During my second trip to Haiti in 2010, we worked in Arcahaie, a city that is north of Port au Prince. Part of our responsibility on the trip was to help create the pit where the outhouse or latrine would be placed. Each day a few of us would join the workers who were digging this large pit. The deeper we dug, the harder it was to get out of the pit. In the digging, a boulder was found at the bottom of the pit, which worked as a launch point to work oneself out of the pit. Often, it required someone to give a hand to help pull us out of the pit.
When I read Psalm 40:1-2a, I am reminded of that pit. The psalmist writes, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire…” There are points in life where we experience ‘the pit.’ The pit can be of our own doing from our sin and disobedience, while at other times it is a pit of circumstances that create adversity in our lives. We recognize our present condition and try in all our power to get out of the pit. We turn to tools and tricks that may have worked previously, or we try in our own power to get out of the pit. We soon realize we cannot get out on our own when the pit is too deep and the side walls of the pit are muck and mire.
When we come to the end of our resources, it is too often only then that we cry out to the Lord for help. The psalmist reminds us that the Lord hears our cries. Consider the truth of this statement that God is one who hears our prayers. There are other assurances in the Psalms and throughout Scripture that God is faithful to hear our prayers and to act on our prayers. The Lord hears the cry of the psalmist and saves him from the pit.
The psalmist continues, “he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and hear the Lord and put their trust in him” (2b-3). When the Lord lifts us from the pit, he does not place us on the edge of the pit in hopes that we do not fall in again. The Lord sets our feet on the rock, a firm place to stand. So often in our lives when we are lifted out of the pit, we tend to dwell on where we have been, not where we are now. We need to be reminded in those moments that the Lord not only sets our feet on the rock, but He also puts a new song in our mouth. No longer do we have the lyrics of the past overwhelming us. We now have a new song of praise to God that when we sing this new song, people around us will notice and witness the faithfulness and response of the Lord.
Have you experienced pits in your life that trapped you in mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, or relational muck and mire? How did you respond? Did you try to figure it out yourself and in your own power? Or did you cry out to the Lord, knowing the Lord would respond?
Let me encourage you to cry out to the Lord when you find yourself in the muck and mire. God is faithful to hear our prayers and to act upon them. When the Lord answers, He “does immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Prayer: Lord, I cry to you when I find myself in the pit of my sin, my struggles, and my suffering. Thank you that you are faithful to hear my prayer and to act on those prayers. In Jesus’ name. Amen.