“Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me.”
~ Psalm 69:16
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you ever have a day when nothing seems to go right? Why do you think that there are days when nothing seems to go right? How do you feel when you are having a day when nothing seems to go right? Your grandpaa is quite sure that you are not happy campers when you are having a day when nothing seems to go right. Every guy, gal and kid has and will have days when nothing seems to go right. Ask your dad to tell you about a day when nothing seemed to go right for him. When you do have a day when nothing seems to go right, it is real easy to do blame casting – to make everyone and everything else the blame or the fault for a day when nothing seems to go right. A day when nothing seems to go right is really a day when God – if you know God as your Teacher, has established a teaching moment for your lives. A day when nothing seems to go right can be a time for you to hunker down and believe that God will help you to get through the day. If you do blame casting instead – such as making other kids or something unforeseen that happened the fault for having a bad day when nothing seems to go right, you are failing God’s life test or life lesson that He has for you on that day.
Psalm 69 was written by a guy who was passing a life test or life lesson that God was giving him that day. This psalm song writer was looking to God for help to get him out of the dire predicament or mess that God was having him experience that day. This psalm song author wrote in verse 16, “Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me.” This psalm song’s author may have been Hezekiah. This psalm song’s author may have used a psalm song or songs that David wrote for what he wrote in his psalm song. This psalm song’s author knew that God was probably inflicting justice on him for something that he should not have done – or for something that was wrong in God’s eyes for him to have done. God had sent a very large army of enemy soldiers to war against this psalm song’s author to . . . three different times this psalm song’s author prays to God to save him from the enemy soldiers who were attacking him and God’s specially chosen guys. This psalm song’s author was feeling totally helpless. It was a feeling of being caught in deep, murky waters from which there was no escape. Do you feel like you are drowning when you are having a really bad day – when nothing seems to go right for you?
Your grandmaa and grandpaa will never forget a day in Bolivia that suddenly went really bad for them. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were going in their 1972 white C-10 Chevrolet pickup from Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez to Santa Cruz. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had to cross over a river – called the Rio Grande, to get to Santa Cruz. The only way that your grandmaa and grandpaa could get their C-10 Chevrolet pickup across the Rio Grande was by driving it into a small barge like boat and have it pulled across. Guys would tie their small barge like boats to wood stakes that had been driven down into the sand at the edge of the river. The guys who would pull their barge like boat to the other side of river would direct and help your grandpaa drive his pickup into their boat. Depending on how much rain had fallen and the time of the year, the Rio Grande could be completely filled with water or it could be close to being dry. When the Rio Grande is running bank to bank – which is during Bolivia’s annual rainy season, the Rio Grande will be at least a kilometer across. When the Rio Grande is not running bank to bank, the Rio Grande might be only a couple of hundred yards across. When the Rio Grande is not full, your grandpaa would have to drive his pickup way out into the dry riverbed to where the river was flowing. The Rio Grande will constantly change where it wants to flow. On the day when everything suddenly went really bad for your grandmaa and grandpaa, one of the two wood stakes that was holding the small barge like boat by ropes to the Rio Grande’s riverbank broke just as your grandpaa was driving his pickup into the small boat. The river’s current swung the small boat around in the river. The small boat with the back of your grandpaa’s pickup hanging over the back of it began to sink in the fast moving river waters. Your grandpaa could barely squeeze through his pickup’s window – as he could not open the door of the pickup because the pickup could barely fit into the small boat. The water from the Rio Grande started to fill up the pickup. Your grandmaa had put her purse and some albums behind the pickup’s seat. The purse and the albums got water soaked because your grandmaa and grandpaa had forgotten that they were there. Your grandpaa tried to get a number of trucks to pull the 1972 white C-10 Chevrolet that your grandmaa and grandpaa owned out of the Rio Grande but no one was willing to help your grandpaa. Guys kept telling your grandpaa that if your grandpaa did not find help real soon that the Rio Grande’s fast moving water would pull his pickup deeper and deeper into the river and . . . your grandpaa – after what seemed like forever, finally told God that as He was the One Who had given your grandmaa and grandpaa the pickup and if He wanted to drown the pickup in the Rio Grande, that He could go ahead and do it. At almost that moment, a large truck showed up from seemingly nowhere. The driver of the large truck asked your grandpaa if your grandpaa would like to have him pull your grandpaa’s pickup out of the Rio Grande. Your grandpaa remembers how easy the truck without spinning its wheels was able to pull his pickup out of the Rio Grande. Right after your grandpaa thanked the truck’s driver for his help, the truck was gone. No one saw the truck leave. Your grandmaa and grandpaa believe that the truck’s driver was an angel. REALLY! Expect a ‘broken stake’ at any time. Expect the ‘broken stake’ to be a God driven teaching moment for you to learn from.
Psalm 69 (219)