Me, too!
Part of Psalm 69:4 is underlined in my Bible from a time in the past where God spoke to me. Yet today the words jumped off the page as though I'd never read them. (emphasis mine).
"I’ve got more enemies than hairs on my head;
Sneaks and liars are out to knife me in the back.
What I never stole must I now give back?" (MSG)
"Those who hate me without reasonoutnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal." (NIV)
"My enemies despise me without any cause;
they outnumber the hairs on my head.
They torment me with their power;
they have absolutely no reason to hate me.
Now I am set to pay for crimes
I have never committed!" (VOICE)
Throughout the Psalm, the Psalmist pours out his heart about how it feels to be falsely accused, including verse 20 where he shares how brokenhearted and alone he feels.
"I’m broken by their taunts,
Flat on my face, reduced to a nothing.
I looked in vain for one friendly face. Not one.
I couldn’t find one shoulder to cry on." (MSG)
"Scorn has broken my heartand has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
for comforters, but I found none." (NIV)
"All this ridicule has broken my heart,
killed my spirit.
I searched for sympathy, and I came up empty.
I looked for supporters, but there was no one." (VOICE)
Many past situations came to my mind where I felt alone and misunderstood...
- Co-workers covering mistakes by telling the boss I did them;
- Friends betraying me by breaking a confidence;
- Friends believing lies about me;
- Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, guilty by association;
- Simply being misunderstood, and no matter what I said or did, the misunderstanding continued.
The answer? Verses 13-16: Pray to the Lord, and trust in His great love and mercy!
That's what the Psalmist did, and we have the same loving God of the universe ready to hear our prayers and our cries. We can be completely honest with Him - after all, He knows it all anyway.
TODAY'S CHALLENGE:
Whatever situation you face today, be encouraged that you are not alone. God is with you, and He understands. Pour out your heart to Him and trust in His great love for you.
I, too, have been falsely accused and I was almost destroyed when the lies won. Through it all, I grew closer to God than I would've ever thought possible. Now, faced with the choice, I wouldn't change things if it meant I would lose the richness of my relationship with Him.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, Sherry! I am totally with you that I would not change anything about my life, no matter how hard, because I would not be where I am today without every single thing that happened.
DeleteA wise friend helped me to see God was either, a) removing me from a situation that could have caused separation between me & Thee, or b) working in my friends' life to show her something she didn't want to deal with. It's taken me over a year, but I'm back, stronger & wiser than before. I don't know if I would want to change it...God knows best ALWAYS!
ReplyDeleteYes, He does!! I'm learning to stay thankful and trust Him when I can't see or understand. Hmmmm, I think I remember talking about that too :-).
DeleteThank you for sharing, Cyn!!