Psalms 142:3 | In A Cave
Psalms 142:3 NIV says, “When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me.”
I encourage you to read all of Psalms 142. It is only seven verses, but the message is real and raw. The subtitle tells us that this psalm was written by David while hiding in a cave. Does that remind you of a physical, emotional, or spiritual place you have been? I am convinced that a large part of growing in intimacy with God is healing. Healing comes through honesty and vulnerability.
That’s what I love about this verse. Tucked in the middle of this lament, David acknowledges that God watches over him in his weariness, but he has a problem: people are trying to mess with him. They are setting traps in his path where he can’t see.
If you read the whole chapter, you get the message. “God! What am I supposed to do? You are the one who saves me. Are you even going to help me?”
Sometimes I think we would be confused if a pastor prayed like David on a Sunday morning. I think our view of faith is skewed toward the positive and hides the negative. Maybe we think that God will disdain our prayers for help. We might believe that God is displeased when we question the outcome of the situation he has us in.
I don’t think we grow in our faith if we always complain and doubt the Lord. Yet I have been learning that we won’t grow in our faith until we reach the limit of what we thought possible. We won’t deepen our trust in God until we are challenged to give him more control and more confidence in our lives. At the junction is a point of questioning that David models for us.
We can both acknowledge God’s promises and the reality of our situation. We can praise God for his faithfulness but be honest that we don’t see a way out. In this process, something shifts in our faith. It becomes increasingly dependent on him to come through and less dependent on us to come through.
This is the beauty of faith in God.
So don’t be afraid of the tension and the questions if you are pressing forward into the unknown. God can handle our concerns and will use them to level up our faith and unlock the door to greater trust and connection with him.
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