Mensa Otabil - Turn to the Lord (11/05/2025)
We are in Psalm 18, and we go to verses 5 and 6: The arrows of Sha 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 the reason why he has this conclusion about God. He is sharing his experiences; it is 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. In that space of danger, he encounters God. He says that he was distressed. The word that is translated as " distress» means to be surrounded and locked up, to feel trapped or to be in a narrow place. He is describing a time when his 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.» He felt certain death all around him. He states that the sorrows of Sha surrounded him; the snares of death confronted him. What is he talking about? He felt like this was it-he was done. He thought he couldn’t survive this; he could almost smell the end of his life. In that tight corner, 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 we raise to God. There are many kinds of cries; there’s a cry of despair when we cry and cry because we are discouraged, but this cry is a cry of hope. He called out to the Lord. He wasn’t just in tears, crying; he raised his voice and shouted, " God, help me!» It’s a cry to the Lord that is filled with hope, faith, and expectancy. David said, «I cried 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 allow the circumstance 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, " I don’t think there’s any way out; I’m going to give up,» or will you be like David, who said, «I cried to the Lord»? He acted in faith; he acted in trust of the Lord. He believed the Lord. Then he said, «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 him in the temple, but not only that; his cry came before the Lord. He goes further and states that his cry reached the ears of the Lord. Progressively, he states that God heard him 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.