July 26th

Don't dump me, God

Psalm #38

Several years ago a friend invited me to an AA Roundup in Rosetown.  At these ‘Roundups’ Alcoholics along with friends and family gather to share experiences and find hope for their journeys of sobriety.  Old friendships are strengthened and new ones formed.

My friend had been sober for some 20 years but it was instructive to me to hear him say that ‘I am an alcoholic.’  AA members never deceive themselves or each other about who they are and in naming it they are free to seek help and encouragement from others.

AA is famous for its Twelve Steps and as you read them think about how they align with some of our most significant Christian values.

STEP 1 – Honesty – admitting powerlessness over this addiction.

STEP 2 – Hope – finding faith in a power greater than ourselves.

STEP 3 – Surrender – turn our lives over to the care of God, whomever we understand God to be.

STEP 4 – Courage – take a fearless inventory of your life.

STEP 5 – Integrity – admit to God, to ourselves, and to another person the exact nature of our wrongs.

STEP 6 – Willingness – to have God remove these defects of character.

STEP 7 – Humility – willingness to be released from our past.

STEP 8 – Love – make a list of those you have wronged.

STEP 9 – Responsibility – seek to make amends to those you’ve wronged.

STEP 10 – Discipline – take regular self-inventory and when you are wrong promptly admit it.

STEP 11 – Awareness – pay attention to the Higher Power that guides you.

STEP 12 – Service – carry this message to other alcoholics in order to support and encourage them.

[https://fherehab.com/learning/the-12-principles-of-aa/ ]

Our psalmist knows he has failed God – sinned grievously – and comes before God in humble penitence. 

‘Lord, all my desire is before you.” Speaking to God as his master (Lord), David appealed to God with complete transparency. His misery is not hidden from God or from those of us who read it today. 

Our instinct is to follow the pattern of Adam and Eve and hide our sin and hide from God (Genesis 3) but David is an example of the kind of unconcealed communication that is important for the one who truly desires God.  And though he is in deep distress he trusts the God will hear.

‘For in you, O Lord, I hope:’   Despite his spiritual depression, David clung to hope in the LORD. Though he did not feel it, in faith he said, ‘You will hear.’   David chose to allow his affliction to press him toward God instead of away from the God who was his only hope.

¹⁵ But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait;
   it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
¹⁶ For I pray, ‘Only do not let them rejoice over me,
   those who boast against me when my foot slips.’

That great commentator on the psalms, Charles Spurgeon, writes:

        “Intense groaning desires towards God are in themselves works of grace.”    ‘I groan because of the tumult of my heart.’  (v.8).

Not only does the psalmist feel estranged from God but he finds little relief among his friends (v.11,12,19).  He cannot share his experiences with those he knows best and experiences only hostility or contempt from them.  

Our psalm ends as do many of our prayers of distress: there is no apparent change in David’s circumstances but his faith is robust and he continues to trust that God will save him.

Don’t dump me, God;
    my God, don’t stand me up.
Hurry and help me;
    I want some wide-open space in my life!       [MESSAGE]

I expect the sense of God’s absence was David’s greatest trial but he continues to press his needs before God with urgency (v.21-22).

A PRAYER OF Anselm:

O my God, teach my heart where and how to seek You,
where and how to find You.
You are my God and You are my all and I have never seen You.
You have made me and remade me,
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know You.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
Teach me to seek You.
I cannot seek You unless You teach me
or find You unless You show Yourself to me.
Let me seek You in my desire,
let me desire You in my seeking.
Let me find You by loving You,
let me love You when I find You.
Amen

https://youtu.be/f51n-yb11dY  - O Lord, hear my prayer