The God of the Overwhelmed

Psalm 61:1-8  Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 

Ivan Aivazovsky
Hurricane at the Sea (1850)   
wikiart.org

Have you ever felt like you were at the end of your rope? Have you ever found yourself in a position where you just didn't know what to do and there was so much going on in your life you felt like you were being pulled in a thousand directions? Maybe like the breaking waves of the ocean, one sorrow after the other came crashing in and you are not sure if you could take another hit.

David felt like this when he wrote the Psalm 61. It is not the song of someone who can make it on his own. It isn't the song for someone who is too proud to admit that they need grace. It is the song of a man who is honest about the frailty of his flesh. David is drowning emotionally, and he is just able to keep his head above the water, and feels like he can't keep up much longer. His heart is about to burst with heartache and trials.

David's hope was not to look within, but to look above and to cry out for mercy. His hope was in His Saviour. Jesus is the shelter when our hearts are overwhelmed, He is the mighty Rock of refuge from the storms of life, and our only salvation. He is higher than I can climb, higher than our troubles, higher than we could ever get ourselves. Christ will lead me, when I can’t go on my own and am too distraught to find my own way. Lead me to the Rock, the steadfast refuge of my soul, that is higher, loftier, mightier than I, to the Rock that has hope and life for all who cling to Him.

He started the psalm in despair, but ends it in song. He started crying in pain, and left singing in Christ.  He started declaring vows, and left fulfilling them. No matter how dreadful our current problem may be, there is peace in Christ Jesus, if you are found hidden in Christ. You can go in your prayer closet overwhelmed and come out singing. The problem may still be there, but how sweet to cast all your care, all your anxieties, all your problems upon Him, because He cares for His own. God is not the God of the proud, or the strong, or the self-righteous. God is not the God who helps those who help themselves. God is the God who saves those who cannot save themselves. Cast away your self-sufficiency. Abandon your efforts to earn God's love. Humble yourself and turn to the only refuge of the soul and know that the blood of Jesus washes away all sin. Are you overwhelmed? Come to the God of the overwhelmed.