Out of the Depths
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Greetings again, and welcome to Meditation Moments, and again that old-time greeting: The Lord bless you and make you a blessing, use your life for His glory. We’re thinking about you and praying for you, deeply grateful to God for the privilege of coming to you in this way.
One of the oldest cries in all the world is in Psalm 130, and you’ve heard it many times: “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. I wait for the Lord … and in his word do I hope” (Psalm 130:1, 2, 5). Thousands of years [have passed] since King David hurled that cry from ancient Israel, but always at some point in its progress, the human race has cried out for help.
Not just in those days, but this thing that puzzles us so much, all these troubles and heartaches, and pressures of today, the things that come upon us that are so very hard to understand that people are crying aloud. Oh, I wish you could read some of those letters; there are so many that they write it, they’re just at their wits’ end corners, as the psalmist says.
Religion with some has come mostly to mean just creeds, and the world distrusts creeds and these moderns, and they dislike emotional upheavals. But they know, beyond all argument—yes, they know—that somehow, somewhere, God is there and God can answer prayer, and they’re looking for those that can pray for them and someone that can give them help.
I believe people want it a great deal more than we realize. People say it’s so hard to reach people today, Hearts are awfully hungry, and sorrows awful deep; trouble is just rampant. Today, incredible as it may seem, the greatest theme in popular discussion is the one theme which will attract men of every station, and that is God. Most men will stop and listen.
There’s a new spiritual dimension in life today because of the troubles through which this nation and other nations are passing. I believe that there are some new spiritual values, and I believe it’s going to grow more and more. I know that God’s Word says times shall wax worse and worse (2 Timothy 3:13), but I believe amongst those who are in distress and want to find God, that this hunger is going to be increased.
“Out of the depths have I cried unto thee,” David says. Over the smaller sounds of greed, and hate, and fear, and egotism, and all the troubles and fears that cry up out of the depths.—Up from market places, and places of business, and the parties and banqueting tables of the rich, and amongst the poverty-stricken. And in America, out of the depths they’re crying for God today.
You know as well as I do that nothing else in the world is going to meet the need and nothing else is going to comfort hearts except for the Lord Jesus Christ to walk right into those hearts. If you could read the letters that come in or deal with the troubled hearts who come to us for help you’d realize more than ever that this old world is at its wits’ end, and out of the depths they are crying for help.
I wonder if you’re in the place with God, and your heart is right with the Lord in such a way that you can really help. You know, people know when you can help them. I often have heard it said that thirsty hearts never come to a dry well. And if you are where you should be with the Lord, and you’re really shining for Him, your light so shining that others will see your good works and you’re able to help them, they’ll know it.
Many have hungry hearts and are seeking God. One letter tells us of a boy who has had both legs amputated, and now cancer is throughout the lower part of his body. Another tells of a deserted wife and three little children he has to take care of. And then a woman who herself is not young writes of a bed-ridden mother; another tells of a wicked, drunken son who abuses her so and keeps her in fear for her very life. These are people that write now and are living at wits’ end corner, and they’re crying as David did, out of the depths. I wonder if you pray for them. I wonder when you hear these things on the radio if you really pour out your heart to God. Do you care? Do you care about others?
The larger numbers that are crying out of the depths are the millions that are so fearful because of things that are coming upon the world. Is your faith and trust such that when people are so afraid, you can give them hope? Are you in the place yourself where you can allay their fears and quote the scriptures to them that God has so wonderfully put in His precious Word for those who are fearful?
In all the annals of history, men have never been more afraid than they are right now, because there are so many more things that are recorded, like the greatest famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, and droughts, and hurricanes, and disasters, and depressions, and hatred between nations and the wars that we’re having.
Nations have been snuffed out like a light in your generation. All these things have been before, but never as they are now. They have never approached the dimensions that we’ve seen in this day. I’m recalling these things to your mind because these are the things which are causing people to be so fearful, and many are just trembling with fear. We find so many that are filled with fear. Men have departed from the true and living God, and peace of mind has departed from them. That’s why their cry is so hard, so strong.
Christ tells us in Matthew 24:6–8 that in the endtime these things would grow in intensity and in frequency, and that time has come now. Every harvest ripens quickly and intensively at the end, and we have entered the very rapids of the endtime now. I believe that with all my heart. Everywhere and in every social strata, thinking men know fear now—men who have never known fear before. God’s Word says, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the power of heaven shall be shaken.” That’s Luke 21:25–26.
Men, as I say, are seeking. Some of them don’t know what they’re seeking, but they are seeking, and this gives you, as a Christian, such a wonderful opportunity, if you know of the peace and rest that Christ can give. Oh, what a priceless opportunity to tell of your salvation and the change that God can make in their lives, because they’ve not got any other answer to the world’s needs or their own. They haven’t any answer, and they’re looking for an answer. And you can show them that the Bible contains all the answers, and that Christ is the only answer to their own need.
Some will listen—oh, I try it almost every day, and I know some will listen and they’ll listen now who never would before. In desperation men will seek; they want a way out of all these depths. “Out of the depths” they cried, the scripture says. (Psalm 130:1) In desperation men are seeking a way out. You’ve got to know how to tell them the way out; you must have the scriptures ready. Have you committed them to memory? Even some of the little tracts that have fallen in your hands, if you’ll just commit those scriptures to memory, or mark them in your Bible and be ready to give an answer to these who are so desperate.
I was noting the other day what a well-known commentator said. He said that half of his program one night, I mean a half an hour program that he had one night, that he only took 20 seconds out of that half hour to mention something about God. Just think, in a half an hour program, just 20 seconds he mentioned something about God.
But when his stack of mail came in, there were more comments about that 20 seconds than any other part of the program! Then he commented in this way, “I believe people are heart hungry, weary, and in need of consolation. I believe they are more interested in God and immortality and peace than they are in anything else. I make this statement in defiance of a wide-spread motion to the absolute contrary. I believe that Christ is the answer, that He sways more hearts, answers more problems, develops more virtues, brings more rest and peace, joy and satisfaction than all other influences. And that His promise is never to be dishonored is our only hope; this I believe.” Now that was a famous commentator who said that.
Dearly beloved, I believe that this opportunity faces us. I believe men are just so desperate that they’re ready to take what you have to say to them. What a wonderful place the Christian stands in today, guarded round about with the armor of God’s love and wholeness. God is going to open a path through the Red Sea when there’s no human way out of the depths.
Sometimes you see no way of escape or human resources. You can’t find any way; there’s no visible help. But we lift our eyes to our God who made the heavens and the earth, and He can keep us safe in these times and in peace, and all earth’s present adverse conditions make no difference to Him. He’s our God, and He’s still on the throne, and prayer will change things for these we’ve talked about and for you. Amen.