Just about everybody has had a Psalm 142:4 moment along the way.
Perhaps even a bunch of them.
Here is the description:
“I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.”
It’s not a happy place to be emotionally when you feel alone to the point of the above statement.
It’s probably not an accurate statement that nobody on the planet cares even a bit about you.
But when has depression ever been about accurate perceptions?
David is credited with writing the above words and he surely had plenty of reason to be discouraged.
Just as we have reasons to encounter discouragement from time to time.
It really does stink when we think nobody cares that we’re sad or hurting or broke or lonely or unemployed or whatever.
David was obviously venting when he wrote this verse, just as we vent when asserting that nobody cares about us.
Fortunately, David came to his senses and realized something very important.
Even if every human rejected him and lacking any emotional support from people, David knew that he’d find the soul-sustaining help from God. In the Lord, he already had all that he really needed.
“Then I pray to you, O Lord. I say, “You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.” (Psalm 142:5)
Notice that David wrote in the present tense. That tells me that David was defining a practice, a consistent response of the soul to those times when he felt that nobody cared about him.
What great advice for us.
When we’re bummed out because of circumstances and feelings that we struggle alone, let’s run to our place of refuge, our ever present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1).
God really is all we need in life.
As always, I love you
Martin
