“Be pleased, O LORD, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me.”
~ Psalm 40:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever yelled for help? Your grandpaa knows what it is like to yell for help. After going about ten feet into the water of a fastmoving river, your grandpaa stopped. When your grandpaa stopped, the river’s fastmoving water began to dig the sand out from under your grandpaa’s feet. Your grandpaa in just a matter of a few moments went from being knee deep to being thigh deep in the river’s fastmoving water. When your grandpaa yelled for help, Felix Pedraza – who was already well out into the river, came back to pull your grandpaa out of the ever-deepening hole where your grandpaa had become stuck. Felix had found about a ten foot long dead branch to use to help him get across the river. Felix used the dead branch that he was carrying to reach out to your grandpaa to pull your grandpaa out of the ever-deepening hole which was trapping your grandpaa. Your grandpaa is convinced that if Felix had not returned with his dead branch to pull your grandpaa out of the ever-deepening hole where he had gotten stuck that the river’s fastmoving water would have ultimately swept your grandpaa off his feet. Because your grandpaa cannot swim, your grandpaa probably would have had a very hard time surviving while being tumbled downstream in the river’s fastmoving water. Your grandpaa did not let go of the end of Felix’s dead branch until he was safely on the other side of the river. It is now about twenty-eight years ago since your grandpaa found himself in a life-threatening moment while trying to cross through the water of a fastmoving river. (In is now at the time of this editing about forty-four years ago when your grandpaa was in this life-threatening moment while he was trying to cross through the water of a fastmoving river.) Your grandpaa, Felix and Felix’s uncle – Raúl Pedraza, had taken a bus from Santa Cruz, Bolivia to the Yapacaní River to spend the night fishing at a place where the Yapacaní River and another river meet. When a thunderstorm began to move early in the morning towards where your grandpaa, Felix and Raúl were fishing and because they thought that if it began to really rain that the two rivers would get deeper – which might cause the two rivers to flood the sandy area where they were fishing, your grandpaa, Felix and Raúl decided to walk back to the place where they had found a guy who had been willing to take them in his boat to the sandy fork that was caused by the meeting of the two rivers. To get back to this place – which was a couple of kilometers away, your grandpaa, Felix and Raúl had to cross through the fastmoving water of the river that ran into the Yapacaní River. When your grandpaa began to cross through the fastmoving water of the river that ran into the Yapacaní River – which Felix and Raúl had already started crossing through, your grandpaa made several mistakes. Because Felix and Raúl were not having any trouble crossing through the river’s fastmoving water, your grandpaa thought that he would not have any trouble crossing through the river’s fastmoving water. Instead of finding a dead branch to help him cross through the river’s fastmoving water – like Felix and Raúl had done, your grandpaa opted to hang the two small bags that he had taken with him over one of his shoulders and to carry his fishing poles over his other shoulder. The worst mistake that your grandpaa made was to stop for a moment in the river’s fastmoving water – which allowed the river’s fastmoving water to begin to carve out the sand from under your grandpaa’s feet.
David made life mistakes. David did not hesitate to yell out to God for His help. Psalm 40 is a psalm song that David scribed that has him yelling to God for His help. David knew all about abounding troubles. David had gotten himself in dilemmas through personal bad decisions. David knew all about sin. David had gotten himself crosswise with God through personal compromises. David knew that there were times when he had made a decision that had left his life mired in a slimy, muddy pit that was filled with shame. David knew that there were times when he had sinned which had caused his heart to want to fail him. David knew all about what it was like to be very disliked by other guys. David had made enemies who disliked him with a passion because of his personal accomplishments. David knew that there were times when he had been the focus of guys wanting to disgrace him that had made him realize how poor and needy that he really was. David’s desperate yell to God for His help is found in verse 13, “Be pleased, O LORD, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me.” Have you ever yelled to God for His help?
Yelling for help is a good thing to do. God – as God the Father, has given you a dad and ma to help you when you need help. God – as God the Father, has put in place significant others – such as your grandparents, an uncle, aunts, pastors, teachers, coaches, etc. to help you when you urgently need help. God – as God the Father, is always waiting to hear you yell out to Him for His help when you need help. God – as God the Father, will always be giving you difficult life lessons – just as He did to David, to help you to learn to yell to Him for His help. David’s response to a difficult life moment that he found himself in was to turn to praising God instead of getting angry with God. Are you pulling a David when you find yourselves in a difficult life learning moment? Just as David did, you will find God to be a very merciful God who looks past your gaffes, forgives you of your sins and wrecks vengeance on the guys, gals and kids who has made your lives miserable. To yell to God for His help is to say to God that you trust Him to help you. To yell to God for His help is to say to God that you really do understand that He is your one and only Savior and Lord. To yell to God for His help will have God pleased with you. God is your real hope for help.
Psalm 40 (848)