“I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.”
~ Psalm 142:2
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever felt trapped? If you have ever felt trapped, what caused you to feel trapped? If you have ever felt trapped, what did you do? If you have ever felt trapped, did you feel desperate? Have you ever felt trapped when you have been in an elevator or in a dark room? Ask your dad and/or your ma if they have felt trapped when they have not had enough money to buy food? Your grandmaa and grandpaa at one point felt trapped while they were in Edinburg, Texas at the Rio Grande Bible Institute and Language School (RGBI) to learn to understand, speak and write Spanish. After your grandmaa and grandpaa had spent a couple of months at RGBI leaning to understand, speak and write Spanish, the mission agency – South American Mission (SAM), that had accepted your grandmaa and grandpaa to be missionaries in Bolivia, told your grandmaa and grandpaa that if their monthly financial support was not substantially increased that your grandmaa and grandpaa would have to stop learning to understand, speak and write Spanish at RGBI so that they could spend time visiting family, friends and churches to ask for their help to meet the monthly financial support that had been budgeted for them to raise. Your grandmaa and grandpaa knew that they needed to learn how to understand, speak and write some Spanish before they left for Bolivia to begin their missionary vocation but . . . your grandmaa and grandpaa did not know what to do. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were living with your dad and your Aunt Lynn in a cement block apartment on RGBI’s campus. The cement block apartment that your grandmaa and grandpaa were living in was located in the middle of one of the two rows of cement block apartments that are on RGBI’s campus. The number of the apartment where your grandmaa and grandpaa were living in at RGBI was thirteen. When your grandmaa and grandpaa asked God what they should do about the monthly financial support that they needed to have in order for them to be able to stay at RGBI where they would be able to begin to learn to understand, speak and write Spanish, God answered the prayers of your grandmaa and grandpaa and they were able to continue to stay at RGBI to learn to understand, speak and write Spanish.
David was literally trapped at times by guys who wanted David dead. When David was trapped, what do you think that David? David would talk with God. David would beg God for His help. David would plead to God for His assistance. David would feel powerless when he was trapped by guys who wanted him dead. What do you think that David did when he was trapped in a cave one time by guys who wanted David dead? David wrote a maskil. David over his lifetime would write twelve maskils. A maskil is an instructive or meditative ode. Psalm 142 is David’s last maskil that is included in the Psalms Book. When David was trapped, David felt imprisoned. When David was trapped, David asked God to rescue him. When David was trapped, David intentionally remembered the times that God saved him from guys who wanted him dead – which had David praising God for what God had done already for him. God at times will bring an unbearable situation into the life of a guy, gal or kid. You will more than likely find yourselves one day in an unbearable situation – such as possibly becoming trapped in an elevator or becoming very seriously ill or realizing that you were not prepared to take a scheduled test or . . . if you have not been so far in an unbearable situation, get ready for them as God will be sending them your way – just as God sent them David’s way, your grandmaa’s way, your grandpaa’s way, your dad’s way, your ma’s way, . . . God sends unbearable situations into the lives of every guy, gal and kid so that every guy, gal and kid will have opportunities to ask Him for His help versus trying to resolve, solve or fix the unbearable situation by his or her self.
After SAM’s leadership asked your grandmaa and grandpaa to seriously think about stopping learning to understand, speak and write Spanish to do fund raising, your grandmaa and grandpaa got a visitor. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had decided that a salamander had to go. It seemed like every time that your grandmaa or grandpaa or your dad or your Aunt Lynn needed a glass, the salamander was hanging unto the inside of the cupboard door where the glasses were kept. While your grandpaa was taking the glasses out of the cupboard, your grandmaa noticed a snake under the sitting area couch. Your grandmaa decided that she would run for help. Your Aunt Lynn and your dad climbed up on a chair. Your grandpaa headed for the snake – which was heading for the front door. Just as the snake got to the front door, Jon Burkett – a RGBI student who lived in the cement block apartment two doors from the apartment where your grandmaa and grandpaa lived, opened the front door. The snake crawled right between Jon’s legs just as Jon was asking your grandpaa where the snake was. Your grandpaa a few days later decided to write a prayer/news letter. Your grandpaa by this time had decided that the snake that had visited the cement block apartment where your grandmaa and grandpaa were living was either a bull snake or a rattlesnake. Your grandpaa decided to write the prayer/news letter as if the letter was being written by the bull snake. Your grandpaa named the bull snake Bruno Bullsnake. That prayer/letter that your grandpaa sent from Bruno Bullsnake – who told the guys and gals who received the letter that your grandmaa and grandpaa needed financial help because . . ., really did help raise their monthly financial support. David said in verse 2 “I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.” Your grandmaa and grandpaa really believe that God sent the bull snake to help your grandpaa and grandmaa raise the monthly financial support that SAM had budgeted for your grandmaa and grandpaa to raise.
Psalm 142 (257)