"The Thirsty Deer" (Part 7)

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. (Psalm 42:5-6 NIV).

I’ve added another verse to our reading from previous issues. The imagery the Psalmist uses here is that of water. The thought of one drop of rain reminds him of many drops of water. Soon he is thinking about running water, then a waterfall, then maybe an ocean! But, the idea is that one drop leads to another drop. This illustration really represents how the Psalmist feels about his problems. The Psalmist has so many troubles it feels like he is drowning in them.

Have you ever felt like you were “in over your head”, drowning in a sea of difficulties? Does it ever seem like the waves of despair have overtaken you? Deep calls to deep. One problem leads to another. What starts as one little problem, soon becomes a major disaster! It’s like Murphy (of Murphy’s Law) has gone crazy in your life! It has happened to most of us from time to time.

Still using the water theme let me say that none of us can do anything about the tsunami problems of life that overtake us before we knew what hit us. These major disasters hit us without warning, but all of us can stop the slow leaks in our life before they become a major flood. The reason we each need a daily time alone with God is because we have to be prepared to stop the slow leaks in our faith. We have to build a strong defense against the periods of doubt that will surely come our way.

Just last week I was visiting with a lady who was a Nashville flood victim. She said her house had never had so much as a drop of water in it since it was built in 1992! This year it had four feet of water in her basement after the rain finally stopped! She remarked how helpless she felt about it. She had not prepared for the flood because it had never flooded before. That same weekend a stark contrast played out in our neighborhood. I was down the street helping some neighbors sandbag their house. They stayed dry. If you want to be prepared when the floods come, then you must daily do some sandbagging.

The first sandbags I would lay would be a daily exposure to the Scripture. There’s nothing like reading the Psalms or Proverbs to give you some encouragement for those tough times. But, I would also lay some other bags. Find those folks that you can trust to come alongside you and help shoulder the load. They may be your family, friends, or minister. Whoever it is, involve them in your life. Build the right wall and the floods won’t destroy you.