#DailyDevotion Complain To God. He Will Hear You.
Psalm 64 Hear my voice, O God, when I complain.
This psalm begins much like Psalm 61. He starts off asking God to hear him when he complains. I guess the difference between the complaints David brings to God and the grumbling the Israelites did about Moses and the LORD is that David is bringing the complaint to God Himself and isn’t just grumbling about their situation. The Israelites then didn’t believe the LORD cared or that He would do anything about it. David comes to the LORD because he believes God does care and God would do something about it. Do we just complain about things and grumble against the LORD or do we believe God truly cares for us and will do something about our situation?
David asks the LORD to hear him. I think this is a good way to start a prayer. In the midst of trials and struggles, we want someone to listen to us. There is a proverb among us today, “No use in complaining, not like someone is going to do something about it anyway.” But we do want to complain to someone. We do want someone to do something about our situation. Most of the time our situations are beyond our control. Indeed, no human can do something about it. In giving us this psalm, with this verse, we are invited by the LORD our God to come to Him and complain. We are invited to believe that He will do something about it. We can trust He will do what is good and right, even if we disagree with Him on what that something is.
Protect my life against an enemy who frightens me. 2Hide me from men secretly talking about doing evil, from the mob of wicked men. 3They sharpen their tongues like swords, and aim their bitter words like arrows 4to shoot at the innocent from their hiding places. They shoot suddenly, without fear. 5They encourage one another in some evil plan to lay snares secretly. They think: Who will see us? 6They search for wicked crimes: we have devised a well-laid plan! What is inside a man, in his mind, is deep.
Here we have David’s complaint. Aren’t you glad you are not king? You may experience similar things though if you live in any sort of hierarchy and you are responsible for any number of people or someone fears you getting ahead may somehow keep them from getting ahead. David’s enemies plot all the time against him. Men attack him with words. They work on removing David from power. They tell lies and work together to remove him from power. Jesus underwent this sort of trouble. Pilate could tell the Jewish leadership was jealous of Jesus. You may have people working against you where you work. Someone may want your job or prevent you from getting a leg up. Someone may want the person you want to date so they start a campaign against you amongst your fellows. People apparently think deep thoughts on how to take you out. The mind of man is truly sinful. God’s mind is deeper still.
Of course, we have the devil and all his minions working against us. They do not want us receiving our inheritance from God. They are our main enemy in life. They have fiery arrows pointed at our hearts, hoping to take advantage of our weaknesses. But when and if they do succeed in getting an arrow into us, we should turn (repent) to God and seek His mercy and kindness. He loves nothing more than being merciful, kind and forgiving towards us when we put our trust in Him. If it just seems too hard to be good, trust that Jesus and His good works are good enough. They in fact exceed the goodness we need to stand before God. So don’t lose heart. Keep turning to God for Christ’s sake. He doesn’t tire of it. Bring your complaints to God trusting He will do what is good and right when the time comes and something needs to get done.
Heavenly Father, look with mercy upon us frail men. Hear our complaints and do for us what is good and right according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, Yous Son, our LORD. Lift up our hearts in faith towards You so we can endure the day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.