‘Afraid of Drowning’

Daily Devotional February 18th

“Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck. Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold. I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me. I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched. My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me.” (Psalm 69:1-3)

David finds himself, yet again, in a life and death situation. The crisis is escalating and he feels helpless to extricate himself. He cries out to his only sure source of help, begging for God’s intervention: “Rescue me from the mud; don’t let me sink any deeper! Save me from those who hate me, and pull me from these deep waters. Don’t let the floods overwhelm me, or the deep waters swallow me, or the pit of death devour me” (69:14-15). At this point, there is no rescue in sight and David is desperate.

Maybe you can resonate with David’s frantic prayer. “Where are you God? Can’t you see that without you, I am lost!” While David’s situation has deteriorated to the point of needing divine intervention, he still clings to God. He knows that you don’t throw out the life jacket just because your boat has sprung a leak. He is fearful of ‘going down,’ but it causes him to cling all the more tightly to God. In our desperation, however, I think we are often guilty of worsening our situation because rather than clinging to God, we become impatient and panic. We try to produce our own rescue and often find ourselves making the trouble worse or living to regret decisions we made in our frantic state.

David knew what it was like to be in a life-threatening situation—from bears and lions as he tended sheep; from jealous King Saul and his supporters; from enemy nations; even from his own family. And while we hear David’s melancholy, his anxiety and desperation in many of his psalms, we also hear his unwavering confidence in God and his exuberance as time and again he experiences God’s faithfulness.
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If you find yourself in deep water, with the floods threatening to overwhelm you, please don’t throw away your life jacket. God promises to help us when we call out to Him; but like David we must be willing to allow God to thoroughly examine us, point out areas in our lives that need readjustment, confess our disobedience and our need for Him, then wait for His answer…and when He provides the solution be ready to move in response. And don’t be surprised if His answer is not exactly what you were expecting, because our God “is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). But first, you must turn to God like David did time and again, confident that He was the only One able to provide the needed solution. Your situation is not a reflection of God’s love for you. His love for you is, and will always be, tremendous. That is why you and I, like David, can cling to God with confidence!
~ Pastor Jane