Lead Me To The Rock

Psalm 61:2

"From the ends of the earth I cry out to you. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

Does your heart ever feel overwhelmed? Perhaps you’re feeling overwhelmed currently. What typically happens when our hearts are burdened? Sometimes we get frustrated and feel hopeless. We often take it out on other people and start to feel ashamed of ourselves. Other times we end up throwing ourselves a pity party, don’t we?

From David’s writing in Psalm 61, we can easily tell that he also experienced what often feels like defeat. He says to God, “From the ends of the earth I cry out to you.” It appears he felt distant from God, possibly as far away as the earth would allow. He says is crying out from the end of the earth, this language suggest that he felt an extreme distance between himself and his Father. When our hearts are overwhelmed it can cause us to feel utterly alone and detached from our Creator.

Next David says, “When my heart is overwhelmed.” Well, that clearly shows the emotions he is dealing with, doesn’t it? Some other translations say, “When my heart feel faint,” or, “when I start to lose heart.” Those probably all strike a nerve with us because we, too, know what it feels like to be hopeless, rejected, fearful, and defeated. It’s also important to note that the Hebrew definition of overwhelmed or faint would be best illustrated by a garment of heaviness covering a sad heart. Being overwhelmed or faint of heart isn’t just little uncomfortable, it’s all-consuming.

David then says to God, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” If translated directly from Hebrew to English, this sentence might more accurately read, “upon the rock lead me.” Which would have truly meant, “Lead me to the rock that is too high for me to climb by myself and place me there.” The elevated rock is a symbol of security and something that cannot be obtained without divine help. David knows that the peace his heart craved the rest he so desperately needed were like a mountain he couldn’t climb….he could obtain these things on his own.  God’s power and promise are a rock that is higher than we are. We need Him, our Savior, to lead us to the rock and place us on it.

There is some humility required here- a realization that we can’t fix everything on our own and whining about our circumstances does nothing to improve the condition of our heart.  When we cry out to our God, from what feels like the ends of the earth and we ask Him to lead us to us the rock that is too high for us to climb and place us there, we are acknowledging that He hears us even when we feel all alone and forgotten. We are asking Him to take us where only HE can. And we are believing that being there, in the secure place with our Comforter and Provider, will erase the overwhelmed, faint of heart feelings that so easily cover us.

In this crazy world, feeling overwhelmed or faint of heart will most likely be something we deal with often. When that happens, I pray that we will recall what David says in Psalm 61:2. May we cry out to God and ask Him to lead us to a different place, one that we can’t get to on our own. May we rest our souls with our Solid Rock (Jesus) and bask in His glory.

Today I am grateful that we can stay in this place, remembering WHOSE we are and how loved we are, we can look differently at those situations that have caused us to feel as though we’re drowning. We can look from our place of safety and know that God is our place of refuge and our strong defender.