December 11, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

The Swamp of Despair

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Holy One, in this Advent season of promise and preparation, may I point the way to the One who takes away the sin of the world.

Read Psalm 40:1-17

[1] For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. [2] He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. [3] He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him. [4] Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. [5] Many, LORD my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare. [6] Sacrifice and offering you did not desire- but my ears you have opened- burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. [7] Then I said, “Here I am, I have come- it is written about me in the scroll. [8] I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” [9] I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, LORD, as you know. [10] I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help. I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly. [11] Do not withhold your mercy from me, LORD; may your love and faithfulness always protect me. [12] For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. [13] Be pleased to save me, LORD; come quickly, LORD, to help me. [14] May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. [15] May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled at their own shame. [16] But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The LORD is great!” [17] But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“Waiting on the Lord is worthwhile because of what he is going to do for us. Waiting is that divine activity of expecting God to work. And he never disappoints us” (Warren Wiersbe).

 

Many psalms attributed to David exude a confidence that God, who acted mightily in the past, would act mightily again in the future. Yet there is also immediacy about today’s very personal psalm: the writer desperately needs God now. God is indeed God of the remote past and of the unseen future, but the writer recalls that God has helped him recently. God has lifted him before from a slimy pit and set his feet on rock (2)—and God can do it again.
I know a young Aboriginal man with great potential for Christian leadership in his depressed, damaged, substance-abusing community. We have often read this psalm and translated it into his language. It mirrors his experience—evil forces always try to draw him back into the slippery pit of alcohol and drugs, to mire him in the black hole of depression. He has learned painfully, as Christian did in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, that he cannot, by his own efforts, pull himself out of the swamp of despair (“Slough of Despond”). Like Christian, other people who understand him can help him out, but mostly he is like this psalmist. Only God himself can deliver him (17).
Like the psalmist, we can genuinely love knowing and doing the will of God (8). We can, like my young Aboriginal friend, be powerful witnesses to the saving power of Jesus (10). For that very reason, the power of evil can draw us back down into darkness, unable to see our way out (12) in a place where others give up on us (15). Only God can penetrate that darkness. We must recognize our need of him (17). Then God can lift us out again. Only God.

Many psalms attributed to David exude a confidence that God, who acted mightily in the past, would act mightily again in the future. Yet there is also immediacy about today’s very personal psalm: the writer desperately needs God now. God is indeed God of the remote past and of the unseen future, but the writer recalls that God has helped him recently. God has lifted him before from a slimy pit and set his feet on rock (2)—and God can do it again.
I know a young Aboriginal man with great potential for Christian leadership in his depressed, damaged, substance-abusing community. We have often read this psalm and translated it into his language. It mirrors his experience—evil forces always try to draw him back into the slippery pit of alcohol and drugs, to mire him in the black hole of depression. He has learned painfully, as Christian did in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, that he cannot, by his own efforts, pull himself out of the swamp of despair (“Slough of Despond”). Like Christian, other people who understand him can help him out, but mostly he is like this psalmist. Only God himself can deliver him (17).
Like the psalmist, we can genuinely love knowing and doing the will of God (8). We can, like my young Aboriginal friend, be powerful witnesses to the saving power of Jesus (10). For that very reason, the power of evil can draw us back down into darkness, unable to see our way out (12) in a place where others give up on us (15). Only God can penetrate that darkness. We must recognize our need of him (17). Then God can lift us out again. Only God.

 

Apply

What part of David’s faith can you relate to from your own experience? How so? Where do you need to exercise such faith now?

Closing prayer

Mighty God, You are present in the light and the dark. When I fall into the blackness of depression, come to me in my darkness. Let me see You.

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