SueAnn Porter

Yesterday was a bad day. There were too many disappointments to number.

When I woke up this morning, my head was still swirling. I felt like all the emotions that I was dealing with were too much to bring to God, too much to pray about, and why do I want to bother God with this anyway? I should be able to fix it myself, I’m the one that messed it up in the first place. God deserves better than to listen to me and my mess. I’ll just have to figure out how to deal with it.

I opened my bible and it fell open to Psalm 107.

Verse 6 says:

Then in their trouble they called to the Lord, and He saved them from their distress.

This is repeated again in verses 13, 19 and 28. This jumped off the page at me. Call to the Lord from your trouble and he will save you from your distress. But, what about trouble that is my own doing?  Well back up and look at the verses before these:

Some were living in gloom and darkness, prisoners suffering in chains because they had rebelled against the commands of Almighty God and had rejected His instructions. They were worn out from hard work; they would fall down and no one would help. (verses 10-11)

But still:

Then in their trouble they called to the Lord, and He saved them from their distress.

So even though the trouble was of their own making, when they turned to God for help, He helped them.

Then onto verse 17:

Some were fools, suffering because of their sins and because of their evil; they couldn’t stand the sight of food and were close to death. (v 17-18)

Again:

Then in their trouble they called to the Lord, and He saved them from their distress. (v 19)

The psalm goes on, explaining troubles of life: defeat, humiliation, dry rivers, oppression, and suffering. Some were self-imposed, some were forces of nature. When they called to the Lord, he delivered them from their troubles.

The psalm wraps it all up nicely:

May those who are wise think about these things, may they consider the Lord’s constant love. (v 43)

I confess, I sometimes struggle with believing in “constant love,” especially when the emotions are so overwhelming, and the mess is of my own making. But there it is in black and white. Call on the Lord and be saved from your distress.