Stay Strong Even When It Is Hard!

To the Choirmaster.  A Psalm of David.

¹ I waited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and heard my cry.

² He drew me up from the pit of destruction,

out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock,

making my steps secure.

³ He put a new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

and put their trust in the Lord.

⁴ Blessed is the man who makes

the Lord his trust,

who does not turn to the proud,

to those who go astray after a lie!

⁵ You have multiplied, O Lord my God,

your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;

none can compare with you!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

yet they are more than can be told.

Psalm 40:1-6

The first part of this Psalm (vv. 1-5) is composed so uniquely and beautifully to express the journey of those who have faith in God.  This passage shows that having faith in God does not mean that life would be without troubles.  Even David experienced a difficult situation.  He was in “the pit of destruction” and “a miry bog.”  Those two imageries symbolize hopelessness and despair.  We don’t know exactly what David went through that led to the writing of this Psalm.  Whatever it was, he was desperate and in need of help.  David was going down to destruction.  Death was imminent.  So David cried out to the Lord, asking for Him to help.

But crying out to God does not mean He would answer immediately.  In David’s case, God did not help David right away.  So the opening of this Psalm spells: “¹ I waited patiently for the Lord.”  This is most interesting, because commonly, anyone who is at the brink of destruction won’t wait.  The fear of destruction befalling us would prompt us to desire a quick fix.  In our prayer, we would rush God.  When God does not come to our aid right away, the urge to doubt God is mounting.  “Is God listening to me?  Does He care about me?”  These questions might spark in our mind.  Thus we enter into a double trouble.  The first trouble being the situation itself, and the second trouble is when God does not seem to care.  The worst is when we then lose faith altogether and start asking: “Does He even exist?  Is there a God actually?”

Elie Wiesel lost his faith when his entire family was sent to the Nazi camp.  The whole community of Jews prayed for God’s help.  But help did not come immediately.  God’s help was delayed.  Elie’s mom and younger sister died within the first week.  His dad died in the camp right in front of his eyes.  Elie was only 15 years old.  His faith crumbled.  He lost his faith in the process.  He questioned God’s existence.  For quite a long time Elie was an atheist.

Our problem might not be as horrifying as Elie’s, but still when we are losing our job, or losing our business, or being plagued with a terrible illness, or having a broken relationship, or being rejected, or losing our loved ones, or surviving a disaster, we expect God to come and help.  But when help is not coming as quickly as we want or the help is not as we hope for, we sink into doubt.  We doubt that God even cares for us.  When we are in that condition, we are in a very dangerous ground.

David demonstrated the key to dealing with such trouble.  The key is to wait patiently for the Lord.  This is the very thing that we always do not want to do.  In the age of everything instant, we find it more difficult to wait patiently.  Being patient is hard.  Being patient when waiting is harder.  Being patient when waiting during a turmoil and desperate situation is the hardest.  But wait patiently we must.  This is the only way.  We can’t rush God.  He knows what He is doing.  When David waited for the Lord patiently, he demonstrated and expressed his real faith.  This is the true test of faith.  If we say we have faith in the Lord, then such situation is the platform to demonstrate our faith.  There we will know whether we truly have faith or not.

Now, David waited patiently for the Lord.  And in God’s infinite wisdom and perfect timing, He responded to David’s cry for help.  God inclined to David and heard his cry.  This was the response David had been waiting for.  How did David know that God heard his cry?  It was when David was rescued from the pit of destruction and miry bog.  But God did not just rescue David from the horrible situation, He also put David on a strong foundation that could not be shaken.  David asked for help.  And God responded with more.

We too are often only pray for relief.  Relief from the pressing situation.  But God has a better answer.  He does not just desire to relieve us from the terrible situation we are in, but He also wants to establish us so we may thrive.  What is the point of being rescued from one terrible situation only to fall into another pit of destruction?  God does not desire for us to be relieved from one debt only to find ourselves burdened with yet another debt.  So God set David’s feet upon a rock – a solid foundation – so David wouldn’t fall into a pit anymore.  When the Lord rescues us, He does so that we would not fall again.  Waiting patiently for the Lord is the key, because God is working on the best solution for our desperate trouble.

  From this one experience, a beautiful Psalm was produced.  A Psalm that becomes a source of strength and encouragement for so many people throughout the ages.  David said that God put a new song in his mouth.  A song of praise to the Lord.  The result of the trouble and God’s salvation was David glorifying the Lord.  David, then, did what he was created for.  The praising of God is the culmination of our function as humans.  David did not praise God prematurely.  He did not praise God when he was at the bottom of the pit.  Praising God must come naturally and genuinely, not fake and definitely not because of habitual conditioning.  We often prematurely praise God when we are still at the bottom of the pit.  That would not be genuine.  We praise the Lord after He rescues us.

Pay attention to the progression of the Psalm.  As David experienced trouble and then deliverance from the Lord, he praised God.  Then as he praised God, at the same time he proclaimed to the world of God’s goodness to David.  David carried a message to the public that the God he followed was the God that was able to deliver him from trouble.  So he was a witness of God’s greatness.  The result of his witness was that “Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.”  Many people believed in David’s testimony, and thus they had faith in the Lord.

