by Rev. Deb Worley
“I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have taken heed of my adversities, and have not delivered me into the hand of my enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.”
(Psalm 31:7-8, NRSV)
God sees David’s afflictions. God knows what things are causing David pain and heartache and anxiety. God is aware of David’s challenges and struggles, and can name his fears and his foes.
With gentleness and tenderness and compassion, God holds all that causes David to shrink and shrivel and clench and constrict.
With power and strength and courage, God holds all that leads David to feel less than and “bound up” and, somehow, diminished….
David knows that God sees and understands and contains all of that…and still, has not turned David over to any of those things.
David knows that God is bigger and stronger and truer than any of those things, and in knowing that, in trusting in that, in claiming that, he knows that he will not be “delivered into,” not be given over, not be consumed by any of those things.
God will win. God has won. David knows this, and claims this….and can then breathe again.
“You have set my feet in a broad place.”
Ahhhh….there is un-shrinking, and un-shriveling, and un-clenching, and un-constricting as David breathes….
“You have set my feet in a broad place.”
Ahhhh…there is a letting go of less-than-ness, a loosening of bound-up-ness, a releasing of the feeling of being diminished…..
“You have set my feet in a broad place.”
Ahhhh…there is a standing tall, an unassuming strength, a quiet courage, with room to breathe…because David knows that God knows, that God sees, that God holds…and that God loves. And David can breathe. And exult. And rejoice. And breathe.
And that makes all the difference.
God, I want to be like David….
Amen.