Dear PBC Family,
What do you do in response to the soul-crushing darkness that enemies bring? Many have experienced this, and it often comes from those closest to us — sometimes even from a spouse.
David in Psalm 143 experienced this. For he said, “For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.” We can take comfort that the writers of scripture experienced the same types of attacks and hurts that we often experience, with the same intensity or worse that we experience.
So what does David do? He puts his mind on God, specifically, on God’s work. David says that he remembered, meditated, and mused on this work of God in 143:5. “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.” (Psalm 143:5)
These verbs describe a deep, slow, pondering that contemplates the contours of what God has done, explores its implications for what he can do, and reorders the soul in light of these things, forming a heart that knows the living God. When David describes “the days from of old,” God’s “work,” and the work of God’s hands in 143:5, he uses expressions that connote God’s activity from before the foundation of the world.
God planned the world. God built the world. God delivered his people in the world. The world cannot but become what God intends it to be.
This results in Davids praise at the end: “in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant.” (Psalm 143:12)
God is reliable and full of steadfast love, and He will make all things right.
Blessings,
Jarred