Come To My Relief

Lord hear my prayer.

Listen to my cry for mercy.

In your faithfulness and your righteousness.

Come to my relief. (Psalm 143:1)

There are times when I read the Psalms and it’s not even the whole Psalm that captures me. It’s just one line.

Recently I was just reflecting on the tragedies and traumas that can happen in life. Some will gain widespread media coverage and some will be kept inside a darkened living room inhabited only by one person and a bottle of a strong alcoholic beverage.

Both scenarios involve a weight and an impact that shatters leaving shards of confusion and distrust. Questions probing previously strongly held assertions and certainties about life. You might have read or seen about these things happening to others, but now that it’s happened to you, those reports and documentaries have in no way prepared you.

For some it can appear as though they’ve been plunged into an abyss of despair. Daily routines completely lose all feeling. The hollow feeling can be gaping.

In it all, there is still an invitation to reach out and cry to God for mercy. He may be the very one you feel like cursing. He may be the very one you feel angry with and demand answers from about  how His goodness and kindness hasn’t done anything to prevent this traumatic event. That may be very well how you feel. Yet in this despair, there is still the opportunity to cry out to Him and based on the characteristics of always being there and always doing right, just appeal to Him to offer some respite, some relief, some light in the seemingly unrelenting darkness and misery.

There is no promise of answered prayers. There is no easy answers to offer and things to say. Yet even as Jesus wept when confronted by the overwhelming grief of loss, there is a clear indication that God sees and feels the weight of loss and sorrow. He sees it. He feels it. He weeps.

We call out to Him to come to our relief.

(Photo by JORGE LOPEZ on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden