Read: Psalm 107
He delivered them from their distress. (v. 6)
It had been a while since I’d cried hot, angry tears, but there they were, uncontrollably rolling down my face. I was in one of those moments in life when a “yes” answer to a long-prayed prayer was so close. Then, like a mortgage that doesn’t come through or a dire diagnosis, the “yes” vanished into a “no,” and I was angry. Sometimes, we get angry at God, wanting to blame him for our misfortune. No one likes hardship, but despair can teach us about ourselves and God—it can mature us and strengthen our relationship with God.
Psalm 107 describes people who were lost and broken before they were redeemed by God. Four times in the psalm there’s desperation, a cry for help, and an answer from God. And four times, it repeats the same refrain of gratitude: “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” (vv. 6, 13, 19, 28). The repetitive structure of this psalm reminds us that we can cry out to God in our despair and when we do, God is faithful to deliver us.
When we’re lost, God finds us. Even in hard times, God can be trusted to redeem us, to help us, and to save us from our distress. He changes things for us and will do so again and again. So, when something in our lives turns inside out, on the other side of it there’s hope.
As you pray, cry out to God in your trouble.
About the Author
Ariana D. Den Bleyker is a Pittsburgh native currently residing in New York’s Hudson Valley. She is the author of two devotional poetry collections,To Be Held by the LightandWaking in the Light. She is an ordained deacon in the Reformed Church of America.
