Psalm 124

There are difficulties along the path of our pilgrimage.  And then there are extreme difficulties.  Sprain your ankle, that’s hard; be diagnosed with cancer, that’s really hard.  One of our children gets sick, that’s hard; one of our children dies, that is grievous.  Suffer a financial setback is difficult; lose your job unexpectedly, that’s major.  To lose a friend because you are following Christ is hard.  But to have your family turn against you, that is unimaginably hard.

In the case of the pilgrim, to experience the contempt and scorn of those around him was hard and he cried out to the Lord for mercy (Psalm 123).  But to have people rise up against him and his fellow pilgrims in an attempt to force them off the path, that is a big problem.  It challenges his spiritual existence.  They would have swallowed us alive by their anger.  It’s not a physical attack though that might be involved.  It was an attack on our soul.  We are threatened with serious discouragement, with thoughts of quitting, second thoughts of whether or not the former life was all that bad, or failed expectations about how we thought this new path was supposed to be.  

Part of the problem with these soul-threatening attacks is that they come upon us suddenly.  They are a trap that springs on us from out of nowhere.  In an instant we are overwhelmed.  We feel hopeless and helpless because this is a situation beyond our control.

But wait!  We remember.  Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  God is for us; He is on our side.  If God was not for us in this we would indeed be in a hopeless situation.  But He is on our side.  When Paul brought this to our attention in Rom. 8:31 (If God be for us, who can be against us) the conclusion was that nothing could separate us from the God we seek as we make our pilgrimage in this life (Rom. 8:32-39).  

By persevering patient trust the pilgrim comes to the time, in God’s time, when he blesses the Lord for making a way of escape.  Like the bird, we cannot force the trap open ourselves; but the One on whom we depend enables us to flee from those trials that can destroy us.  Remember the words of 1 Corinthians 10:13:

·        No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man;

·        But God is faithful,

·        Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,

·        But with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

These kinds of events in life are truly life changing.  But it need not be the change in which we become bitter or angry or depressed.  These events can be the reason for which we bless the Lord who is on our side.  He is our help, even in the trials that extend far beyond our own ability.  He is faithful.  Let us be faithful.