He Is So Faithful

I have heard people refer to "my life before vs. my life after" incidents. This song was written a month after one of ours. We were both pretty low. Kim was busy packing up our first house and dealing with our two babies, and I was on the floor next to our bed, processing the fact we were about to lose our first home. We were pretty sure we were leaving---we just did not know where we were going. We were still hoping deep down that God would send someone to the door with that last-minute miracle save we had seen happen for so many other people. The saying about hindsight being 20/20 can be easily applied here. NOW I can put these lyrics and the verses that inspired this song together with the circumstances that followed and see we were about to go the harder way around for this one.  It actually ended up being one of those shipwreck things where the ship sinks, you get stung by a few jellyfish, gnawed on by a shark, whacked against a coral reef, then spit out onto a beach with cuts and bruises and broken bones. Are you alive? Yes. Did you make it through it? Yes. Do you need to heal and recover? Also yes.

The Psalm that inspired this song is Psalm 40. Kim and I are the only two people who have ever heard it until now. God's faithfulness is sometimes hidden in under the bruises and scrapes, but it is there, nonetheless.

Psalms 40 [NKJV]
Faith Persevering in Trial

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
 waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord.
Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust,
And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.”
I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness
In the great assembly;
Indeed, I do not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You Yourself know.
I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
From the great assembly.
Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord;
Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.
For innumerable evils have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
They are more than the hairs of my head;
Therefore my heart fails me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion
Who seek to destroy my life;
Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor
Who wish me evil.
Let them be confounded because of their shame,
Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let such as love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
But I am poor and needy;
Yet the Lord thinks upon me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.

To listen to this song, click below: