Take A Deep Breath

“Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.” (Ps 4:1 AV)

Psalm four is the psalm of a good night’s sleep.  It appears David is getting flak from some in his kingdom over concerns of a coming harvest.  They are blaming the king for something which he cannot control.  It reminds me of SimCity.  I used to play that often.  Downloaded the cheat codes so managing a city was a bit easier.  However, I noticed that no matter how successful you were, there were always those who complained.  There was always something to fix or someone to make happy.  It reminded me way too much of ministry.  LOL.  This is where David is.  He compares the trouble of leading to being in distress.  Being pressed in and crushed by the desires and needs of others can become overwhelming.  It can rob one of precious sleep.  What caught my spiritual eye this morning is that one word, ‘enlarged’ as compared to distress.  In other words, God gave David the ability to breathe.

Claustrophobia is one of those phobias that is probably common to most.  It would all depend on the size of the enclosure.  Some can only survive in the great outdoors.  They would rather be outside than inside.  When they are inside, all the windows have to be opened.  A constraint is not a good thing.  Others are perfectly fine with being indoors.  However, close them in a closet with no lights, and after a while, they have to bust out.  They would prefer some constraints.  Then some claim no fear of enclosed spaces, but put them in an MRI machine for more than forty-five minutes, they get a little antsy.  Count me as part of that third group.  There were times when the constraint was not a good thing.  Like the time I drove from western Kentucky to Pensacola, FL in one day.  Eighteen hours of driving.  Not good.  At about hour fifteen, I started to lose it.  That long of a time in a vehicle was not a pleasurable experience.  Or, the time when the doctor ordered a brain MRI with and without contrast.  Those scans, collectively, were almost an hour.  It would have been ok if I could have slept.  But the noise of the scanner didn’t make that possible.  Not good!  May I say, I was in distress.  That is even after they gave me a pill to keep me calm.  All I needed was a bit of space.  Just enough to move my head.  I didn’t need to run outside.  I just needed enough space to feel a bit of relief.

This is what David is referring to.  He is not asking the LORD to solve the situation so that he feels no pressure at all.  He is just asking for a bit of breathing space.  The way he found it was to verbally accost his tormentors.  He did not allow their lack of faith and distress to become his own.  He told them to stand in awe of God.  He told them to trust the LORD.  What David sought was not an end to the situation.  Rather, a change of heart and mind for himself.  There was nothing that could be done when it came to the coming harvest.  By the grace of God, it will be what it will be.  There is no sense in fussing over something one has little if any, control over.  It is best to leave it in the hands of the LORD and breathe.  This is David’s solution.  He just needs a little breathing space.  He just needs to poke his head out of the MRI machine for just a minute and wiggle his head.  Then he can go for another forty-five minutes.  That is all.  Not much.  Just a small relief that the pressures of leading his people can continue.  For this, we can pray.