Well, thanks again for joining us for another podcast of Struggling Well. We welcome you back this week and delighted to be able to share some thoughts with you and I'm going to ask my lovely wife to share what's on her heart.
If you could only see me now. that's the beauty of radio.
Yes,
I have a face for radio, don't I? Or podcast. Isn't that the old joke?
Okay. Anyway, you all have heard me say this a million times and I love the word of God and in particular I have loved the Psalms. God has used the Psalms for many years to speak truth to me, to tell me who he is, what he thinks of me, but mostly who he is. And I've read it through a few times. I'm on my second or third read through of the Psalms, maybe second read through of the
But and I would just say this, not just that it's important to you, it's been a lifeline.
Lifeline definitely liine.
and David, I'm also I've also started watching this thing on TV and I don't know I don't think it's extremely accurate, but it's called the life of David and I think it's on Netflix and it's kind of a you know how they have the chosen which is very well done but also they tell in the beginning this is not exact and the same thing with this with the life of David and I am just fascinated by his life and fascinated that through all that he did good and bad that God still called him a man after his own heart. But recently I've been in Psalm 27 and 28. And the scenario is David is being pursued by enemies. They're everywhere and he is alone a lot. but they're his enemies were of many different sorts from people that wanted to kill him that were told to kill him to Saul who wanted to kill him to Jonathan who is a beloved brother in his belief of God and cared for each other. But in Psalm 27, As I've been reading through the Psalms, I've discovered that if I just read it through and just pick out the parts that feel good, that I'm going to miss what is much deeper. And so in Psalm 27, I'm going to read a little bit to you, not all of it. And I think I'm going to read from the King James version or the New King James Version. So he starts out by saying, "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? And then he goes on and in verse four and says, "One thing I've desired of the Lord that I that will I that I will seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." Then he goes further on and talks about that God is his sanctuary. God hides him and that he will sing praises to him, that God sheds mercy on him and teaches him and leads him. And so as I'm looking at the psalm, it hits me that what David does is he establishes who God is. And in the establishing of who God is, he's also praying and also crying out to God. But he never loses sight of who God is. And then later, you know, throughout this psalm in particular, we see that David is waiting. You read in it, you know, that he's afraid, that he's been backed into a corner. he desires to be with God and for God not to be silent. That he's in need of the sanctuary of being with God. that he's crying out to him and he but he's calling on God based on the character of God, not based on just this is what I want, this is what I need, but God, this is who you are. So, I'm going to call on you based on that. And I love then in Psalm 28 and this I'm going to read from the NLT, David starts out by saying, "I pray to you, oh Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent. I might as well give up and die. That's powerful. That's David saying there is nothing but you. And he's in a bad place. David was in a lot of hard places from a young man all the way through. Some bad decisions, but also God allowed his story to be filled with conflict and trouble. And in that story, God showed himself. And David was aware of who he was. Now, bring all that because Jimmy and I have been talking a lot about from the world news on a large scale to local situations that are happening to what we see in our neighborhood. Somebody broke into a tried to break into a car here in our neighborhood, our little quiet neighborhood. There's a lot going on. Then, let's bring it even further down. Those of you that listen, I am I'm more than positive that there is somebody in your life that's going through a difficult struggle. It might be you. Maybe you have a child who is health-wise is not doing well or maybe they're having emotional difficulty or you have friends and neighbors that are going through financial difficulty and through dark times and you are feeling the weight of that and the anxiety of that and a couple of things hit me. Number one, you've got to remember We have got to remember who God is. And as we're praying, we've got to call upon God based on his character. He will never veer from who his character what his character is. And then I think like David is he was scared, he was lonely, he was hurting, he was probably hungry and tired and feeling wretched and carrying a heavy burden. But he says, "I will sing praises to you. you for who you are. So, let me bring it down even further. down to my own level, down to the level where my friends are, my family is. You have people in your family that you are very, very concerned about. What is it that God is asking you to bear? And what is he asking you to, how do I put this? It's not that you're not to bear it, but what is the yoke he's placed on you? Jimmy, you and I have talked about this. I feel like I'm getting off track here. So, remind me of what where my mind was going.
It's easy to get overwhelmed, I think. And I don't know that our hearts were made to bear all the hardness that we see and that we hear about in our world around us. It just gets overwhelming to where it's like, I can't take anymore. I don't know. I don't have the capacity to handle all these things. And as you were pointing us back to the 27th and 28th Psalm, particularly Psalm 27 there's a confidence that David has in the midst of his struggles, but it's not a confidence that comes from his ability to handle them on his own. It's his ability in who God is as you were saying and as he begins that the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? And it's that sense of if God is the one who I look to, why should I have to be afraid? later on in the at towards the end of the psalm, he says, I believe that I will look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So, it's that sense of how do you handle the what feels to be like your own personal 24/7 news cycle of things that you hear. If I get one more phone call, if we get one more text, if we get one more email that says something's gone wrong in somebody's life, you get to a place where you just can't on your own handle all those things. And I think what David tells us what the Psalms tell us in Psalm 27:28 and elsewhere too is we're not meant to handle those things.
We've got to look to the Lord to be the one who we find our strength in and believe that he is the one who's in charge of those situations, not us.
You know what I find myself doing is when a situation comes up, I immediately start thinking how I can help,
right? And
and that's a great thing. I immediately think there's got to be a solution to this and When I read the Psalms, there's not a lot of solutions out there. There are none, basically. But what David says is the last verse of Psalm 27 is he says, "I am confident." And you just read it in the ESV. I'm confident I will see the Lord's goodness. And then in verse 14, it says, "Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous." Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. How does that translate into my worry and concern over the people that I love? the people that I'm watching suffer. you know, when somebody asks you to pray, what are they asking for? Are they asking you to pray? Are they asking you to take on their worry? You know, we people all the time I get, pray for so and so. This is going on. Well, that gets a little confusing to me sometimes. Are they I'm not sure if they're asking me to come help figure out a solution or if it's really intercede for me
before the throne.
Yeah. And I think that as I am called as we are called to pray for people I can promise somebody that I'll pray right then. Will it stay with me? I don't know. Sometimes yes. Sometimes it becomes a continual thing. Other times it comes as that person comes to my mind. I want to pray for them. But what I want to pray is that they allow God to do what he needs to do in out of life
and trust him for that process.
Trust him for the process
which is really really hard as a I think we talked last week about parents and grandparents man when I when my kids are suffering or my grandkids are suffering I want to fix it I want to be part of the solution
right
and is that what God is asking me
I you know and that's where I think this whole sense and we've talked about this many times and we will probably many times in the future is I need to rely upon the Holy Spirit I need to be listening to the Holy Spirit for what it is that I need to be doing if anything outside of praying for a situation cuz maybe I could provide a solution in a short in a short term but am I then taking away what God wants to teach that person what God wants to show that person am I stepping in and trying to take the role that only God needs to be the one to take and that doesn't mean I don't show concern for people it doesn't mean I don't show compassion on people I don't ask the question, God, would you have me do anything? But I also know that what I need to be doing is praying and pointing them to Christ who is their light and their salvation.
Isn't it doesn't boil down to though that the concern the worry is that God will not show up for them. So then I need to show up.
Yeah. I think there's I think there is a questioning of God's involvement and or what appears to maybe be is lack of involvement. And again, I go to the Psalms. I go to the familiar psalm, the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And then it's an acknowledgment that he is the one who is over all things in my life. And again, it's that and it's not an easy thing to determine. Okay, we're called to bear one another's burdens and help and but when is it at times that I'm doing that for my purposes, not necessarily God's purposes. And there's no there's no black and white thing here. It's a lot of gray. And that's where I think so if there's a voice I want to listen to in all of these things, the voice I want to listen to is God's voice in the spirit who lives within me and pay attention to what he's saying to me. So our hope is that as you face the overwhelming needs in the world around us, maybe the overwhelming needs in your world, that you would look to the one who is your light and your salvation. That's the Lord. And listen to his spirit as to how he would have you respond. But certainly I respond by praying for those people. Have a great week. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.