Singing in a Cesspool

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me. (Psalm 13:1-6 ESV). Sometimes the trials and frustrations of the present overpower us to the extent that we cannot see or remember anything that has happened in the past. We become so lost now that we forget what happened then. At least for me, when caught in the middle of a problem, it has been easy to say, “What good is yesterday when I’m hurting so bad today?” This is the truth of David’s psalm above, “But, I will trust in your unfailing love.” There are those times when God seems hidden from view, or when His presence seems only a fast fading memory. When that happens, do what David did. Look clearly to the heavens and, contrary to everything that demands you do otherwise, say, “But, I will trust in your unfailing love.” There’s a wonderful testimony that comes from a pastor in China. He had spent eighteen years in a prison camp for his faith. His assigned task in the camp was to empty the human waste from the cesspool. Listen to him as he describes his experience: It was more than two meters in breadth and length, filled with human waste collected from the entire camp. Once it was full, the human waste was kept until it was ripe and then dug out and sent to the fields as fertilizer. Because the pit was so deep I could not reach the bottom to empty it; I had to walk into the disease ridden mass and scoop out successive layers of human waste. The guards and all the prisoners kept a long way off because of the stench. So why did I enjoy working in the cesspool? I enjoyed the solitude. In the labor camp all the prisoners normally were under strict surveillance and no one could be alone. But when I was in the cesspool I could be alone and could pray to our Lord as loudly as I needed. I could recite the Scriptures, including all the Psalms I still remembered, and no one was close enough to protest. That’s the reason I enjoyed working in the cesspool. Also, I could sing loudly the hymns I still remembered. In those days one of my most favorite was In the Garden. Before I was arrested this was my favorite hymn, but at the time I did not realize the real meaning of this hymn. When I worked in the cesspool I knew and discovered a wonderful fellowship with our Lord. Again and again I sang this hymn and felt our Lord’s presence with me. I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses; And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, The son of God discloses. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own; And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known. Again and again as I sang this hymn in the cesspool, I experienced the Lord’s presence. He never left me nor forsook me. And so I survived and the cesspool became my private garden. It is not easy to sing in the cesspool. But, it does work! The next time you begin to wonder if God really loves, try singing in your cesspool. God’s love can work wonders virtually anywhere!