Psalm 69
There are times in life when it seems nothing is going right. When it seems there are mockers everywhere. People who wish you ill. When those you love are caught up in other things and you feel alone and deserted. I know those times too.
I have been reading Psalm 69 lately. It seemed to echo a lot of what I have been going through recently. But it is a difficult Psalm to understand. So I spent time reading different versions of the Psalm and reading commentaries on it. I was struck by the comment that this Psalm was seen by the gospel writers as foreshadowing what Jesus went through on the cross.
That knowledge puts a completely different perspective on suffering. This is what Jesus endured. He was scorned for what He said about God. He was cut off from God, surrounded by those who hated Him and mocked Him. The more faithful Jesus was to God, the more He was mocked. He searched the crowd for a friendly face and found none. He was humiliated and shamed. I could imagine Him having voiced the feelings of this Psalm. He endured physical pain and he endured the pain of being cut off from God. And at the end he was raised from the dead and ascended to Heaven.
For the disciples there was fear and confusion and terror until that Easter Sunday when they found the empty tomb.
When I have clients in this lost, lonely, hopeless place, I describe it to them as that space between what was and what will be. A trackless wilderness. There are no maps. No obvious way out. But that place is somewhere where much growth happens. So that when you emerge from that place into the what will be, you have learned something important that you will bring with you into what will be. The important thing you have learned that will allow you to be what you will be. Sometimes you need to accept you are in that trackless wilderness. You don’t have to like it, you just have to stop fighting it and trust you will not be there forever.
Jesus learned in that trackless wilderness. The disciples learned in that trackless wilderness. We can learn in that trackless wilderness. We can draw comfort from that fact that Jesus knows what we are going through because He went through it too. We can emerge, as the Psalmist does by the end of the Psalm. We can move forward into what will be with a new equipping, strong in faith and with God guiding us.
 

1 Chronicles 16:8-34
“Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always” (v11 NIV)
In a previous blog I mentioned I was revisiting the Narnia movies and I spoke of a truth that had been revealed through watching ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’. More recently I have watched the second movie, ‘Prince Caspian’. That was a fascinating movie about mistrust and a boy who wants to be a man, wanting to follow his own way instead of asking God (Aslan). In the movie the four children are walking through Narnia, trying to cross the river. Lucy tells the others she has seen Aslan, showing her the way to cross and asking her to come to Him. The others decide it is a silly place to cross as they have to climb down a steep cliff to cross the river. Lucy, instead of going to Aslan, chooses to follow her siblings. They travel on and realise they cannot cross and return to the site Lucy saw Aslan. They cross there, but Aslan has gone.
Throughout the movie there are instances where the children and the young Caspian disagree on what they must do. Lucy urges them to ask Aslan, but she is overridden by the others. This leads to great disaster. Eventually, when all seems lost, Lucy sets out to go the place Aslan called her to Him. When she finally comes to Aslan, she blames her tardiness on her siblings not agreeing with her. Aslan asks her why she couldn’t come to him on her own. Lucy realises she has no excuse.
This really struck me. I considered the number of times I have failed to turn to God, to go to Him. What is my excuse? Not others, although like Lucy I would use that excuse. The reason is I choose not to. I prefer to do things on my own.
That is not what God wants for us.
God calls us to have an individual relationship with Him. Just you and God. One to one. A direct relationship between you and God. No-one as an intermediary. No-one telling you when you can go to God. No-one telling you how to go to God. Just you and God.
If you don’t go to God, the only reason is you. No-one can get between you and God. It is your choice, your move. And if you fail to go? That is your responsibility. That is your sin to be confessed. To repent of.
It is so easy when things are bad to rush to impose your solution on things. How many times have I done that! But that is never a solution and usually makes things worse. It is hard to wait in the discomfort of unresolved situations. It is hard to wait when you desperately want things resolved. But seeking God and His strength. Going to Him. Waiting for Him to act. That is what He asks of us.
Look to God. He is strong. Trust in His strength and always seek His face.