Psalm 31:9-16
9Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.
10For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.
11I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
12I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
13For I hear the whispering of many—terror all around!—as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.
14But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
15My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
16Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
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In this passage, we find the psalmist, David, suffering in the midst of a great crisis. We might, in fact, say he finds himself in a hot mess! So why is this happening to him? Elsewhere we find David owning up to the fact that his own iniquity, likely with Bathsheba, brought God’s chastening — and that chastening never left his house to the day of his death. Now his own son Absalom is entering into Jerusalem, leading a national revolt intent on killing his father. David naturally feels scorned, persecuted, and hated by friends, neighbors, family and all around him. His sorrow, fear, terror, and brokenness in body and mind bring him to this precipice of despair. “BUT (and that’s a huge word) I trust in you, O Lord… You are my God.”
[FULL STOP! We the readers take a breathe at this point and reread v. 14.]
In this seemingly abrupt change David cries out to the Lord, remembering that his life is fully in God’s hands and that God will deliver him from his persecutors. He declares himself a servant of God, upheld and protected in God’s steadfast love.
Though we ourselves may not be terrorized and persecuted by enemies, admittedly there’s not one among us who hasn’t found him/herself in a “hot mess” many times over. As humans, yes, we screw up. May we, like David, know that we are sinners AND that our Lord and Savior is always present with an outstretched hand. Like David we can confidently cry out “Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.”
Prayer: Merciful Savior, I praise you for offering me your loving hand, over and over again, as I learn to move ahead, out of the abyss of my own grief and sadness. Lord, please let your face shine upon all your servants, and save us with your steadfast love. Amen.
—Sally Sawyer