Psalm 10 - Closing the Distance

Have you ever felt like God was far away? Or hiding from you? The truth is that God is always near and never moves away from us. That distance is about us moving from God...or separating ourselves.

In this case, David is allowing his fears, anxieties, and anger and what he sees around him depress him. This is actually one of the things I really love about the psalms. David experiences the full range of emotions that we all face and he writes about them. He expresses them in a way that we know that he has experienced everything we have. David is easy to relate to. The beauty of it is, that we always see David turn to God and give him glory. No matter how the psalm starts, it ends acknowledging God. Let's look at this one. Verse 1 reads, "O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble?" David is feeling separated from God's presence and yet, let's look at the final verses of this psalm, 16-18, "The Lord is king forever and ever! The godless nations will vanish from the land. Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them." David honors God and expresses his trust in the Lord.

This is a beautiful model for us. There are times when we are experiencing worry, anxiety, fear., anger, sadness.or a host of other emotions that cause us to not feel God's presence around us, but we, too, need to be like David and return our thoughts andour hearts back to God.

I have a feeling though, that even for David, this started with his thoughts. We can't know for sure, but I suspect that sometimes David said the words so that his thoughts would return to God, hoping that his heart would follow. Even if you don't feel the trust or find it hard to believe that God will be victorious over the difficulties of life, speak the words so that your heart can follow!

On the Honduras front: They have arrived and are already being reminded of the privileges we take for granted in this country...thanks for praying and press on on in prayer for them with me!