Hard Times Ease Others

“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.” (Ps 31:24 AV)

What makes the verse so important is the context in which we find it.  This psalm, it is believed, is written sometime in the first half of the years of David’s flight from Saul.  This psalm is a prayer for deliverance from those who would seek his life.  Verse fourteen and fifteen of this Psalm is the pivotal moment in this prayer.  David expresses his concern over the many times Saul sought his life, then he states his emphatic faith in God.  When he uses the past tense, he infers the prayer was made in the past, and God answered David is the present.  Then he tags the Psalm with the verse above.  He expresses his fear and anxiety over the threats of Saul, seeks and finds deliverance, then shares his experience as a means of hope to others.  Paul puts it this way, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.” (2Co 2:4 AV)  Paul went through hardships himself.  He knew, as well as David, these hardships have many purposes.  One of which is to encourage others who may also be suffering from hardships.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to visit a cancer patient while he was in the process of receiving his chemotherapy.  The hospital in which I visited had its own outpatient area where this was administered.  It was a very nice area.  Each patient had his or her own cubical that looked like a small living room complete with a TV, recliner, and TV tray.  A coffee table and couch were available for visitors.  I couldn’t help but take notice the patients shared a common bond over their experiences.  They knew one another by name.  They conversed with one another.  They shared with one another.  They joked with one another.  They played cards with one another.  Each was suffering from a different specific cancer or stage in the progression, but that didn’t matter.  They were all in this together.  When a newcomer arrived, he or she was reluctant to join in.  But it didn’t take long before the group assimilated the new patient into the group.  What was interesting to me was how the patients were dealing with their cancer far more successfully than the family members who might have been there on a visit. 

This is the understanding of the verse above.  I couldn’t help but feel a bit warm inside when I read this verse in context.  What the Spirit illumined was the love David had for people he hadn’t even met.  He wrote the Psalm, and the concluding verse, for any and all who might need it.  He was glad to go through what he went through if it meant he could lift someone else out of their despair.  He was glad the LORD put him in these circumstances because it was through that all that God became very real to Him.  It was those hard times and the resultant hand of God which delivered him which gave cause to the encouraging words above.  In essence, David is saying that if he went through it and God met him, the same is true of all who will go through it.  Therefore, be encouraged.  God and not forgotten you.  He will not abandon you.  He has been and always will be faithful to His children.  And, when the LORD brings you through the deep waters, pray He sends you to someone in the midst of them.  That way, you can be an encouragement to someone else in need.