Psalm 69:1-3 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹ Save me, O God!
    For the waters have come up to my neck.
² I sink in deep mire,
    where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
    and the flood sweeps over me.
³ I am weary with my crying out;
    my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
    with waiting for my God.

I was led here after yesterday’s article Chosen. It is my hope that some of us can find relevant meaning in this Psalm. These words have definitely touch me as they relate to events that have unfolded for me in the past few days. Perhaps we all have felt this way at some time.

Perhaps these words take you back to a time when you felt those first pangs of salvation. Perhaps present events are overwhelming you. Whether eternal salvation is required or help in dealing with current events, the words remain true and relevant.

How did we come to feel this way, like we are drowning? Where did we lose our footing? Why do I feel overwhelmed? Is it my fault or am I caught up in the momentum of events in which the collective is experiencing the same things?

The last line quoted today is touching me deeply. I am waiting on the Lord but my eyes are not looking to the light and things grow dim without light. That is not something I like to admit, but I do not think I am alone in the sentiment.

This psalm is a good representation of order. First we feel this way. Then we confess it. Then we look for answers. Perhaps some of us are only at that point where we feel this way but have yet to express or confess how we feel. Answers rarely come without first admitting there is a problem.

Can we find relevant meaning in these verses today? Confess it.

1 Peter 2:9 English Standard Version (ESV) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

It is not uncommon for us to ask if we are truly chosen. The concept that God knew us before the foundation of the world and chose us then to be His possession is difficult to grasp. Our lack of understanding in how God could do that leaves us with some measure of doubt.

How can we deal with this personal insecurity? We all have asked ourselves questions related to our salvation for various reasons. It is impossible to cover them all. So let us deal with the question itself?

Are we chosen? Rather than trying to deal with personal issues let us begin with why we are concerned with the question at all. At the core of the why is a desire to be chosen. How did we come about wanting to be saved in the first place? We come to Christ for different reason but at the core in the desire to be saved is something that is common to all of us. We were being called out of the darkness into the light.

In our infancy we might not have known who was doing the calling, or that we were being called. It matters not whether the call was a yearning to be loved or a dark hatred for the life we were living. He was touching us in ways that only God could know how we would respond. Even if we did not know what we were doing, God did.

Memory is a strange trait. The further away from any event the more doubt creeps in to ask what really happened. We have emotional attachments that change because we change. Are these changes because life is beating us up or because God is perfecting us?

A better question to ask ourselves might be; are our actions rooted in faith or fear?