Hasten, O God, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me. – Psalm 70:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 29, 2013): Psalm 70

One of the misconceptions of the Christian faith is found in the idea that God will never give you more than you can handle. I hear it all the time. One friend, quoting a famous speaker, recently made the comment that he understands that God will not give him more than he can handle, but at this point in his life he just wished that God did not have such a high opinion of his abilities. But the problem with the statement is that Jesus never made that assurance for us. In fact, throughout history there have been many people that have had experiences beyond what they could handle, and God never did come through for them. And I know this because they failed the ultimate “I can handle this” test of life – they stopped living (or, if you prefer, they died.) The promise that Jesus did make was that he would not allow us to be tempted beyond the point where we can say no. But the promise was never that we would always feel that we are able to handle life.

David had reached the point where he could no longer handle life. By the time this Psalm is written, David has already been through a lot of living. His story is beginning to get long. And it started off with a long conflict with Saul. But God moved and Saul died. And after Saul had died, the conflict just moved. Now it was battle between the tribe of Judah and the rest of Israel. But God moved, and David won the battle. But the borders of the nation were not secure. So David began to fight the battles with enemies that wanted to destroy his kingdom. He needed to secure the borders. But God moved and the borders became secure. And then Absalom rebelled against him, and David was driven out of his own home and his own city. And Absalom did unspeakable things to the people and things of David, and father was forced to fight a battle against his son. And even though the odds were stacked in the favor of the son, God moved and David prevailed in the war. But now something has changed. David is broken and he is injured – life has taken its toll – and he is no longer sure that he can handle all that life has to offer to him. And then Sheba comes into his life – and David’s question becomes, does this ever end. Have you ever been there?

So David cries out, God, come quickly. Because if you do not come now; then I am afraid that I will no longer be here when you arrive. If you do not save me today, I may not be able to be saved tomorrow. It is a position that at some point in life we all find ourselves in – and we all issue the cry. And it is at that point that we realize – of all the things that we could put our hope in, God is the only one that can come and save. For David, God would come once more. But, maybe more importantly, David knew that whether God came to rescue him in this life and in this situation – or waited to usher him into the next, he knew that God would always comes.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 21