OVERWHELMED – by Lillian Rhoades
From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety… (Psalms 61:2 NLT).
As a writer, there are days when I would love to have had King David over for tea. I would thank him for the eloquently expressive memoirs he left behind that gave me more than a glimpse into his troubled heart, and the anguish and despair that often threatened to replace his trust in God. Heartbroken, and in despair, David cries out in Psalm 61 from a desperate place. It might not have been literally,” from the ends of the earth,” but certainly one could interpret that he was at the end of his rope and barely hanging on. I’ve been there and perhaps you, too–even now. Life for David had turned into a burden that was too heavy to carry, and he had no place to lay it down.
Perhaps he remembers those times when he had been hiding from King Saul in the Cave of Addullam; the name means refuge. “Lead me to the towering rock,” he pleads. When we’re at the place of despair, how easy it is to forget how God had once provided a place of refuge from our desperate circumstances. We get caught up in what looks bleak, hopeless and interminable, and lose our way.
As it was with King David, we will never find the way back to the place of freedom from fear and anxiety until we say those words that testify to our helplessness. “Lead Me to that place that I once knew, a place of safety and peace that You have provided, whenever I’m overwhelmed.”
