Mensa Otabil - The Lord Heard My Voice
- Watch
- Donate
We are in Psalm 18 and we go to verses 5 and 6. The arrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears. In the earlier reading, in verses 1 and 2, David is celebrating who God is to him, and he talks about many things. God is his strength, his shield, his rock, his refuge, his salvation, and his deliverer- all of these beautiful things that he says God is to him. Now he’s telling us, or he’s giving us the reason why he has this conclusion about God. He is telling us about his experiences. It’s out of these experiences that he has come to a firm belief that the Lord is his helper.
He talks about the difficulties he faced. David was a king and a singer, but he was also a warrior. In those days, kings did not just sit at home and send troops to the battlefield; they led the fight. So he was always in danger, and his life was always jeopardized. It is in that space of danger that he encounters God. He says that he was distressed. The word that is translated «distress» means to be surrounded and to be locked up, to feel trapped, to be in a narrow place. He is describing a time when enemies were probably gathered around him, and he was caught up with no way of escape. He says, «I’ve gone through those distresses many times,» and when he went through those distresses, he felt certain death all around him.
He says that the sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. What is he talking about? He says, «I felt like this is it. I’m gone. I’m a goner. I can’t survive this. I can’t come out of this. I could almost smell the end of my life.» It was in that tight corner that he says, «I cried to the Lord.» I like David’s experience with God because it tells us that we can also cry to the Lord when we are in a narrow place, when there is no way of escape. There is a cry that we cry to God. There are many kinds of cries; there’s a cry of despair when we cry and cry and cry because we are discouraged and in despair. But this cry is a cry of hope.
He called out to the Lord; he wasn’t just in tears crying, but he raised his voice and shouted, «God, help me!» A cry to the Lord is a cry of hope, a cry of faith, a cry of expectancy. And David said, «I cry to the Lord.» So what do you do when you are in trouble? Do you just cry tears of despair, or do you cry to the Lord in hope? Do you just allow the circumstances to sweep you away, or do you turn to the Lord when you are in a narrow place and there seems to be no way out? Do you just fold your arms and say, «Listen, I don’t think there’s any way out; I’m going to give up,» or are you going to be like David?
He says, «I cry to the Lord.» I acted in faith; I acted in trust of the Lord. I believe the Lord. Then he says, «The Lord heard me. He heard my voice from His holy temple. My cry came before Him, even to His ears.» If you look at it, there is a progression of how God hears him. He says, «God heard me in the temple,» but not only that; my cry came before the Lord, and then he goes further and says, «My cry went into the ears of the Lord.» So progressively he says, «God heard me in His temple, in His presence, and in His ears.»
I believe God does the same for us; He hears us in heaven, He hears us before His presence, and our requests are in His ears. In our time of despair, like David, we can turn to the Lord and cry to Him. Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, You are closer than all my troubles. Help me and deliver me in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.»