Help, I Need Somebody

NLT - 1 Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help! 2 Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my troubles. 3 My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked threats. They bring trouble on me and angrily hunt me down. 4 My heart pounds in my chest. The terror of death assaults me. 5 Fear and trembling overwhelm me, and I can’t stop shaking. 6 Oh, that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest! 7 I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. Interlude 8 How quickly I would escape— far from this wild storm of hatred.

4 My heart pounds in my chest. The terror of death assaults me. 5 Fear and trembling overwhelm me, and I can’t stop shaking. 6 Oh, that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest! 7 I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. Interlude 8 How quickly I would escape— far from this wild storm of hatred.

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you were just overwhelmed by the circumstances in your life? It seemed like attacks were coming from everywhere and they just wouldn’t stop. You go left and hit a wall, you go right and there’s a ditch. You try to go up and over, but the ceiling is there and the only option you have left is to go through.

Well, I’ve come to tell you this morning, that feeling is not new, in this particular Psalm,

David, the shepherd boy,

David, Jesse’s baby boy

David, the one who killed a lion and a bear

David, the one who faced and killed Goliath with a slingshot and one smooth stone

David, the mighty warrior

David, the King of Israel

David, the one who sinned with another man’s wife

David, the one who committed murder

David, the one who had to encourage himself

David, the man after God’s own heart

And David the man who wrote this Psalm was having some trouble and he needed God’s help.

Sometimes your problem seems like an open sore that refuses to heal. You think it’s getting better and WHAM! you hit it on the door…and just when the pain subsides, WHAM! someone grabs you right in that spot and just when the throbbing has finally stopped, WHAM! someone else reopens the wound.

Troubles aren’t usually troubles if they happen and go away, or are quickly resolved; they only become troubles when they linger; when you’ve tried to work it out, talk it out, walk it out, reason it out, bargain it out, sleep it out, shout it out, ignore it, worry about it, get angry about it and nothing seems to work so you finally get around to praying about it. Now you may not go through all of those things before you get to praying about it or you may pray about it as you do all of those other things. However you do it, it doesn’t seem to be working—whatever it is.

You may be one who wants to talk about it to your mother, your best friend, your pastor, your counselor or someone else, yet and still, no one seems to have the answer to your problem. No one seems to have the solution for your pain.

While this type of situation may not be new, it may be new to you and you don’t know what to do, but what I really want you to know and find comfort in, is the fact, that you’re not the only person who has, is or will go through times when you feel overwhelmed. You’re not alone in the belief that there have been times when you’ve prayed and you didn’t think God heard you or that He just wasn’t listening? You want to say or you may just go ahead and say, God you hear me talking to you?

Have you ever prayed and you didn’t think God heard you or that He just wasn’t listening? You want to or you may just say, God you hear me talking to you?

This is where David is in this particular Psalm, he’s praying because he knows that prayer is a salve for every sore and a relief to his spirit for every burden that he carries and so he begins this prayer with…Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help! David wants God’s attention and he calls out to Him to get it.

When a child is in a room full of people and they get hurt or lost, they cry out MOMMY! and in a room full of moms, that child’s mother hears and knows her child’s voice, she knows her child’s cry for help.

It’s the same way with God, when we’re troubled on every side and we cry out like David for God to listen to our prayer, don’t ignore our cry for help…you can believe that He’s listening.

David goes on to say, Please listen and answer me… Why? Because I’m overwhelmed by my troubles. As we become increasingly overwhelmed by our problems, we sometimes lose our focus and all we can see is the problem, all we can see is the storm, all we can see is the trouble that’s in front of us; that situation blocks our vision and keeps us from seeing God who’s standing right there to help us, yet we panic, we stress and we cry out, God! Please listen to my prayer; answer me God, I need help! God can you hear me, I’m calling you.

Now right here, I want you to think about a baby and what they call self-soothing. When our children are born they’re utterly helpless. They rely on someone else for everything and without someone there to clean, feed, warm, hold, soothe and rock them to sleep; depending on which necessity they lacked, they could develop attachment problems as they grow older or they could even die. So to get your attention they cry and you answer.

But at some point, as they begin to get a little older, when they cry, your response time gets just a little longer, you don’t go right away. When you know they’re dry, they’ve been fed and it’s time to either go to sleep or go back to sleep

you let them cry just a little bit longer;

you allow them the space to start to figuring some things out on their own.

You allow them time to grow,

to learn they can get themselves back to sleep without you rocking them,

to learn they can pick up their bottle and put it back in their mouth’s by themselves;

they can turn over by themselves,

they can walk by themselves,

they can figure it out all by themselves.

