A Psalm of Complaint and of Praise.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David.
31 In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
Let me never be ashamed;
In Your righteousness deliver me.
2 Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly;
Be to me a rock of [a]strength,
A stronghold to save me.
3 For You are my [b]rock and my fortress;
For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me.
4 You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength.
5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of [c]truth.6 I hate those who regard [d]vain idols,
But I trust in the Lord.
7 I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness,
Because You have seen my affliction;
You have known the troubles of my soul,
8 And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a large place.9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow
And my years with sighing;
My strength has failed because of my iniquity,
And my [e]body has wasted away.
11 Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach,
Especially to my neighbors,
And an object of dread to my acquaintances;
Those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the [f]slander of many,
Terror is on every side;
While they took counsel together against me,
They schemed to take away my life.
The transition from verse 8 to 9 is jarring. One second, David says that God is his strength, his rock and his fortress. The next, he is in distress, afraid and weak. We are not immune from this seeming paradox. In our mind, we know God is amazing, we know He is strong and mighty to save. But our troubles can loom large, and we feel our strength is gone, our life is spent, we are forsaken, lost, worried and scared.
Yet know this, you are not alone. David was there, I’ve been there, and most importantly, everything in this passage could be said of our savior Jesus Christ. He is a “man acquainted with our sorrows”, and you might even say of verse 10 that Jesus’ strength couldn’t fail because of his iniquity because he never sinned. However, God “laid on him the iniquity of us all”, a terrible burden on top of the agony of the cross.
So yes, Jesus experienced what we are going through, and he also knows exactly what we are going through. You are not lost or forsaken, you are in His hands even now. Rest your weary mind and cast your cares on Him–He is more than able to carry them, and you, through any storm. Don’t lose heart in the battle, but stand firm on what you know to be true. God is your rock and your fortress, take refuge in Him.