It’s easy to blame God when circumstances turn bad. Not bad like a lousy day, but bad when life falls apart. King David found himself in such a situation when his son, Absalom, launched a coup to take the kingdom for himself.

David wrote in his anguish: I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!” They conspire against me and plot to take my life. For the first time in his life David found himself an object of contempt and in a place of extreme vulnerability.

So David opened up to the Lord, writing: Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God (quoted by Jesus on the cross, during his own time of vulnerability). Given up for dead, cast out like a broken pot, David turned to his only source of solace.

David wrote of those who fear the Lord, and how he felt turning to God during this precarious time: In the shelter of your presence you hide them from all human intrigues; you keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues.

The Lord heard David’s cries for mercy and overturned the plans of Absalom and his cohort. David finished his psalm with praise and an encouragement for all who follow the Lord:

Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

Persevere in the midst of anguish. Cling to the Lord. Return when you’ve strayed, as David did over and over—you’ll be welcomed back. Take heart and stand strong. Good from God is still to come.

Psalm 31 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Karsten Winegeart