We are a culture bent on happiness, if we are not happy then we just need to get on Prozac, a tropical Hawaiian vacation, a new job (with better pay and a different boss), maybe a new spouse, or just more money to make everything better. Happiness is connected to happenings and is a far inferior realm of living to the joy of the Lord which is connected to relationship with God. We attempt to manipulate our circumstances to put salve on the areas of trouble in our soul. Too often we can take this same kind of wisdom into our Christian life, yet this is the wisdom of the world and not the wisdom of God. God actually knows there will be times in our life where we are in a pit in our soul and He has planned for a promotion out of the Pit. David was a man after God's own heart, yet the Psalms paint a picture of man who seems tortured at times yet Jesus is sitting on the Throne of David. In Psalm 40 David paints a picture of being in a pit, choosing to wait patiently on the Lord and crying out to the Lord. In the middle of the pit, he seems to attempt to climb out yet his foot finds no solid place it is like miry clay that only slides him back to the bottom. Psalm 40 is a beautiful promise of God's deliverance from the pit, God says He will set David's feet on the rock (Jesus is referred to as the Rock), give him a new song in his heart, and leading to many knowing God and trusting Him. While the world looks at externals, that when your circumstances are bad then it makes sense to be down. Yet the truth is a person is down because of what they believe, their circumstances simply put pressure on what we believe bringing it to the surface. So truly the pits we find ourselves in are pits in our souls that are there because of what we believe, the wonderful news of the gospel is that we can change what we believe to see things the way God sees them (repentance). We get some revelation of how God sees pits from the result He brings as David turns his heart to trusting God to bring deliverance. God, a mighty and wonderful deliverer, comes to David's cry sets his feet on rock (a strong and stable place) and puts a new song in his heart (changes his perspective to see what God sees). In our culture we dream of having enough money (winning the lotto) to be independently wealthy, having a life that is problem free (hakuna matada- from the Lion King, a Swahili phrase that means "no worries"), and living happily ever after (where everything seems to go right). Yet could it be that our problems, issues, and struggles can be a pathway for greater revelation of who God is for us and in turn be an upgrade in our identity to higher place. I have found that in a pit, I am confronted by the fruit of what I believe and what I am living. A pit is a powerful place to be delivered from the darkness of belief, yet if I am just trying to escape because my mindset is one that I should not have down or difficult times then I miss the cleansing that comes from God's touch in the pit. The darkness of beliefs have their roots in what we believe about God and who we are, repentance comes as we experience Him as deliverer and see ourselves as overcomers. A key in the beginning of Psalm 40 is that we wait patiently on the Lord for deliverance, instead of turning to our own escape. Since the result of being in a pit and being delivered by God is that we trust Him at a greater level, praise Him because we know His goodness more intimately, and then lead others to trust God that pits are actually a very useful place in our journey as sons with our Father. I don't believe Father is looking for us to make friends with our pits, where we wallow in the lies or sin but that we can have peace in pits knowing our Father's strong deliverance will come. There were even pits in Jesus life, Lazarus's death, the Last Supper (revelation of Judas betrayal), the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter's denial of Jesus, and lastly the crucifixion itself. These pits put pressure on the soul of Jesus, in one He wept for a dead friend with those who loved Lazarus, experienced the betrayal of two men He loved and invested in for three years, came to the point of near death as He encountered the fullness of what was in the cup, and finally as He experienced the full weight of all our sin on Him, the punishment, and finally the separation from His Father on our behalf. Since Jesus is our model, should we expect that there will be pits in our life but Father is our deliverer and our promoter from the pit.
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