“When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2 (KJV)
Most of us know what it is to be overwhelmed in heart, emptied as when a man wipes a dish and turns it upside-down, submerged and thrown on our beam ends like a vessel mastered by the storm.
Discoveries of inward corruption will do this, if the Lord permits the great deep of our depravity to become troubled and cast up mire and dirt. Disappointments and heartbreaks will do this when billow after billow rolls over us, and we are like a broken shell hurled to and fro by the surf.
Blessed be God, at such seasons we are not without an all-sufficient solace, our God is the harbor of weather-beaten sails, the hospice of forlorn pilgrims. Higher than we are is he, his mercy higher than our sins, his love higher than our thoughts. It is pitiful to see men putting their trust in something lower than themselves.
But our confidence is fixed upon an exceeding high and glorious Lord. A Rock he is since he changes not, and a high Rock, because the tempests which overwhelm us roll far beneath at his feet. He is not disturbed by them, but rules them at his will. If we get under the shelter of this lofty Rock we may defy the hurricane—all is calm under the lee of that towering cliff.
Alas! such is the confusion in which the troubled mind is often cast, that we need piloting to this divine shelter. Hence the prayer of the text.
O Lord, our God, by thy Holy Spirit, teach us the way of faith, lead us into thy rest. The wind blows us out to sea, the helm answers not to our puny hand, but you, you alone can steer us over the bar between yonder sunken rocks, safe into the fair haven. How dependent we are upon you—we need you to bring us to yourself!
To be wisely directed and steered into safety and peace is your gift, and your alone. This day, be pleased to deal well with your servants.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
