“AM I THE ONLY ONE?”

 

DISCUSSION                         

       Have you ever felt like you were the only person who was trying to do the right thing?  No matter how hard you tried, you still felt alone in your efforts to serve God. I think we have all been there at some point in time, whether it was at school or at work.  We aren’t the only ones, but we so seem to be vastly outnumbered.  In Psalm 12, David is experiencing that feeling of being the only one trying to do what was right. The true context of why he wrote this psalm is not noted but one might get the feel that it could have been when David had heard of the death of Samuel and Jonathan.   Just listen to the first line “Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone: for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man” (Psalm 12.1). Samuel had been David’s mentor and Jonathan had been his closest friend.  It would have been natural for David to receive encouragement from those who were of like minds with him.  Now that they are gone, he feels all alone in a world that is full of liars and boasters.  Although he may have felt alone, he knew he wasn’t.  David was no stranger to having the odds stacked against him. He had often been placed in situations where the numbers were not in his favor and yet he continued to come out the victor.  The very next Psalm is a good illustration of that.  During crying out in desperation for God to come and save him from his enemy, David closes out Psalm 13 in this way. “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13.5-6).  We may experience the same sort of depression and aloneness that David did, yet we can also experience the same type of joy and love that he received from God.  Maybe the point of these psalms being back to back is to offer you peace in times of feeling like the only light in a world of darkness.

 

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