“I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.”
Psalm 77:1-10
Despair…
Despair and anguish, sorrow amidst the pain and the suffering that is afflicted…
It isn’t hard in this world to find despair and anguish, it seems to be everywhere we look. Could we look upon those bought and sold as slaves, given to the sinful lusts and pleasures, could we see into their eyes, we would find our own eyes beholding that misery and hopelessness. Could we hear the voices of the captive prison taken, could ears take in the sounds of their cries, ripped from their lives, from their homes, from those whom they love, we would listen to the sounds of their desolation and despondency. Could we know the distress that is inflicted upon these souls, and upon all the hostages, all the persons unjustly held by the hands of men, we would know the agony and the torment of this world in all of its force, in all of its power, and it would be more than we could bear.
As we opened today we listened to the ancient hymn, Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted, a song that tells of the suffering of the Christ as he took upon himself all the sins of the world. There are none who can truly and fully understand the nature of this sinful world as He did amidst that great and encompassing sacrifice. Yet, the hostages and the prisoners, the captives and the slaves, subjected to the evil and the wickedness of this world, to the transgressions and the iniquity of men, they perhaps most closely mirror, amidst the human condition, the pain brought unto our Savior.
In the words of the David we read of this sinful world, of how it brings trouble and difficulty, burdens that seem almost too great to bear in their hardship and their misery. In it he cries out to the Lord seeking to find Him in it all as his peace is ripped from him and his comfort seems so far from his grasp, as he knows sorrow and anguish, trials and tribulations. He cries out to the Lord, that His face may look upon him with favor and kindness even with all that is around him that he may be delivered…
That he may be delivered…
There are no hidden places to the Lord, no dark places that He cannot illuminate, there are no places even in this world that can escape His justice. In the words of the Psalm it is a truth that is told unto us even now, even in our world today. None who cause such pain and sorrow, such affliction and anguish, such torment and despair in the hearts and souls, against the body and the spirit of their fellow man, can be removed from the judgment of the Lord. He shall not be far off, but rather He shall, as in ancients, as in the time of the great Egyptian slavery of the children of Israel, bring deliverance unto His children, setting sin to flight as He ransoms even the most captive of souls, even the most lost of prisoners.
Trust in the Lord and in the power of His might, uplift your prayers to Him, your cries to Him in all that you say and all that You do, knowing that he will be faithful and true to His children, that He will never fail them or abandon them, forsaking them to the mouth of the lions. He shall walk beside them, He shall stand beside them in all things and through all things, strengthening them and preserving them in His faith and His love, shining His compassion and mercy upon them to deliver them.
And there, in His time, according to His will He will free them, bringing them to the blessed air of liberty, to abide evermore in His freedom.
Therefore, as the Psalmist did, cry out to the Lord, holding Him faithful to His promises and assurances, knowing that He is truly a God of faithful trust, and know that He shall give His grace and mercy unto this world, shining His justice unto a lost world to redeem even the most lost, even the most afflicted, from the anguish and the despair now so afflicted upon them. Trust in Him and know that faith shall be restored by His Holy and Precious name, regardless of the trial that now we find setting our world ablaze, for He shall always be there throughout all troubles, to love and care for His precious children.
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