Getting Off the Fence Post

Man, Was I in Trouble—Big Time Trouble!

It was a Wednesday night service at First Baptist Church of Greenville, South Carolina. My sister and I had cooked up a plan that we knew would get us in trouble, but we did not care. We were preacher’s kids, you know. There was always a time for hymn requests during the service, so we waited patiently for the hymn “Love Lifted Me” by James Rowe. Someone seemingly always requested that hymn. About halfway through the hymns, someone requested it. We got ready. Ready to pounce on it. Here it came. You remember the words “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore …” When the congregation sang, “I was sinking deep in sin,” we shouted out with joy, “Yippee!” so all could hear us! Then seeing our mother’s face, our father’s frown, the feeling came upon us Oh my. We are in trouble. Nowadays, I remember that exercise in futility every time the hymn is sung. I must admit I remember that mischievous plan with a little smile on my face.

I recalled that experience when I was reading Psalm 69. (The words “I sink in the miry depths” triggered the sinking deep in sin.) I must say that if you only read the first twenty-nine verses, it has to be one of the most depressing passages in all of scripture. It begins with these words: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God” (Psalm 69:1–3 NIV). Talk about a person caught in the bog of sin and despair, sinking with no apparent hope. Then the honest voice of the psalmist, David himself, turns things around by saying, “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30 NIV). The rest of the psalm is an absolute affirmation of God and what God will do for his people.

Hear what I have to say today, please. David, writing a hymn to be sung during worship in the temple of God located in Jerusalem, is demonstrating how we are to approach God in worship. Express our heartfelt despair, doubt, frustration, and fears, then turn our attitude toward what we all know God has done, is doing, and will do. Finish with an affirmation of trust and faith. God knows our thoughts, our fears, and our anxiety even before we began to open our mouths. He still wants us to open up and speak truth to him.

Have you ever been to a counselor, therapist, or psychiatrist? Isn’t it the same principle in good therapy? Encourage the client to open up, be honest, and speak their truth. That is when healing begins, and only then will it begin. Is there a better therapist than God himself? Then we must be honest, open, and speak our truth! Yet have the faith to trust him. Is not that Jesus’s way of praying to God? Read Luke 22:42.

Oh God, our therapist and healer, our counselor, why are we having to go through a time like this? Why are so many people unemployed or furloughed? Why is our economy in such bad condition? We feel as if hope is running faster away from us than toward us. There is so much we do not understand. But we trust you. You see the big picture. We know there is a plan you will unfold before us. Revive us as your people, and enable us to be a part of the great renewal that you are about to bring. Allow us to live consistently with your will for us, rather than immersed in the confusion in this world. Amen.