From the Pits to Praise
Occasionally we all find ourselves in the pits of discouragement, depression or disappointment. A general sense of hopelessness and despair overwhelms us when we find ourselves in the pits of helpless feelings. When we are in the pits of life we need the help of God to deliver us from emotional, mental, financial, or social low predicaments. Sometimes, the Lord delivers us directly but other times, He uses certain people.
Quote: I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.
C.S. Lewis.
Remember that God wants to move you from the pits to praise with His mighty power to deliver. There are several lessons we can learn from David in Psalm 40 to help us move from the pits of despair to the pinnacle of praise, power and higher perspective:
1. Patiently wait on the Lord every morning in your devotions to find His overcoming help to do deliver you from emotional, mental or relation pits. We can claim the blessed promise from Isaiah 41:10, "They who wait (meditate, look to and hope in) upon the Lord, will renew their strength. They will run and not be weary they will walk and not faint." Waiting on the Lord requires discipline but also the confidence that God is greater than any problem and He wants to use these down times to draw us closer to Himself.
Illustration: "Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind."
Leonardo da Vinci.
2. Praise God in advance for His power, His deliverance and His plan to lift your head. David wrote, "The glory and the lifter of my head. For you Oh Lord art a shield for me. the glory and the lifter of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice and He heard me out of His holy hill." (Psa 121) Praise God for His problem solving abilities. He has the ability to help overcome any problem you may be facing with His wisdom, knowledge and resources. He always finds a way when there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see. He will find a way for you out of your predicament, problem or pit.
3. Thank God for the way He has delivered godly people in the past and know He will do the same for you. David recalled, "He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along." (Psa 40:2)
Illustration: I remember as a new Christian singing "Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help, love lifted me." The song leader said, Let us replace the word love with Christ and sing that chorus again. That wonderful song has lifted me out of despair, depression and discouragement more times than I can count. I know it is Jesus Christ who lifts me out of my sense of hopelessness, sadness and weakness. When it seems that nothing else will help you, remember to sing the song, "Christ lifted me. Christ lifted me. When nothing else could help. Christ lifted me!" We can be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, like the apostle Paul as we sing with confidence the new song of Christ’s lifting power.
4. Be assured that God will bring you up out of any rut, depression or difficult that you are in. He will set you on a new foundation, opportunity and launching pad because He is the God of new beginnings. He will establish your way as He provides you with a new energy to embark on greater projects for the qualitative and quantitative advancement of His kingdom and righteousness. David wrote, "He has given me a NEW song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the Lord." (Psa. 40:3,4) Not only will the Lord deliver you but He will bring others to Himself as a result of your experience of deliverance.
Illustration: Most people are more inspired when they see someone delivered from their times of testing. When the miners were trapped in a watery mine in Pennsylvania for 11 days, the entire USA news media gave 24 hour coverage to the plight of 9 brave miners. The entire nation rejoiced when all of the men were lifted up of the depths of their watery graves, faces blackened, in yellow rescue tubes, to the rejoicing of hundreds of millions around the world. All the men gave credit to their rescuers, but they recognized that it was the grace of God that lifted them up out of their slimy pit. Sometimes the Lord allows us to be trapped with no way out just to show others His power through our experience of deliverance. He allowed Joseph to be thrown into a pit where he was subsequently imprisoned in Egypt for 18 years. Yet, in Gen 50:20 Joseph wrote about his brothers, "You meant to throw me in the pit for evil, but God turned it for good for the saving of many lives."
Allow the Lord to use your present discouraging experience for HIs greater purposes, plan and power demonstration. Do not think that you have to be delivered instantly. God is using you for His greater display of mighty power, perspective and problem solving capacities.
5. We gain new understanding, wisdom and maturity as a result of our pit experiences. David wrote, "You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. NOw that you have made me listen, I finally understand - Then I said, "Look, I come. And this has been written in the scroll of the book. I take uoy in doing your will my God for your law is written in my heart." (Psa. 40:6-8)
Illustration: Previously, David performed religious rituals of offering animal sacrifices in the Tabernacle. Now David realizes that these offerings are essentially meaningless unless done for the right reasons. Too many people make going to church a ritual, or doing their assignments, giving, serving, or completing their tasks at work nothing more than a ritual that fulfills an obligation. Instead, we need to see that anything done ritualistically, selfishly, or out a gruding sense of obligation is in vain. God wants us to serve the Lord with gladness and come in to His presence with singing, knowing that the Lord is God and He has given us the privilege of offering ourselves as living sacrifice of worship, gratitude and love to Him. Make sure you give yourself to God with an attitude of love, thankfulness and worshipful submission.
Illustration: One of my favorite choruses we sang in our seminary chapel in Nigeria where I taught for nearly twenty years was. "He has done so much for me. He has taken away my sorrows. Oh glory hallelujah, He is coming to take us home." When we consider all the grate things He has done for us , we cannot help but serve the Lord with gladness and offer back to him ourselves with humble, obedient and trusting service.
6. Deliverance from trouble impresses on us our responsibility to proclaim the goodness of God. DAvid wrote, "I have told your people about your justice, I have not been afraid to speak out, as you, O Lord, well know. I have not kept this good news hidden in my heart; I have talked about your faithfulness and saving power. I have told everyone in the great assembly of your unfailing love and faithfulness." (Psa. 40:9,10) Here are some of the responsibilities we have each day:
a). Preach Christ
b). Teach of Christ
c). Exemplify Christ in all aspects of our lives, relationships and service
d). Abide in Christ in our personal devotions and thoughts
e). Witness of Christ
f). Love with the love of Christ
g). Give with the resources of Christ
h). Worship Christ
i). Fellowship with believers in Christ
j). Endure with Christ
k). Equip others in Christ
l). Find your resources in Christ
m). Find your protection in Christ
n). Find your all sufficient grace in Christ
o). Suffer with Christ
p). Know Christ and make Christ known
q). Confess your sins to Christ
r). Delight yourself in Christ
s). Look to Christ as the one who help you overcome
t). Develop the character qualities of Christ
u). Be empowered by Christ and His word
7. Ask the Lord to not hold back any element of His provisions, mercy, love and faithful intervention in your life. David wrote, "Lord, do not hold back your tender mercies from me. My only hope is in your unfailing love and faithfulness. For troubles surround me - too many to count! They pile up so high I can’t see my way out. They are more numerous than the hairs on my head. I have lost all my courage." (Psa. 40;11,12)
Many people take for granted that things are going OK and then they are suddenly overwhelmed when trouble comes along. We need to realize that the world, the flesh and the devil hate God’s children and their works of righteousness. Paul wrote, "For the flesh sets itself against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do what you please." (Gal. 5:16) Peter wrote, "The devil prowls around you like a roaring lion seeking whom He may devour. But cast all of your care upon Him for He cares for you." (I Pet. 5:7,8) Paul wrote, "If anyone thinks he stands, let him take heed, lest he falls." (I cor. 12)
In order to prevent being over run, overwhelmed or overtaken by the onslaught of evil we need to take advantage of the dry times to prepare for the next battle. It will come, it is just a matter of time as the Bible says, "The devil seeks to steal, slaughter, kill and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly." (JOhn 10:10) Only Jesus is able to prepare, equip and build you up to a point where you will be able to handle the upcoming hardships that are bound to befall you and me.
God wants to grant you protection for the future problems you will face if you will praise Him in advance. I have made a list of 641 attributes of God that are listed on sermoncentral.com under the topic Attributes of God.
Illustration: I have written 641 prayers of praise for 641 different characteristics of God that inpsire me when I am feeling down. This enables me to draw strength for the future difficulties, challenges and opportunities to be a greater witness of His marvelous power to deliver. You can utilize these by carrying a list of God’s attributes in your car, in your purse or in your back pocket that you can whip out when you are walking, standing in a check out line or sitting waiting for someone or something.
Trust the Lord to help your entire life, ministry and relationships be a testimony to a journey from the pits to higher levels of praise. May you learn how to more effectively please the Lord in all respects and help you bear fruit in every good work as you increase in your nearness and knowledge of the Lord and His will for your life. (Col. 1:9-11)
Concluding Illustration: I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. If it were possible for a created soul fully to ’appreciate,’ that is, to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme blessedness. To praise God fully we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God, drowned in, dissolved by that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression. Our joy is no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds.
C.S. Lewis.
