{"id":21966,"date":"2020-05-04T12:30:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/?p=21966"},"modified":"2020-05-05T13:10:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T18:10:23","slug":"rescue-us-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/rescue-us-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescue us, Lord!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a child, growing up with my grandmother, we often visited the book of Psalms when we did our nightly devotions. So the Psalms hold a priority place of prayer, praise and promise for me.\u00a0 Today, I reflect on Psalm 31 verse 9: \u201cBe gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.\u201d\u00a0 Psalm 31 verse 9<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwords of the psalm unmask the desperate condition of a real person with real\ntrials, but one with real faith. It echoes a cry to the Lord for help, but amid\nthe hopelessness of the situation and even before an answer comes, the psalmist\npraises God, commits his spirit into God\u2019s hands and praises God who redeems\nhis soul from death.  While the writer\nseems to exaggerate the reality, it also shows his simple honesty.  He seemed to have reached a low point and it\ncompelled him to refocus. It seemed he hit the proverbial \u201crock-bottom,\u201d with\nno lower place to go, and it was from that depth that he recognized he\nneglected his first love.  He was brought\nlow, stripped of the other options and life seemed to turn inward.  With no place else to go, and salvaging only\nwhat was left in a faint voice, with only enough strength to give utterance to\nthe helplessness and inadequacy that was present, he prayed: \u201cBe gracious to\nme, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and\nbody also.\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our world, cornered and confined by the current health situation gives us an opportunity to take stock of ourselves. It doesn\u2019t take long for us to recognize that if we yield to statistics, that we may plunge to the depths of hopelessness. Yes, our current realities court hopelessness and regardless of our occupation, we feel we are plunged into an abyss of inadequacy. The soul echoes the cry for the saviour to give ear and come quickly to perform a rescue mission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npsalm invites us to acknowledge and usher our frailties and brokenness to the\none who has an incredible ability to piece together fragmented things;  the one whose smile renews our hope; the one\nwhose grace breathed upon the distressed soul revives mustard seed faith; the\none who stays with us, and because of whose presence we are not dealt the fatal\nblow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It requires, that we be real with God.\u00a0 Jesus, amid real suffering, made his own supplication when he cried: \u201cMy God, My God, You have forsaken me!\u00a0 We may feel like the life within our veins is cold with heaviness and tears, and with mourning, we have grown old, let us remember that in God\u2019s dispose is every minute of our allotted time. Let us be assured that in God\u2019s bosom we shall find the protection of our souls from kindling ire, for God selects a place for virtue to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TAKE ACTION:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our\nsituation seems dire and our preference is for divine action \u2018now\u2019. God\u2019s time\nand our time is not the same, hence our \u2018now\u2019 might not be God\u2019s \u2018now\u2019.  Nevertheless, let us offer the realness of\nour situation to God. Let us sit in the realness of where we are in the midst\nof a pandemic that threatens our very existence and like the psalmist, give\nutterance to our bold pay-attention-to-me-invocation. When words fail, express\nit with tears. If tears blind us and we cannot see, groan in travail, but let\nus give utterance to the need for God to rescue us. Let us pray:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nMOMENT IN PRAYER:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

O God, can you hear me speaking low
My voice is veiled in fear
Turn now and look on me with love
And those who know your name

No words can my distress explain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
My eyes grow dim with grief
O hasten to deliver me
Let me fresh courage take <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interlude<\/em>
Within my anxious breast insert
Your wisdom, counsel, strength
\u201cthough troubled is my soul at best
I will upon on you wait

E\u2019n though I walk through valleys dark
Amid a desperate plight
Protect me by your guiding hand
And put my dread to flight

Speak in the whisper of the wind,
For my times are in your hand
Re-clothe me with your grace divine
And the glory of your smile <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contributed by Rev Douglas Barnes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PODCAST VERSION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-434152103\/bible-moment-douglas-barnes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n



<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a child, growing up with my grandmother, we often visited the book of Psalms when we did our nightly devotions. So the Psalms hold a priority place of prayer, praise and promise for me.\u00a0 Today, I reflect on Psalm 31 verse 9: \u201cBe gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":21968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-moment","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21969,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21966\/revisions\/21969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}