Stuckness
Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.
I had said in my alarm, "I am cut off from your sight." But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.
Love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!
(Psa 31:21-24)
“When I was in a besieged city.”
Do you ever feel this way? Like you are stuck in a place and there’s no obvious way to get out of it. There’s no relief. Every way you turn, every option you consider, presents another major project and significant obstacle. And sure, you could break the project down and begin working on it, but it’s just one of many. There’s a combination of factors, of pressing matters, each one on its own significant, but together they become debilitating.
You’re stuck.
You grow alarmed. Your sense of stuckness increases:
“I had said in my alarm, ‘I am cut off from Your sight!’”
For Christians, everything is theological. That is, everything in our lives exists with reference to God. So when good things occur, we praise Him. When bad things occur, we raise an eyebrow heavenward. And when we find ourselves stuck, we wonder, “Am I cut off from His sight?”
What’s the implication? It’s that God doesn’t see me. Well of course He could… so that means that He just isn’t paying attention… which must mean that He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care that I’m perishing. (cf. Mark 4:38)
That is a powerful theological claim! It is a statement about the character of God. It says, God is not reliably good, and He cannot be counted on to do what’s right, and He makes covenants but isn’t personally invested in the relationship. Oof! “That’s heavy, Doc.”
“The LORD has wondrously shown His steadfast love to me.”
But the point of these verses in Psalm 31 is to say that the Lord “has wondrously show His steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city,” and that He “heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried for help.”
What should we do when we find ourselves in “a besieged city”? We will likely say in our alarm, “I am cut off from Your sight!” We should lift up our voices in pleas for mercy. The Psalmist did both things: he was a grumpy, scared, human being like us, and he also remembered the Lord and the Lord’s promises.
What did the Lord do? The Lord heard the voice of his pleas for mercy. The Lord wondrously showed His steadfast love.
The psalm concludes with this encouragement:
“Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!”
Why do we need strength… to wait? Why does it take courage… to stay stuck?
You know. It’s scary. It’s hard. You want to freak out.
But wait on the Lord. Remember His promises. Lift up your heart to Him in prayer. Wait.
“Blessed be the LORD!” “…Love the LORD all you His saints!”
The Lord desires our praise and our love. And so the Lord desires our prayers. This is because prayer is when we turn to Him and watch. Prayer is us watching God. So God might work and be seen and praised. So we might see Him work and know that we are loved with a wondrous, steadfast, love.
Where are you? Wherever you are, you are loved with a wondrous, steadfast, love. And it might not always feel that way. Sometimes it feels like ultimate-stuckness and theological betrayal and we are filled with alarm.
But He hears the voice of your pleas for mercy, when you cry to Him for help.
Let your heart take courage. Be strong. Wait.
Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash
