Photography by Norma Beaird
Article by Curtis Beaird
“Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.” Psalm 143:4
There is tired, and then there is tired. Physical fatigue is an easy fix — sleep. Not that we rush to give ourselves permission to rest; but, we a least know the answer to “bone-tired", and that is sleep.
Spiritual fatigue is a different matter.
A nap won’t do it. Like it or not, and we don’t, there are those times when body and soul are overwhelmed to the point that we feel that our life has been, in the words of King David, “beat down to the ground”; and, we “dwell in darkness.” And, not just any darkness, but the darkness like “those that have been long dead.”
In that bleak moment when we are sure that it can’t get worse…..then it does. David went from being overwhelmed to complete collapse. He describes it in one phrase, both blunt and sharp as a hammer strike to an anvil “…my spirit faileth”.
Thanks be to God we are not there often, but when we are there, we are there.
The question. What’s the way up and out, “lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit?”
I’ll skip thrashing the world’s solutions. They all fail and we know it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing this, and you wouldn’t be reading it.
Unlike our usual strategy, David did not stare long and hard at his misery, tormenting himself with the “what if’s, the woulda, shoulda, couldas; and, if only I had”….. and then modulating into the “They should’ve” or “Why didn’t they?” ….all of which turns our face down, and uses our energy to dig the ditch deeper, shutting out the possibility of finding the light. Instead, David looked up.
“Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications:
in Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness.” Psalm 143:1
David took control of his mind and its focus, which was no small challenge, since his reason for worry was life threatening. He had enemies that wanted him dead. But, instead of camping out on the dismal possibilities, he tells us,
“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy works;
I muse on the work of Thy hands.” Psalm 143:5
David had something that we may be a little thin in having. He had a personal past, while his people had a long history filled with, to him, the obvious actions of God. From victory in battles to forgiveness of sin,
King David understood all of life in general,
and his personal life in particular, in terms of God.
Things didn’t just happen. His way to the future was never in his hands alone. David knew what he needed. “…my soul thirsts after Thee, as a thirsty land.” (Psalm 143:6) David had few, if any explanations, that were disconnected from God. We have many. How often do we stand before the storms of life, caught in dismay, paralyzed by the question….“Why?”
David, living all of life before God, was free to pray, “Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in Thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee.” (Psalm 143:8)
And in the face of it all, who hasn’t felt His urgency? “Hear me speedily, O Lord….”
Grace and peace
All scriptures are King James Version
Copyright 2022, Curtis and Norma Beaird. All rights reserved.
