He Knows the Path

 

Psalm 142 was written by David while he sat in a cave, running for his life. He was so overwhelmed, surrounded by trouble, and he couldn't see a clear way out. When you read this Psalm, you can tell he wasn't trying to make his prayer sound pretty. He just poured it ALL out before God.

Sometimes, we’re so overwhelmed that we honestly don't know what the next step is. And I've prayed those same prayers, as I’m sure most of you have also.

“God, what’s going on!?”
“What am I supposed to do now!?”

That’s exactly what David was doing. In v2-3, he says, “I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.”

Sometimes I've wanted God to answer those kinds of prayers by showing me the whole thing. God, show me where this is headed, show me how You're going to fix it….show me ENOUGH that I can at least stop worrying about it! But He doesn't always do that….does He? In fact, that’s pretty rare.

David said “when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.”

He didn't say, “God showed me my path.”

He said, “then thou knewest my path.”

I've had to learn that God knowing is enough, even when I don't.

I've lived long enough to look back at things that made absolutely no sense while I was walking through them, and then later realize that God never lost track of me. I couldn't see where I was going…..but HE could.

David continues…in v4, he says, “no man cared for my soul.” That's a lonely place to be, isn’t it?

We know that David wasn’t completely alone. But sometimes we feel that way, even while we have people surrounding us and praying for us. Then he says, “I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” His circumstances haven't even changed yet. He's STILL in that cave, and he’s STILL being chased. But he’s already talking about praising God for bringing him out, while he's still sitting in the place he needs to be brought out of.

 Faith doesn't always look like standing on the other side saying, “See? God worked it out!”

Sometimes….faith looks like sitting right in the middle of it and saying, “I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I know that God knows where I am.”

 There have been things in my own life I would have given anything to understand while I was going through them. Some of them I understand better now. Some of them I still don't. But I've seen God be faithful enough times that I don't need to see the entire path before I trust Him with it.

So if your spirit is overwhelmed today, I think there's something really comforting in David's words.

You don't have to have everything figured out. You don't have to know what happens next. Because even when you don't know your path...

He does!

And I think that's reason enough to praise Him, right?!

Because He knows where we are. He knows the path we're on. He knows where it leads. And He hasn’t lost track of us.

 David was still in the cave in V7, when he said “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name!”

He was praising with expectation!

And we can do the same thing tonight!

We can praise Him right here, BEFORE we see the answer, because we've walked with Him long enough to know that if He knows the path, we can trust Him with where it leads.