The Lifted Soul

Day 2 - Hope for those at the end of their rope

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope in you will ever be put to shame…Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.” -Psalm 25:1-3a, 4-7

Photo by Steven Su on Unsplash

Perhaps you can think of a time when you felt like you were at the end of your rope. You felt as if you couldn’t take one more thing going wrong or being added to your plate without totally collapsing. The pressure around you is mounting and you are running out of options. Try to remember a time in your life like that; recall the emotions you felt and the thoughts you had. What do you do during times like that? Do you change course, in desperate search of a solution?

In Psalm 25 we find David writing about exactly that kind of situation. You can feel the desperation as you read over his words and you can try to imagine what it was like for him. David’s response is very powerful: he ‘doubles-down’ on his commitment to God. His circumstances were overwhelming and he describes feeling great ‘anguish’ and ‘distress’ (v. 17-18) but he refuses to change or second-guess his commitment to God. He goes ‘all-in’ with God and declares “to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul”. There are no heroic promises of action to impress God here; David seems utterly past that, his energies and resources are spent. All he can do is commit himself into God’s care and dare to hope and believe that God will come to his aid.

The Psalms were written as songs to be sung and music helps us to connect more deeply to the heart of these poems. Several years ago, Graham Kendrick wrote a song called To You O Lord, based entirely on the words from this Psalm. It’s a wonderful song and you can find it here. I encourage you to listen to it when you have a moment.

Advent is a season of darkness, both literal and figurative and a time for us to connect again with the hope that God brings light into that darkness. In Day 1 of this series we encountered the prophet Jeremiah hearing a message of hope from God while in the midst of overwhelming circumstances. Today we find David crying out “No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame” as he feels overwhelmed by loneliness and affliction. May the words of this Psalm bring you into a greater connection with the living hope that is ours in Jesus.