Cry Out, Burned Out, Helped Out

The holidays and winter season are especially hard for us who’ve been through dark times and dark places. Memories become fresh again as we recount the pain that’s still there.

Consider our friends: a husband and wife of three boys like Robin and me who still grieve the death of their middle son by suicide earlier this year, leaving behind a wife and three children. The mother recently wrote this on social media:

“This December, I’m grateful for the people who have walked beside me through my hardest moments this year. The ones who showed up, checked in, and stood by me when life felt heavy. Thank you for being my people. I am truly grateful to have you in my life.”

Despite their gratitude, Jeff and Debbie still feel the loss of their son; pain and darkness still haunt them.

It’s like being in a cave. And God’s people are not immune or exempt from it.

That’s what makes Psalm 142 so personal and meaningful. David is in crisis. Two times in 1 Sam. 22 and 23:14–24:23, David and his companions are driven to the relative safety of a physical cave. First David escapes from the Philistine king, Achish, and second he flees from Saul in hideouts around Horesh south of Hebron and then in caves near En-Gedi, close to the Dead Sea.

Judean geology with its limestone and dolomite rock formations makes it ideal for cave development. And during his time as a shepherd, David was familiar with the territory.

Caves can provide safety, yet David was driven there by fear for his life. A cave becomes a tomb when we are found there hiding. There in the darkness he contemplated his next step by crying out to God. Psalm 142 is a record of those prayers.

Cry out: dark times and places cause us to pray our most desperate and honest prayers (142:1-2)

Notice that David prays aloud. Praying in our minds can signal that we don’t believe God hears us. Praying aloud focuses our words to a knife edge. Psalm 142 is a desperate cry for help. Desperate prayers get God’s attention. Nothing is held back. No detail spared. Those who have faced life-threatening illness know what David means. You who’ve faced impossible situations understand this prayer.

We pray our best prayers when our soul is in anguish. We’re forced to depend on God. How many times in your life have you been in a dark place which has forced you to utter out loud prayers of the heart?

In the Luke 18:1-8 parable about persevering in prayer, the widow pesters the judge until he finally gives in to her cry for justice.

On the contrary, we pray to a God who hears us. Proverbs 15:29 says “the prayer of the upright is his delight.” Our prayers do not inform God of what he doesn’t know. Instead, our prayers help us by telling him what he knows already. These prayers help us see God is already at work in our trouble.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple once said this about prayer: “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance but laying hold of his willingness.”

When necessary, cry out to God in a loud voice when you feel trapped in your own personal cave. He will hear and already be at work on your escape.

Burnt out: God doesn’t give up on us even when we ourselves feel overwhelmed  (142:3-4)

In dark times and places, we can reach a point of total exhaustion.

Ps. 77:3 is an example: “I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.” And Jonah inside the great fish prays in Jonah 2:7: “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”

We can see no way out of our circumstances. We become suspect of others, even God. David, the hero who slayed Goliath, can’t save himself. He is too far gone. He is mired in the quicksand of life. He finds no help in others.

David hid in a cave for safety, but even Saul sought him there. No one comes to his aid. The word torpid comes to mind: physically and mentally inactive. Maybe clinically depressed. If you’ve ever gone through those checklists for depression, you understand David’s condition.

It is right and good to have friends. But sometimes those friends vanish because of indifference or a reluctance to seek us out. The phrase in v.4 “no one at my right hand” points to help in our greatest need. But David finds no one there. Even God seems absent.

But God is there. Psalm 37:23-24 states that even though we’re falling, God holds us by our right hand.

Nineteenth century preacher Charles Spurgeon writes this in The Treasury of David, a devotional commentary on the psalms: “It is better to be opposed by foes than to be forsaken by friends”. In other words, foes comprise a known enemy; friends who abandon us cause us to sink deeper in despair. Burnt out.

Helped out: We pray God’s promises and ask specific prayers for his help (142:5-7)

We cry from the heart and ask for help. When help comes, we can give God praise and thanks.

David prays promises in v.5 reminiscent of Ps.27:13 and 62:8: “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is a refuge for us.”

David understands he’s in a position of weakness: he’s the fugitive on the run, Saul is the pursuer with the strength of the kingdom behind him.

There are of course times when we must take action. We become the answer to our own prayers. But it’s in the dark places where we must call on God alone to deliver. He must come through because no one else will.

In v.7, the psalm describes that condition as a prison. We’re dependent on someone on the outside to set us free. But when God does that, we are liberated to praise God for his deliverance. And we can share that freedom with others who may need encouragement.

I want to close with the words of a 19th century hymn by a woman named Sarah Steele. Her words may help those of us in the winter of our souls:

1 Stern winter throws his icy chains
Encircling nature round;
How bleak, how comfortless the plains,
Late with gay verdure crowned.

2 The sun withdraws his vital beams,
And light and warmth depart;
And drooping, lifeless nature seems
An emblem of my heart.

3 Return, O blissful Sun, and bring
Thy soul-reviving ray:
This mental winter shall be spring,
This darkness turn to day.

4 Oh, happy state! divine abode!
Where spring eternal reigns,
And perfect day, the smile of God,
Fills all the heavenly plains.

5 Great Source of light, thy beams display,
My drooping joys restore!
And guide me to the seats of day,
Where winter frowns no more.

It’s this time of year when many of us find ourselves in dark places seemingly with no way out. It’s only when we cry out to God do we begin to see the light at the entrance of every dark cave.