"From Isolation to Restoration"

Scripture Passage

1 Samuel 22:1-2; Psalm 57; Psalm 142; 1 Chronicles 12:8-18;

1 Samuel 22:3-23; Psalm 52; 1 Samuel 23:1-12

Scripture Focus

I look for someone to come and help me,

but no one gives me a passing thought!

No one will help me;

no one cares a bit what happens to me.

Then I pray to you, O LORD.

I say, “You are my place of refuge.

You are all I really want in life.

(Psalm 142:4-5 NLT)

Observation

I smile to myself when I read David’s words in Psalm 142—“…no one gives me a passing thought! …no one cares a bit what happens to me.” I’ve offered that lament more than once in my life (and so have you)!

And it’s so not true! It wasn’t true for David—he’s been joined by some 400 men who had tied their futures to his success—and it’s never been true for me (or you).

But every one of us knows what it’s like to feel that way—to feel like no one’s even thought of us…that no one cares (not even a bit) what happens to us.

David comes to the right solution—the right resolution—to those feelings of isolation. “Then I pray to you, O Lord.”

One of the beautiful things about the Psalms, especially, is the permission they give—by example—for me to be honest with God about every emotion I experience. When David brings his weary self to God he discovers a place of refuge and a point of reconnection. Where there had been vulnerability and isolation, David finds refuge and relationship.

Of course, out of that place (the place of refuge and relationship) David finds the strength to connect again with others—to want what God wants for him…to serve a bigger, greater purpose than himself. In David’s case—and mine—to want to lead others well in the purposes of God.

“Lord, when I feel like ‘…no one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me,’ move me once more back into that place of refuge and relationship. Restore my soul.”