Psalm 4 Trouble

Psalm 4: 1 "When I call, give me answers.  God, take my side!  Once in a tight space, you gave me room.  Now I'm in trouble again.  Grace me!  Hear me!"  (Message Bible)

Ever been in trouble and God saved you when you did not even deserve to be saved?  I have. More than once.  Made the trouble myself.  Locked into a very tight space with no way out.  Finally, I cried out to God.  Not just a little..."oh, please help, if you can" kind of crying out, but a full-blown: "If it is even possible, get me out of this mess I made, Abba!!!!"  David had been in trouble once, now in trouble again.  How many times do we have the right to call out to our God? 

My mind turns to Micah 7: 8-9:  Don't, enemy, crow over me.  I am down but I'm not out.  I'm sitting in the dark right now, but God is my light.  I can take God's punishing rage.  I deserve it - I sinned.  But it's not forever.  He's on my side and is going to get me out of this.  He'll turn on the lights and show me His ways.  I'll see the whole picture and know how right He is.  And my enemy will see, too, and be discredited - yes disgraced!  The enemy who kept taunting, "So where is this God of yours?"  I'm going to see it with these, my own two eyes - my enemy disgraced, trash in the gutter." (Message Bible)

Why does God do that?  Get us out of trouble?  He amazes me.  Even when He is upset with our actions, our disobedience, He loves to hear His children call His name.  He loves that we finally look up.  "All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."  That we finally get it stirs the heart of our Father into action.  Have you ever seen a father stoop down to look into the face of his two-year-old as the child asks a question?  The father gets eye-level with the child so that he can peer in to his or her face.  Can you see the child touch the father's cheek in love and reverence.  In 2 Samuel 22, David sings a song of praise to His God, our God, and includes this thought.  "You protect me with your saving shield. You have stooped to make me great.  You give me a better way to live, so I live as you want me to."

As He stoops down to listen to your confession of guilt, your desperate need of His rescue, or your heartfelt desire to change your ways, remember He is willing to make room for you to move in your tight space.  Only He can change the unchangeable, make right all that you have screwed up, and deliver you from your enemy.  How can you resist a Father who will stoop down in front of you to listen to your heart? 

In trouble?  Have a talk with your Father.