's mercy drops landing on us. They may come in the form of another's kindness, a need provided for, a precious insight from Scripture, or one of the many other ways God sends His mercy and grace to us.

Though the Psalmist drenched his bed with tears, he knew that his weeping was not going unnoticed by God. He doesn't say whether he felt God's presence with him, but he knew He was there, hearing every heart cry and every sob.

We also can have that confidence. We may not always feel or sense His presence, but having the knowledge that He is with us during our brokenheartedness can be a great comfort. When we look for and begin to recognize His mercy drops in the midst of our heartaches, His presence becomes more and more real to us and it becomes very precious.

"But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him." (Psalm 4:3)

© 2007 Fern Horst

NOTE: For the past eight years we have been basing these devotionals on the readings from the Bible Reading Schedule available on our website. For the next number of devotionals, however, we will be doing a series of devotionals from the Psalms.

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