On Lament, Psalm 142, and this Current Crisis

How are you feeling these days? This crisis is bringing up many difficult emotions for all of us. It certainly is for me. Throughout the day, I find myself hop-scotching from worry to loneliness to frustration to boredom to discontentment. Some days are better than others. Especially when I don’t allow myself to consider the unknown future.

I am sad for all that my children are missing. I am disappointed by cancelled plans. I am lonely and miss friends and family. I am worried about our health. I grieve the losses many have experienced and will experience in the weeks to come.

The question is: what do I do with all these difficult emotions?

All I know to do is to lament. To lament is to cry out to God, to bring our emotions before him and seek his help. It’s to be raw and honest with the Lord. It’s to verbalize our fears, sorrows, and cares in his presence. It’s to voice our longings, hopes, cares, and dreams. It is to seek his justice, salvation, and provision. It’s to dwell on who he is and what he has done. And it’s to trust and wait and hope for his deliverance.

Psalm 142 is a lament, one written by David while he was on the run from his enemies—likely King Saul. While hiding and fearful for his life, he cried out in prayer to the Lord. It is a prayer that was later turned into a psalm used in Israel’s worship, sung as we do our hymns and praise songs on Sunday morning. This lament is apropos for our time. You might say David was in quarantine, sheltered away not at home, but in a dark and desolate cave.

“With my voice I cry out to the LORD;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.
I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him”

David brought his emotions and cares to the LORD. He used God’s covenant name, Yahweh, the Great I AM. This is the name God gave Moses at the burning bush and refers to God’s aseity, his eternal self-existence, his sovereignty, and his covenant-keeping presence with his people. David cried out to the God who rules over all things.

“When my spirit faints within me,
you know my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul”

David was weary and worn. His enemies were relentless. It felt like no one could help him; there was no one who even cared. He was abandoned, alone, and afraid. He voiced these troubles in his prayer. He was honest with God. After all, God already knew how David felt and what thoughts were going through his mind. God knew he was stuck in the cave, far from home and from his loved ones. God knew everything that was happening in David’s life. As C.H. Spurgeon commented, “Observe his comfort: he looked away from his own condition to the ever observant, all knowing God: and solaced himself with the fact that all was known to his heavenly Friend. Truly it is well for us to know that God knows what we do not know. We lose our heads, but God never closes his eyes: our judgments lose their balance, but the eternal mind is always clear.”

“I cry to you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!”

David sought God’s help. He asked God to hear his cry and respond. He asked for rescue and deliverance. He asked God to intervene in his life. As he did, David looked to who God is: his refuge and his portion. He humbled himself before the Almighty, the Great I AM, seeking his help and strength.

“Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.”

David ended his lament with hope and trust. He hadn’t yet experienced God’s rescue, but he expected God to intervene and help him. He looked forward to rejoining God’s people. He anticipated giving thanks to God for his goodness to him. This is a response of faith. The process of lamenting, of crying out to God, reshaped David’s emotions. In the face of the Great I AM, his lesser fears weakened. He knew God was his refuge and trusted that he would deliver him.

I don’t know about you, but I can relate to David’s emotions. I too am weary and worn. I feel overwhelmed by our current circumstances. Like David, I don’t know how long I’ll be stuck in my home. Like David’s enemies, this illness is also strong and relentless. But as this psalm reminds me, God is greater. He is the Great I AM. Therefore, this crisis will not have the final say.

So, I will do as David did and what God’s people have done for centuries. I will cry out to God in lament. I will pour out my soul before him. I will ask for his help and rescue. And I will trust in who he is: my refuge in times of trouble. “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence” (2 Samuel 22:2-3).

Three Things to Remember When Life is Hard

Last year, during our trip to Israel, I had the opportunity to visit a site that held special significance for me. While every site we explored was important and meaningful, this particular site was one I had spent a year thinking about and studying when I wrote A Heart Set Free. To see it in person was surreal and I couldn’t help but respond with strong emotion. What site was it? En Gedi.

The word En Gedi means “spring of the wild goat.” En Gedi is an oasis in the middle of the Judean Wilderness. What makes it so remarkable is its close proximity to the Dead Sea; everything in the surrounding area is dead, lifeless. Yet, wild goats feed off the lush and vibrant plants that grow there. A stream of water rushes through the middle of the oasis. Surrounding this stream are rocky cliffs dotted with caves. It is in those caves where David hid while on the run from King Saul in the Old Testament.

1 Samuel 24:1-2 says, “When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats’ Rocks.” In those caves, frightened and alone, David penned at least two psalms, Psalm 57 and 142.

David’s Cry in Psalm 142

In Psalm 142, David cries out to the Lord for help and hope. “With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Psalm 142:1-2). He tells the Lord exactly how he is feeling and what he is going through. He says “my spirit faints within me” (v.3). “I am brought very low” (v.6). And “Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!” (v. 6).

While few of us have been on the run from our enemies as David was, we do know what it’s like to be at then end of our rope, to feel stuck with nowhere to turn. We know what it feels like to be in despair or to feel lost and alone. We know what it’s like to be afraid. We know what it’s like to face something so frightening, we can’t imagine any way around it. We know what it’s like to look for help and find none (v.4).

In the midst of that terrifying circumstance, David turned to the LORD God. He turned to the great I Am for help and hope.

For those of us who find ourselves with similar emotions to what David writes about in Psalm 142, there are three things we can remember from this passage.

God’s Knows

In verse three, David wrote “When my spirit faints within me, you know my way!” Our God is an omniscient God. He knows all things. He knows the end from the beginning. He is never surprised or caught off guard by the circumstances of our lives. And he knows us intimately. As David wrote elsewhere, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:1-4).

God knows just what to do in all circumstances. And he knows what is best for us. John Calvin encourages us to rest in the fact that God knows: “God knew the way to deliver him, while his own mind was distracted by a variety of thoughts, and yet could not conceive any mode of extrication. The words teach us, when we have tried every remedy and know not what to do, to rest satisfied with the conviction that God is acquainted with our afflictions, and condescends to care for us, as Abraham said --"The Lord will provide." (Genesis 22:8.)”

God is Our Refuge

David turned to God because he knew God was his refuge. “I cry to you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living’” (v. 5). The Hebrew word for refuge is “machaseh” which means hope, place of refuge, shelter, or trust (Strongs 4268). David put his trust and hope in God.

In the midst of your current trial, wherein do you place your hope and trust? It’s easy to turn to false refuges, to run and hide in metaphorical caves, or to seek out hope in created things rather than in the Creator. But those false refuges will only let us down. God alone is our place of safety. And it’s only in God that we find all we need. Like the Levites who had no land of their own, God is our portion; he is our inheritance. He is our Father and we are his children. We can call on him anytime and anywhere and know that he hears us. We can trust him to be our refuge and hope in times of trouble.

God Will Deliver

David ends his psalm with confidence. “The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me” (v. 7). The armies that surrounded David were stronger than he was, but he knew God was stronger still. He knew and expected that God would deliver him. He knew he would once again be surrounded by God’s people.

Though the effects of the fall ravage our lives, though sin seems to have a grip on us, though evil appears to be winning, God is our deliverer. We only have to look to Christ and what he has accomplished for us in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. He brought us from death to life. He redeemed us from slavery to sin. He made peace for us with God. He gave us the gift of his Spirit to change and transform us. Because of Christ, we too can face the hard circumstances of life with confidence, not in ourselves, but in who Christ is for us.

Dear friend, when life is hard, cry out to God in lament. Tell him your sorrows and fears. Ask for his help and deliverance. Put your hope and trust in him, for he is your refuge and portion.