After asking the Lord what to write about, I began to peruse the Psalms. I have always loved Psalms because it seems that David struggled with a lot of the same emotions that I do. For that matter, according to what I have heard all my life, A LOT of people relate to David. So, I found myself in the 55th chapter of Psalm. David is feeling distress, even anguish over being pursued by his enemies. While, more than likely, we don’t have literal armies chasing us, we do have our own enemies that the Devil uses. We have depression, anxiety, loneliness, sadness, hopelessness, sickness and loss. As I am still struggling with my debilitating physical issue, I am aware of feeling sadness and anxiety which makes it easy for me to slip into depression.
But then I read how David felt and say “Hallelujah! Someone else felt this way!” Psalm 55:4-8 says, “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me, horror has overwhelmed me. I said, ‘Oh, that I had the wings of dove! I would fly away and be at rest-I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.’”
Then David falls back on what he knew to be true about the Lord in verses 16-18 of the same chapter, “But I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress and he hears my voice. He ransoms me unharmed from the battle wages against me…”

In the first portion of scripture, David is so worn out from his trials and the subsequent emotions arising from those trials that he wants to “fly away” to somewhere peaceful, away from the storm, somewhere that he can rest. Do you feel that way? I know that I do. I think we all do to one degree or another when the Lord allows a test to continue for some time. It is easy to lose patience and want to be done with it, to fly away from it. We want respite from the test and sometimes try to find that peace ourselves. But where does the Bible direct us to look? We are told by David this basic truth. That salvation comes from the Lord alone. He is where we need to direct our cries for help. We are told that He hears us and He alone will save us in the midst of the battle and pull us through.
Let us remember verse 22 of chapter 55, “Cast your care on the Lord and he will sustain you….” Take those words of absolute promise and cling to them when you are hurting or down. Be assured that when we give our problems and tests to the Lord, He WILL “sustain” us. Other words for sustain are comfort, help, encourage, support and cheer up or hearten.
That is His promise to us. He WILL get us through……just hold on and cry out!
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