These words speak to us of the Lord restoring us and giving us life. When the soul departs, the body is dead. Sometimes we have experiences when, even in spite of physical health, we are in a living death. It can be almost as if the very will to live has gone. It doesn't matter much whether it is the result of our own sinfulness or waywardness, or whether some tragedy comes our way from forces beyond our control. We feel crushed and despondent.
But the Lord is the Life-giver - "He restores my soul"!
Life had not been easy for David the fugitive. For just over a year he and his men acted as mercenaries for a Philistine king in return for protection and a place to live.
But when the Philistines were preparing to go against the armies of Israel, David and his men were sent back home to Ziklag. There was a very natural fear that, during the battle, David and his men might change sides.
However, on their return to Ziklag, they found that the Amalekites had ransacked the town. The town had been burned with fire, and their wives and families taken captive.
It was a crushing experience, and these war-hardened soldiers "wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep" (v. 5). David, too, was greatly distressed, not only because of his own loss, but also because the bitterness of the others was being turned against him as leader.
Then, significantly, we read, "But David found strength in the Lord his God" (v. 6b).
They had reached a point of utter despair that left them immobilised, not knowing which way to turn or what to do, That was the point at which "David found strength in the Lord his God." He remembered that the Lord really was there, that he had not forsaken them and that in fact he was about to help them. This faith resulted in action - and the restoration of wives, families and stolen goods.
Have you ever reached a point of despair like that in your life - when all your strength and will to live seem to have left you?
Robert Louis Stevenson told of a ship which was being driven by a violent storm toward a rocky coast. The passengers were filled with terror, expecting the ship at any moment to be dashed to pieces on the jagged rocks.
One bold passenger with great difficulty made his way to the pilothouse. There he saw the pilot holding the wheel and veering the ship, inch by inch, away from the rocks and out to sea.
The pilot saw the daring passenger and smiled at him. Returning below, the passenger said, "All's well! I have seen the pilot, and he smiled at me!"
How like the experience of David! When all was discouragement and despair, he took note that the Lord was still in control of the situation and this gave him fresh heart.
So too with us! When life's experiences would crush the very life out of us, we can take strength in the Lord our God - we can have life restored to us again.
| PRAYER: Father God, we spend so much time priding ourselves on our human achievements and on just how great we are as a human race. Yet I find these claims so sickening and empty. Sometimes, Lord, I get the crushing feeling that I’m missing out – that we’re all missing out – on what life is really meant to be. Lord, you made me and your love surrounds me. Restore my soul! Give me each day the strength to live and to live to the full! In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. |
In growing youth
he said,
"I need no God,
there is no God!"
Life seemed full,
active, free.
But then,
in middle years,
respected,
a person of success,
there came
disillusion
and despair.
He tried to turn
to boyhood faith,
but arguments
he’d used
to justify
his free life
now stared him in the face
and seemed to trap him
in unbelief.
Turn yet again –
the God of love awaits you!