What a tough few days these have been physically. Some of the lowest in a long time. Bad reaction to some medicines. My muscle disease exhausts me. Psalm 142 has been my text and I read of the psalmist in a cave who wrote, “I am very low.”…What wonderful words of “hope” these are! Hope? Yes, hope for future generations who too would know such times, and take comfort from the psalmist, that it was neither unusual nor isolated. There is hope in these words as he speaks them to GOD while in a cave. Yet in the cave he pours out his heart in prayer, he sees his foe as too strong for him, but not stronger than God.

 Faith declares truth in that place of pressure concerning God that to him He was 

A. -LORD- Self existent, Master and Sovereign One. He is Creator, Owner,Master, Psalm 27:1,”A psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him.”

B.- MY REFUGE- My Shelter from the storms and those who would seek to devour him. “Refuge failed me … Thou art my refuge. Travellers tell us that they who are at the top of the Alps can see great showers of rain fall under them, but not one drop of it falls on them. They who have God for their portion are in a high tower, and thereby safe from all troubles and showers.”- George Swinnock.  Though no one would care for David, he looked for refuge humanly and could find none, yet with the LORD, he found One who would never refuse him, Refuge!

C. – MY PORTION; You are my sufficiency, and should I have nothing or no one else You, Lord are enough.  The Psalmist once said, “With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.…” -Psalm 73: 24-26. 

We read in Psalm 119 Verse 57. “The LORD Is My PORTION.”-,

John Mason wrote concerning the LORD as our Portion these wonderful words, “God is all sufficient; get Him for your “portion”, and you have all; then you have infinite wisdom to direct you, infinite knowledge to teach you, infinite mercy to pity, and save you, infinite love to care and comfort you, and infinite power to protect and keep you. If God be yours, all his attributes are yours; all his creatures, all His works of providence, shall do you good, as you have need of them. He is an eternal, full, satisfactory portion. He is an ever living, ever loving, ever present friend; and without Him you are a cursed creature in every condition, and all things will work against you. “- {John Mason, –1694.}

The Lord is his Refuge and Portion, Sufficiency, his Sustenance, Satisfaction!

 

D. -“DELIVERER” –  

DAVID ends with another prayer, “DELIVER {Bring} my soul out of prison, So that I may give Thanks to Your Name; The Righteous will surround me. For YOU WILL DEAL BOUNTIFULLY WITH ME.”-

 “LORD, REFUGE, PORTION, DELIVERER, WHO IS GOOD AND DOES GOOD!”  This is David’s DECLARATION in The Cave about God, his God! “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” and this is what David discovers, knows what he believes about God. He knows Whom he has believed in. The Cave reveals to him, his view of God. The “cave,” the difficulty place always reveals what we truly believe about God at that moment. 

Here is where his faith is deepened. He asks not to be delivered for relief sake, but…

1. – FOR THE LORD’S GLORY – “SO THAT I may GIVE THANKS {PRAISE} TO YOUR NAME”- For the LORD’S Sake . He wants Him to receive Praise and Thanks due Him

2. – TO TESTIFY TO THE LORD-“ And the righteous will surround me. For You will deal bountifully with me.” 

What a mature statement of faith he utters, he wants deliverance so the LORD can get the glory and others hear the testimony!

In the Cave his prayers and faith were deepened! I cannot express how utterly exhausted I am from this latest battle of pain that have laid me low for eight months now in bed or beside my bed in a chair, the sleep deprivation compounds things. At times the medicines seem to work against me. My only hope has been His Word to steady me, encourage me and give me hope. Who but God could grant hope to generations from the words of the Psalmist written so long ago and yet fresh as though they were written by ourselves, “I am very low.” But faith arises in the dark place, the place of despair, of spiritual foes, and the Holy Spirit reminds us of truth God is-LORD- our personal REFUGE, our PORTION, Sufficiency, and teaches us to pray and to trust Him, not for deliverance for deliverance sake- but.. for HIS NAME’S SAKE- HIS Glory!