There are seasons of life that overwhelm us. These are the seasons of life in which we can see no apparent solution to what is assaulting us. These are the seasons in which one crisis after another seems to wash over us and we sense that our trouble is more than the experience of living in a fallen world. We know in our spirit that Satan has his crosshairs on us or our family and is unrelenting in his attacks. In those seasons it can seem that all that we are doing in prayer and standing on the word doesn’t seem to be winning the day but only keeping our heads barely above the water. Those are the days that I need a revelation of God that is more than him sitting serenely on his throne in heaven. I need a powerful and passionate rescuer.
I love Psalm 18, because David gives me the picture I need in those seasons. David understood those seasons more than most. Although David had been anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel, there were many days for David when the prophecy seemed nebulous at best. For years, Saul was unrelenting in his attempts to find and kill David. There were moments when weariness settled in and David doubted that the prophecy he had received would ever come to pass. In1Samuel we are told, “But David thought to himself, ‘One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best I can do is escape to the land of the Philistines’” (1 Sam.27:1). Saul hunted David for years. David and his men were always out numbered, always on the run. They weren’t living in the palace but in caves and wilderness strongholds. At one point, even David’s own men turned on him. But in all of that, David discovered that God did know and God did care about him.
David wrote, “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
The Lordthundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me” (Ps.18:6-17).
This is the picture of a Father who hears the cry of a beloved child who is being assaulted by the enemy. As a parent, if your children were playing in the front yard and you suddenly heard them cry out in fear and saw someone attacking them, you would rise up in anger and tear the door off its hinges as you plunged into the front yard with all the power and wrath you could muster against anyone or anything hurting your children. You would be breathing fire and hurling lightening bolts if you could. Psalm 18 is a picture of our heavenly Father doing just that. Some days I need that picture and I need my God to be that Father for me. On a day when you feel totally overwhelmed by circumstances, it’s okay to ask God to be that Father for you as well.
I think a fair question is why did God wait to ultimately deliver David from Saul when he could have taken Saul out at any time. I’m sure David wondered that as well. Saul had been picked to be king because he looked “kingly” or “presidential” if you will. He had been installed as king without training and without testing. When an untested heart is given power, the result is usually disastrous. Proverbs tells us that the earth trembles when a slave becomes king (Pr.30:22). That sounds like a great story, but if a man has not been taught how to use power, he can use it for great harm in the same way that so many lottery winners who had never had wealth were destroyed by the wealth they had always desired.
The years of waiting for deliverance, fighting battles, crying out to God, leading men in hard circumstances, etc. tested and developed David’s heart so that when his prophecy came to pass, he was able to steward the promise in an effective way. I have found that the seasons that have been overwhelming to me were preparing me for something to come. God’s grace was always sufficient if I had faith that he was there and watching and if I held on to him. I encourage you to hold on as well. In those moments, David’s picture of a loving father, rising to rescue his child has been helpful to me. Maybe it will be helpful for you as well if you are in one of those seasons now.
