Appearances

Off an Oregon coast is Thor’s Well. Lovely to look at, but dangerous. When the tide is right, it appears that the ocean could eventually run into the hole, though we know the sink hole couldn’t hold it.  Then the tide backs off and the appearance changes completely.  From the shore it appears a bunch of rock along the shore, a regular tidal pool.

Sometimes we feel as though there is such a hole in our lives.  One that just keeps taking in the ebb and flow of our lives, never releasing, never filling.  David must have felt this when he wrote:

Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. (Psalms 69:1 KJV)

How well we know that feeling of being overwhelmed.

I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. (Psalms 69:2 KJV)

The loss of a loved one creates such a hole in our souls, one that can take in the endless tides of the ocean, yet never being filled.

I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. (Psalms 69:3 KJV)

Wait. For how long? Each day seems eternal, as we wait. Without knowing for what it is we wait. Release?  Filling?  It is not only our eyes, it is our heart that fails.

David continues in this psalm, listing those things that overwhelmed him – they are not the same as the ones we face, but the waiting, the solution and the prayer could be:

But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. (Psalms 69:13 KJV)

In His time, in the truth of His salvation, is our wait and our promise.

Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. (Psalms 69:15 KJV)

Those fears remain in mankind now, in each of us, individually, alone. Later, David tells us what is better than burnt offerings to the Lord:

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. (Psalms 69:30-31 KJV)

Please note that at this point, God has not answered David’s plea. David remained hunted, surrounded by enemies, living in a world far different from the one he lost.  Yet, he could praise God with thanksgiving.
Can we do the same as we are overwhelmed?  How do we appear?