Pastor Fredo Ramos: Psalm 143. David writes, hear my prayer, oh lord. Listen to my plea. Answer me because you are faithful and righteous. Don't put your servant on trial for no one is innocent before you.
My enemy has chased me. He has knocked me to the ground and forces me to live in darkness like those in the grave. I am losing all hope. I am paralyzed with fear. I remember the days of old.
I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done. I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as parched land thirst for rain. What a picture. Verse seven, come quickly Lord and answer me for my depression deepens.
Don't turn away from me or I will die. Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk for I give myself to you. Rescue me from my enemies, Lord. I run to you to hide me.
Teach me to do your will for you are my God. May your gracious spirit lead me forward on a firm footing. For the glory of your name, oh lord, preserve my life because of your faithfulness bring me out of this distress. In your unfailing love, silence all my enemies and destroy all my foes for I am your servant. By way of reflection, I love the honesty, the emotional honesty that David once again models for us in his prayer.
Verse seven, Lord, come quickly. Answer me. My depression deepens. Up there earlier in verse four, I'm losing hope. I'm paralyzed with fear.
I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works. Like, I think about what you have done. In other words, he's able to take himself mentally to a place where he saw God very active in the moment where he is feeling like he's losing hope, he's paralyzed with fear, and he just straight out says at verse seven, my depression deepens, which is a good reminder for us that it's very possible to have a clear faith in Jesus and at the same time to not be emotionally well. And I don't want to dismiss or say that you are less than as a believer of Jesus because you trust in him and yet you struggle with emotional and mental health.
These things happen regularly for the follower of Jesus. This is the normal Christian life and I love that this prayer bears witness to that. In particular, by way of hope, I want us to just reflect for one more moment on verse 10. May your gracious spirit lead me forward on a firm footing. You might feel like you are losing hope today.
You might identify with David in a way that he feels paralyzed by fear he can't move because of it. You might even identify with the way that he he feels like his depression has gone deeper into his life. Invitation and his request. God, may your spirit lead me. You know, one of the forgotten aspects of the Trinity here is the third person, God, the Holy Spirit throughout the Psalms.
And it's evident here that so, what's so important about our prayer life, especially as we think about praying through our emotions, is that we recognize the role of the spirit to to come in his power and in his presence to help navigate us through our feelings. Right? Because there is a way where you just kinda act out of your emotions. There is a way where you maybe just ignore your emotions. But the hope here for the Christian is that we will learn to surrender our emotions to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
And so, Jesus, we hear you now inviting us to do that in prayer. To maybe just confidently name how we're feeling. God help us to be emotionally honest with you and also to realize that you haven't left us to ourselves, but you Holy Spirit are with us now. And so would you guide us into a life where we can see our emotions, but not be driven by them, Not keep us from being hopeful in you. We pray these things now in Jesus name.
Amen.