Psalm 86:15

 

“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

If you participated in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayers, you would be reading Psalm 86 on the 17th day of every month.  King David asks God to lean in, listen, and answer.  David is back and forth in his description of himself--poor and needy, but godly; pleading for grace, but praising God for grace already given; crying all day, but trusting.  He takes all that he knows about God, and turns it into praise.  King David is often in danger; enemies--friends and family--trying to overthrow him.   David was always so careful to respect King Saul, who treated him so poorly, because he was God's anointed.  These insurrectionists do not care the least about God's calling on David's life, they just want their own way.  David surrounds his laments with praise, grounding his fears in the overflowing, unwavering, stubborn, devoted love, mercy, faithfulness, and grace of God.  

We all have a friend we go to "lament" to, right?  If something happens, my first thought is "Oh my gosh, I have to call ____!!"  (You know who you are. 😆💓)  I'm sure David had friends he lamented to, friends he trusted.  After all, his friendship with Jonathan is one of the most famous friendships in the Bible.  His heart goes back and forth between faith and fear.  Fear,  because he knows human nature--his own and those around him-- is unstable ground, unreliable and unsafe.  Betrayal lurks around any corner.  And faith, because all he knows of God is stable, reliable, and secure.  He laments and he praises.  Both are safe in God's hands, who is strong enough to carry our questions, insecurities, sadness, anger, and anxieties.  We are free to lament; in fact it's good to lament when we see the chaos of our world.  But unless we surround our lament with praise, our negative emotions can easily become our default.    David's prayer in verse 11--in light of all we know about the stubborn, unwavering, unflinching, faithful, relentless, devoted, patient, loyal love, kindness, mercy, grace of God--should be our own.  "Teach me YOUR way, O LORD, that I may walk in YOUR truth; UNITE my heart to fear YOUR name."