Sing with Me, How Great is our God

I’ve found it sure feels good when the hurting stops. You have been caught in a cycle of sickness, poor health, maybe even injury, and then notice the healing start. Or the employment situation has been less than ideal, and then it begins to turn around, and you regain your sense of hope for the future. Or a relationship has come undone or become stagnant, or maybe somebody close to you has let you down by not living up to your expectations for them, but then things start to change there as well. David knew all of these emotions.

I like when David says to God, “What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?” (verse 9). I’ve prayed that prayer. I wasn’t sure if it was presumptuous of me at the time, but I did think, “How does my misery, my destruction, help your cause? Don’t you want me around to praise you?”

David talks about the raw honesty God wants from us when we talk to him. He does it in two ways. He questions God’s discipline on him in this particular situation and hardship with “raw honesty”; but he also praises God and acknowledges the turnaround with “raw honesty”, “O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.”

David was open to God with “raw honesty.” God doesn’t mind hearing our complaints, but he doesn’t mind hearing us praise him either. Be real with God. Really, really, real.

Respond in Prayer

Faithful God, Father of your people, what good am I to you, sunk in a pit or dead? Answer me when I come to you, so my heart may sing to you and not be silent. So when people see me, they will say, how great is his/her God.

Jim Paterson

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®).