Experiencing God's Presence #129

Experiencing God's Presence #129

I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.

Psalm 34:4

This is the kind of prayer life we want. A request, an answer, and a heart at rest. No shot-in-the-dark prayer, no long wait, no more stress about whether God will or won’t. That’s the kind of interaction that lets us know He’s with us and listening to our hearts. And that’s the kind of relationship we long for.

Verses like this are implicit promises that we can have such a relationship, but they are condensed versions that may mislead us if we aren’t careful. What David hasn’t explained in this psalm is that he is still on the run from a king who wants to kill him, that he has had to hide out among Israel’s enemies and feign insanity in order to stay alive, and that he has felt afraid, desperate, victimized, confused, and stressed at various times in the process. The psalm is a CliffsNotes version of a victory—the kind of summary that gets told on a day of celebration—but other psalms give us glimpses into the whole story: God’s Presence and triumph in David’s life have come at an often painful cost.

Be encouraged by psalms like this one when you’re in a battle or struggling through a season of pain. They point to the same kind of celebration you’ll have. You too will be able to say, “I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.” Just understand that for David, the process took longer than the succinct words imply, and it was considerably more complicated, too. The path to victory is often steep and twisting, but that’s how God draws us close on the way. Even so, trust in Him for the outcome. He really does answer.

Lord, I really do want the kind of relationship in which I make a request, You answer, and I experience freedom and rest. Help me hang on to that promise throughout the process of getting there.