From Personal Despair to Encouraging Others

      By Fern Horst

"Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city. For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD." (Psalm 31:21-24)

Like the psalmist I have also said in my haste that I've been cut off by the Lord. I have never actually believed that He had, but there's been times I've felt a sense of abandonment and have been tempted to wallow in those feelings.

One of the reasons I love the Psalms is that they give a voice to our unspoken thoughts and feelings - feelings that at times seem too awful to speak aloud. And yet the writer of this psalm not only spoke them, he wrote them! And since they are included in Scripture we can safely assume that his writing them was inspired by God! Now thousands of years later we can read them and find comfort in the fact that someone else has felt the same way that we do at times.

But if we stop at the point of just reading Scripture to find validation for our feelings, we shortchange the full spectrum of what God wants to do through our difficult situations. If we continue to read, we find out that in spite of the writer's feelings, he cried out to the Lord for help. He, too, knew in his heart of hearts that God hadn't really abandoned him and that only God could truly help him.

And God did help him. He showed His kindness to him in a city full of his enemies. Though the psalmist doesn't give us details, he lets us know that God preserved his life. He concludes by encouraging us, his readers, to be of good courage and that God will strengthen our hearts.

The psalmist's experience seems to reflect my own, many times over: I find myself in a difficult and unpleasant situation. I feel despair, wondering why God didn't prevent this from happening, or why He hasn't yet delivered me out of the situation. I cry out to Him, because I know in my heart of hearts that He's with me and He's the only one who can truly help me. He does. Sometimes it's in delivering me from the situation, and other times it's by providing me with grace and strength so that I can continue to walk through it. I am awed by His presence and provision for me. I am compelled to tell others and to encourage them, too, to hope in the Lord and to be of good courage because God will help them.

From difficulty, to despair, to receiving God's help, to encouraging others - God leads us along this path of life. We can take hope not only in the consistency of God's faithfulness in our own lives, but in those like the psalmist's who have gone before us.

"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." (II Corinthians 1:4)

© 2007 Fern Horst

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