When we go through trials and tribulations down here, have you ever stopped to think, our heavenly Father, might just be allowing you to self-soothe? That He’s letting you cry just a little longer, that He’s allowing you

to grow in your spiritual walk — so you don’t have to continue to crawl

to learn to pray for yourself — instead of always asking someone else to pray for you

to pick up your Bible on your own — instead of just when you come to church

to find and memorize your favorite Scripture — instead using the one you heard the person on TV using

to mature in your faith — instead of staying a babe

to find your own song — instead of waiting for the praise team to sing

to listen for and respond to His voice — instead of calling the pastor for an answer

Have you ever stopped to think that God just may be allowing you to self-soothe? Yet when a parent is allowing their child to self-soothe they’re never far away and neither is God. He hasn’t left you alone, He’s merely allowing you the opportunity to self-soothe.

David continues and he says, “My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked threats.” There will always be people who will shout at you, threaten you, withdraw from you, take things away from you to try to get your attention; to make you lose focus on what’s really important.

I’ve heard someone say, it seems like the closer they get to Christ, the more problems seem to come. We sometimes find that those who are supposed to love us, those who are supposed to have our best interest at heart, don’t at all. In fact, we discover they were only using us for their gain; they didn’t have our well-being in mind at all and it hurts. But God.

We find that the storms seem to get worse, instead of better. You would think, I’m walking with Jesus now, nothing can touch me, no one can bother me. Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, the closer you get to God, the more Satan will attack, the harder he comes, the more he uses those closest to you. Satan believes the closer they are to you, the more it will hurt when they let you down, betray or disappoint you and he’s right. But God. Our enemies will threaten but God can soothe us, when we can’t soothe ourselves.

The same people who cried hosanna to the Son of David one week later shouted crucify him and Jesus never hurt anyone. Peter, the one he took to the Mount of Transfiguration, one of his inner circle denied him three times and Judas another one of his disciples sold him out. You think people won’t do it to you? Come on now, really?!

Our enemies will threaten but God can soothe us, when we can’t soothe ourselves.

Like David, our enemies will bring trouble on us and angrily hunt us down. While it was David’s enemies doing this; it was also his own son Absolom who was stirring up the crowd and turning them against his own father.

Have you ever had someone get upset with you because they couldn’t find you, but you were where you were supposed to be or where wanted to be, doing what you wanted to do? They’re upset because you weren’t where they thought you should be, in a place they could easily find you. How’s that work? Now when this happens to you, just like David you may go through a bunch of emotions...

Your heart my pound in your chest — it’s ok, keep exercising and developing that muscle so you won’t have a stressed induced heart attack.

You may feel like your life is in danger — but remember, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Fear and trembling could overwhelm you and you feel like you can’t stop shaking — don’t be ashamed, speak life over your situation and recite — For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Let that fear drive you closer to God; not draw you away from your brothers and sisters in Christ. Don’t turn away from the church, don’t turn away from God.

Then David just wanted to escape and we feel that way sometimes and not only do we feel that way, we do it, it’s called a retreat, a conference, a vacation…David says, Oh that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest! Not only would he fly away and rest, David said, I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness.

Like the Southwest commercials asks, wanna get away? Yes sometimes we want to escape all of the turmoil and strife and chaos and confusion and mayhem that invades our lives; we want to go to the quiet of the wilderness and so we can. When you can take your rest in Jesus, he will give you perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him. Don’t allow outside forces to distract you from what it is God has for you.

Not only did David want to fly away to the wilderness, but he wanted to do it quickly. He describes what he’s going through as a, wild storm of hatred. Wow those are some pretty powerful words, but, how many of you feel those words accurately describe what you’ve gone through or may be going through now?

What you need to know is the world will hate you just because of what you stand for and the world is anyone who is not a born again believer. I don’t care what their job, position, status or title is, if they are not a born again believer of Jesus Christ, him crucified, raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God the Father, they will hate you and what you stand for.

It’s important you recognize the world doesn’t know how to truly and purely love, it’s about what can I get from this. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. But when you’re a child of God, you understand and learn how to love thy neighbor as thyself, all because you love God and realize that hellion over there; is God’s child too and He loves them just like He loves you, that He gave His Son to die for them, just like He did you, that He wants them saved, just like He wanted you saved and so He’s long-suffering with them just like He was with you.

No one was born saved, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. No matter how young or how old you are there will be times you miss the mark; and when you do, repent, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, forgive yourself and move on. When you repent God doesn’t charge your sin to you, this is why David was a man after God’s own heart, because when he messed up, he repented and he never looked back and we need to do the same.

Your past is a place of reference, not a place of residence. You can look back to see how far you’ve come, but, don’t let looking back keep you from moving forward or cause you to walk into walls, because you can’t see where you’re going if you’re looking behind you. Don’t lose the race because you’re looking back.

Everyone has a past, now the question is, are you going to allow yours to keep you bound up or are you going to break free by accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior? The doors of the church are open for salvation.