This is one of the goals of being God’s people, that is to open our mouth to testify.  After God saves us from trouble, our natural response is to use this God given ability to call people’s attention to His greatness.  David did it naturally.  It was not something that he could stop doing.  Out of every fiber of his being, David composed a most beautiful song of praise to God, telling the entire world of the goodness, greatness, and glory of God.  This too we ought to apply in our life.  As the Lord has rescued us, we can do nothing but praise Him the Lord of all.  We are compelled to tell the whole world of His story.  Do not fake it!  Do not do it prematurely!  Only do it when it is genuine, only do it naturally!

Then David learned the meaning of the principle: “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.”  Yes, trusting the Lord even when it seems that He delays His hands to help.  Too often we fall into doubt because we do not fully trust the Lord.  When Samuel delayed coming to Saul, Saul took matters into his own hand.  Although he knew that he was not allowed to sacrifice burnt offering to the Lord, he’d rather break God’s command than waiting for the Lord patiently.  His fear got the best of him.  He did not fully trust the Lord.  So Samuel rebuked Saul.  But David waited for the Lord.  We could see how patiently David waited for the Lord even in critical situations.  David had to go from place to place as a homeless man and a fugitive, running away from Saul who had turned mad by desiring to kill David.  The journey David took was long after he was anointed as king over Israel.  Yet David did not grumble against the Lord.  He did not lose his trust in the Lord.  More than 10 years David had to wait before he then was inaugurated as king over Israel.  Yet David never blamed God.  Interestingly, even though he had a chance to take matters into his own hand, in relation to Saul’s life, he would not.  He’d rather trust the Lord and wait patiently for Him than breaking His commands.

David did not “turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!”  When you go to the right church, and you pray earnestly to the Lord for help, but you have not got any help from Him; do not then go to a different church that spreads lies.  God’s church is not a place of magic.  God’s servants are not magicians.  God does not always help the way we want Him to help.  God often does not help according to our timing.  Yet many people today flock churches whose pastors promised that God always will give the people materials and earthly blessings.  Those pastors lie to the people so that those who are depressed will come and be exploited.  Do not go to those churches whose pastors tell the people that believing in Jesus will bring them earthly riches, health, and success.  They are what David called “the proud,” those “who go astray after a lie.”  The lie might be different, but the essence is the same.  One of David’s advisors told him to kill Saul when he had the chance.  David rebuked him and said that he had nothing in common with him.  Do not chase lie.  It might sound sweet to your ears at times, but in the end it stings like a scorpion.  Wait patiently for the Lord, that’s the advice this Psalm gives you.

After David testified of God’s greatness, many believed in Him.  Then the Lord multiplied His mighty deeds for those who put their faith in Him.  The Lord did not think only of David, but He also thought about those who had believed in Him because of David’s testimony.  This is our inheritance.  Like David, we too must testify.  And as we testify, many will trust and fear the Lord.  As they have faith in the Lord, they too will witness God’s wondrous deeds.  When they are in trouble, they will cry to the Lord.  And the Lord will incline to them and hear their cry.  The Lord will rescue them from the pit of destruction and miry bog.  The Lord will then set their feet on a solid foundation.  Then a song of praise will be put on their mouth.  The Lord has multiplied His wondrous deeds; and thus our mouths will not stop praising His greatness.  This is the face of the true church.

This picture is so wonderful and beautiful.  God’s redeemed people glorifying God in truth and genuine motive.  The more we testify of His greatness, the more His mighty deeds will be heard, and the more they are heard the more people will see and trust in Him.  And we all join in together in our unending praise to the Lord.  David did not stop at testifying of God’s greatness in His personal dealing with him.  But David spoke of as many as he had heard and seen of God’s multiplied wondrous deeds.  David said of God’s mighty deeds: “I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.”  This means that David never stopped telling the world of what God had done.  In the same way, we too are to continue opening our mouth praising God and testifying of His great deeds, for He indeed has rescued us and has multiplied His deliverance to those who put their faith in Him.  We have never ending sources of testimonies.

This is God’s blessings and grace to all of us.  Elie Wiesel finally returned to the Lord.  He then realized that God is God and His timing and way of intervention was different than ours.  He was lost but now is found.  A man with tremendous suffering, losing his faith one time due to the brutality of Nazi Germany and no sign of God’s help for the longest time, yet finally was led back to the Lord.  For the Lord indeed heard the Jews’ cry, and He delivered them from the pit of destruction.  The Lord sent the US troops to rescue many Jews from the Nazi camp, Elie Wiesel included.  It was April 1945, 3 months after he lost his dad in the camp, Elie was rescued from the Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar Germany.

Whatever it is you are experiencing right now, know that the Lord is faithful.  Put your trust in the Lord.  Wait for Him patiently.  He actually does not delay.  His timing and ways are different than ours, that’s all.  Listen to this truth from Isaiah 55:8-9:

⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Even Elie Wiesel came back to believe in the Lord.  Do not doubt anymore.  Put your trust in the Lord.  David did.  He waited patiently for Him.  Then all became clearer.  The Lord saved.  Remember that He already saved us from the most horrible situation, the grip of sin and death.  So the Lord will indeed deliver you from your troubles.  Just remember, it would not as you would expect.  It would be better and more wonderful, much more than we can imagine.  God bless you all.  Amen!