“The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18
I wonder what comes to mind when you hear this phrase ‘At a loss’? Sometimes it reflects bewilderment and confusion, not knowing what direction to go in. For others it could express how you feel in certain situations that you are at a loss for words whether that is from how someone treats you or the state of our world as it appears to fall apart around us.
As I was pondering on this today I started to think about the word ‘loss’ it’s a word that expresses something hard, something uncomfortable somehow it expresses something deep within us, that screams ‘this shouldn’t be happening’.
All of us know loss is something bad, unless it is the loss of weight, which many of us have invested our whole lives to accomplish. But that desire in and of itself often comes back to bite us and remind us of how many times we’ve been on this roundabout. Even in sport it’s hard for us to accept that it’s the taking part that counts, especially just after we’ve lost.
Other than in the context of weight (maybe you can think of others) gaining, having, accumulating is more positive, it seems right that we should have more than we have or that regardless of what we have there is something more to be gained.
The writer of Psalm 34 is the future King of Israel, a few years after David had slain Goliath he finds himself the enemy of the current King of Israel and the surrounding Kings. He has just pretended to be mad to escape the clutches of the King of the Philistines, the very enemy God gave David strength to defeat. However this time his circumstances overpowered him, there were a few men who stayed with him, but most people were out to destroy him.
David wrote this Psalm hiding in a cave fearing for his life and relieved he had escaped. I am sure he was at a loss of where his popularity had disappeared to, his success to slay giants seems a distant past, and I am sure he was at a loss to understand how he could ever be the King that God had promised him to be.
Maybe you’re in a similar place to David, maybe you too had so much potential, so much seemed to be promised to you or maybe you wished you had what others seem to get so easily, why is your life journey so hard, so complicated.
What would your prayer be to God, what words would express your loss, your disappointment, your confusion?
What may surprise you is that David wrote this song as a song of praise to God.
David knew that in his escape from the enemy; God was at work but probably unknown to David at the time, these experiences were preparing him to be the King he was called to be. In the safety of the cave David reflected not on his circumstances of despair or grief of what he had lost but what he had in his relationship with God.
This Psalm is filled with the reality of where we are in the bigger picture of God’s kingdom, of God’s way of doing things, of our Creator God’s provision and master plan to rescue humanity and destroy sin, the world (living life as if God doesn’t exist so make up our own ways of doing life) and the devil.
Are you at a loss for words? Then use these words of David to learn or be reminded of who God actually is rather than who we think he is. As we gain understanding of the truth of who God is this shines the light of truth into understanding who we are and what God has planned for us to do.
David knew these things about God were true because he was journeying God’s path. But the path God lays out is the path that feels difficult to tread. But why? After all people certainly told me in the past that life gets easier with Jesus in it?
The road is difficult for us to understand because it is so different to the path of sin that feels so much easier, so much more natural. The thing with sin we know how to do that without effort. It is the path of holiness that has obstacles, has dips that trip us up, because the road to holiness is one of transformation from darkness into light. David’s life reminds us that it’s not an easy path to take but it is the right one, the one that is worth it.
This path is the right path because it’s the exact path that David and anyone willing to walk it, learns who God is and as we journey it we discover he is a personal God, who loves us and will transform us from the darkness of sin into the light and likeness of Jesus. Because Jesus is our greatest gain, our greatest satisfaction, our greatest treasure.
So don’t despair instead turn to the one who knows you better than you know yourself, your Creator and be like David as he reminded those faithful men with him why God had led them into this cave with the words of this Psalm; that this place you find yourself in is both the place of rescue, rest and comfort to equip you to face life again. And together we can worship God singing this song ‘Taste and see the Lord is good’ Psalm 34:8.
And as you walk with others on their ‘at a loss’ days use David’s words so they too can learn that our difficult losses and circumstances don’t prove God has abandoned us but is the very place that he draws near to us because……
“The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18
And I am praying that your ‘at a loss’ day becomes the very day you truly begin to know Jesus as your Rescuer, Friend, Comforter and God.
Living His Word 